Hermine already affecting Galveston Island

GALVESTON, TX It happened Saturday night at Jamaica Beach. The 44-year-old Houston woman was swimming at night, when she went missing. Her body was later found several miles west of where she was last seen. Emergency officials believe she was overcome by strong currents.

Rain moved across the island several times on Monday. Though it wasn't flooding, that was the least of many concerns. It was a dangerous weekend in the Galveston water.

Monday was the kind of day that makes even seasoned lifeguards nervous: a holiday crowd, heavy surf and beneath the water, riptides.

On Sunday, Galveston beach patrol directed 4,000 people away from dangerous rip currents. There were eight water rescues, plus one by well-equipped swimmers.

"The troughs are really deep right now," said Peter Brown with the Galveston Beach Patrol. "He went in started drowning. Two people went in, one with a life jacket for him, the other with a ring buoy, which is really smart...and they saved him."

As menacing as the waves were on Monday, the rip currents were said to have slightly improved over Sunday.

Not as many people were in the water because of the deteriorating weather, courtesy of Tropical Storm Hermine, which is for south Texas. Most people are oblivious to the system responsible for the rain here.

"We came out to relax and then when we woke up, and this storm was coming in and it was rather surprising," Tomball resident Irma Ramos said.

It's nothing though for those who fish. The newly reopened 61st Pier had many anglers who had plenty of redfish to show for it -- big ones, too.

It's redfish season, but the storm weather, according to the people with the fishing poles, doesn't hurt.

"Fish love this kind of weather," fisher Corrina Carubba said, "The wetter it is, the rougher it is, the windier it is, the more they bite; the fishing is just like that. The fish don't care what the weather is like."

That's the silver scaled lining of the tropical storm.

The dangerous conditions are expected to continue for the next couple of days and high tides are expected to be get elevated up to three feet by Tuesday morning, possibly causing coastal flooding in the west end of Galveston as well portions of Bolivar.

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