Houston Texas –
High water inundated neighborhoods around Houston on Saturday following heavy rain that has already caused rescue crews to rescue hundreds of people from homes, rooftops and roads submerged in murky water.
A flood watch remained in effect through Sunday afternoon, as forecasters predicted additional rainfall Saturday night, bringing between one and three inches (2.5 and 7.6 centimeters) of water to the region. soaked water and the likelihood of major flooding.
Friday’s fierce storms forced numerous high-water rescues, including some from the rooftops of flooded homes. Authorities redoubled urgent instructions for residents in low-lying areas to evacuate, warning that the worst was yet to come.
“This threat continues and is going to get worse. It’s not your typical river flood,” said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top elected official in the nation’s third-largest county.
He described the predicted rise in water as “catastrophic.” Schools in the path of the flood canceled classes and roads became clogged as authorities closed flooded roads.
For weeks, torrential rains in Texas and parts of Louisiana have filled reservoirs and saturated the soil. Flooding partially submerged cars and roads this week in parts of southeast Texas, north of Houston, where high water reached the roofs of some homes.
More than 11 inches (28 centimeters) of rain fell during a 24-hour period ending Friday morning in the northern Houston suburb of Spring, according to the U.S. National Weather Service.
In the rural community of Shepherd, Gilroy Fernandes said he and his wife had about an hour to evacuate after a mandatory order. His house is on stilts near the Trinity River and they were relieved when the water began to recede Thursday.
Then the danger increased while they slept.
“The next thing you know, overnight they started releasing more water from the Livingston Dam. And that caused the river level to rise almost five or six feet overnight,” Fernandes said. Residents who left an hour later were stuck in traffic due to flooding.
The Harris County Joint Information Center told KPRC-TV that 196 people and 108 animals have been rescued by emergency response agencies in Harris County.
Elsewhere, in neighboring Montgomery County, Judge Mark Keough said there had been more high-water rescues than he could count.
“We estimate we’ve had a couple hundred rescues from homes, houses and vehicles,” Keough said.
In Polk County, located about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northeast of Houston, officials have performed more than 100 water rescues in recent days, said Polk County Emergency Management Coordinator Courtney Comstock.
He said homes below the Lake Livingston Dam and along the Trinity River have flooded.
“It will be when things improve before we can do our damage assessment,” Comstock said.
Houston authorities had reported no deaths or injuries. The city of more than two million people is one of the most flood-prone metropolitan areas in the country and has long experience dealing with devastating weather.
Hurricane Harvey in 2017 dumped historic rainfall on the area, flooding thousands of homes and resulting in more than 60,000 rescues by government rescue personnel throughout Harris County.
Of particular concern was an area along the San Jacinto River in the northeastern part of Harris County, which was expected to continue rising as more rain fell and officials released additional water from an already full reservoir. On Thursday, Judge Hidalgo issued a mandatory evacuation order for those living along parts of the river.
Most of Houston’s city limits were not greatly affected by the weather, except for the northeastern neighborhood of Kingwood. Officials said the area had about four months of rain in about a week. Houston Mayor John Whitmire said rising flooding from the San Jacinto River was expected to impact Kingwood Friday night and Saturday.
Shelters have opened across the region, including nine from the American Red Cross.
The weather service reported the river was above 75 feet (22.86 meters) Saturday morning after reaching nearly 78 feet (23.7 meters). The river is expected to fall below the flood stage of 58 feet (17.6 meters) on Tuesday afternoon and continue falling to about 50 feet (15.24 meters) on Wednesday.
The Houston metropolitan area covers approximately 10,000 square miles (about 25,900 square kilometers), a footprint slightly larger than New Jersey. It is crisscrossed by approximately 1,700 miles (2,736 kilometers) of canals, streams and swamps that flow into the Gulf of Mexico, about 50 miles (about 80 kilometers) southeast of the city center.
The city’s system of swamps and reservoirs were built to drain heavy rains. But the engineering initially designed nearly 100 years ago has struggled to keep up with the city’s growth and larger storms.
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Associated Press reporters Ken Miller in Edmond, Oklahoma, Jim Vertuno in Austin, and Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, contributed to this report.