Officials in Harris County have declared a disaster area and estimate at least 1,000 homes have already been flooded. He had no immediate information on the fate of other horses seen struggling in water up to their necks in the area near Cypress Creek. Gary Norman, executive staff analyst with the Houston Public Works and Engineering Department, said in an email that “we are constantly evaluating how best to protect and inform the public”.
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The National Weather Service said more rain fell in the region on Wednesday, as water in parts of the country’s fourth largest city caused some roads to turn into lakes.
Torrential downpours this week have dumped as much as 45 centimetres of rain in some areas, cutting out power for scores of homes and businesses.
Flood warnings remained in effect for several southeastern Texas counties.
“Moisture from the Gulf of Mexico streaming in ahead of the front will fuel the atmosphere for widespread showers and thunderstorms”, says the agency in a statement.
Outside the city and into the suburbs of northwest Harris County, runoff from Monday’s rains forced creeks over their banks and forced more people to evacuate their homes overnight.
Officials in Harris County said more than 1,200 high water rescues had been carried out, including almost 900 within Houston city limits, the newspaper reported. Capt. Toby Hecker says deputies received a call about a vehicle in some water in a drainage ditch in a neighborhood.
More rain and thunderstorms are in the forecast, with flash-flood watches covering more than 9 million people – including the Houston metro area, which will be pelted by thunderstorms Wednesday and Thursday.
He said Tuesday that mounting damages from flash floods point to a woeful lack of planning in a city that added 90,000 people previous year alone and is a major cog in the national economy. “I don’t know if any system can stop somebody like that”, he said.
“We can’t solve this flood problem in Houston”, Bedient said.
Others have drowned in the same location, he said, most recently last May when heavy rains also flooded Houston.
The mayor said at a midday briefing that the heavy rainfall has moved to the south and that the city is anticipating only about another half-inch the rest of the day.
Ellis believes “things are going back to normal”, and said the real challenge Houston is facing is what will happen when the rain comes back as meteorologists predict on Wednesday.
Senator Ellis told Martin the North Side, not far from Acres Homes and the Meyerland area, were impacted the most by flood waters. “Heavy rainfall is expected with this weather pattern”.
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Meteorologist Tom Bradshaw says about 70 Houston subdivisions are flooded, as well as parts of Interstate 10.
