A building high pressure system over the Central United States forced the tropical depression to move southwest over the Gulf of Mexico.

After the trough moved by, Fern turned southwest, paralleling the Texas coastline before making landfall on September 10 between Freeport and Matagorda.

[4][5] In Galveston, eight emergency shelters were planned to open but five were closed when officials learned that they were not needed as most residents chose to ride out the storm in their homes.

[6] In North Beach, city buses were used to transport evacuees inland and local officials were concerned about what to do with the relief trailers used to house survivors of Hurricane Celia a year earlier.

[1][8] As Fern made its final landfall, a weather station in Port O'Connor, Texas recorded a sustained wind speed of 86 miles per hour (138 km/h).

The heavy rainfall caused severe flash flooding that isolated numerous small towns in eastern and central Texas.

In addition, lightning from the hurricane caused six reported house fires on Galveston Island while 7,500 homes and business were damaged (mainly by flooding) near Corpus Christi.

Two indirect fatalities were reported, both from drowning incidents, while on Mustang Island, the hurricane caused four Cuban fishing boats to run aground.