Crews rescued more than 400 people from houses, rooftops and roads engulfed in murky water in Texas after heavy rains on Saturday. Others were preparing to evacuate their property.
Floodwaters inundated a wide region Saturday, from Houston to rural East Texas, where game wardens floated through waist-deep water and rescued both people and animals from company that did not evacuate in time. One crew brought a family and three dogs aboard as rising waters surrounded their cars and home. A flood watch remained in effect through Sunday afternoon as forecasters predicted additional rain Saturday night in the waterlogged region and the likelihood of significant flooding. About 11 million people in Texas and Oklahoma are under flood warnings and watches this weekend.
Friday's storms forced numerous high-water rescues, including some from the roofs of flooded homes. One such incident was caught on camera, when someone filmed a large truck being dragged while its driver jumped out of the cab. The driver was later rescued.
Officials redoubled urgent instructions for low-lying residents to evacuate, warning that the worst was yet to come.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said Saturday that the area is expecting more rain Sunday, and if it's a lot, it could be problematic. Hidalgo is the highest elected official in the third largest county in the country.
More than 21 inches of rain fell during the five-day period that ended Friday in Liberty County near Splendora, a town about 30 miles northeast of Houston, according to the National Weather Service.
Hidalgo said Saturday that 178 people have been rescued and 122 pets have been rescued so far in the county. Dozens of rescues took place in neighboring Montgomery County. In Polk County, located about 100 miles from Houston, officials said they have made more than 100 water rescues in recent days.
“A lull in heavy rain is expected through (Saturday) evening,” the National Weather Service said. “The next round of heavy rain is expected late (Saturday) through Sunday.”
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Aron Brown, 45, and his wife Jamie Brown, 41, were two of many residents who drove or walked to see rising waters near a flooded intersection near the San Jacinto River in the neighborhood of Kingwood, northeast of Houston.
The flood waters had risen several meters and had begun to inundate nearby restaurants and a gas station.
Brown, who had left his home in a golf cart, said the flooding wasn't as bad as Hurricane Harvey in 2017. He pointed to nearby power lines and said flooding during Harvey had peaked of the lines
Most weekends, Miguel Flores Sr. carves out his huge backyard on a 2 1/2-acre lot behind his home in Kingwood. But on Saturday, he and his family were loading several vehicles with clothes, small appliances and other items before floodwaters flooded their home.
Waters from the nearby San Jacinto River had swallowed her backyard and continued to rise Saturday.
Flores said the water in her backyard was only a foot high Friday. On Saturday, the water level was about 4 feet.
“It's sad, but what can I do,” Flores said. He added that he has flood insurance.
For weeks, torrential rains in Texas and parts of Louisiana have filled reservoirs and saturated the soil. Floodwaters partially submerged cars and roads this week in parts of southeast Texas north of Houston, where high water reached the roofs of some homes. Hundreds of structures are flooded, and more are dealing with power outages.
In the rural community of Shepherd, Gilroy Fernandes said he and his spouse had about an hour to evacuate after a mandatory order. Their home is on stilts near the Trinity River, and they were relieved when the water began to recede Thursday.
Then the danger grew while they slept.
“The next thing you know, overnight they started releasing more water from Livingston Dam. And that caused the river level to shoot up almost 5 or 6 feet overnight,” Fernandes said . Residents who left an hour later were stuck in traffic due to flooding.
In Montgomery County, Judge Mark Keough said there had been more high-water rescues than he could count.
“We estimate we've had a couple of hundred home, home and vehicle rescues,” Keough said.
He said homes below the Lake Livingston Dam and along the Trinity River have been flooded.
“It's going to be when things wrap up before we can do our damage assessment,” Comstock said.
The U.S. Coast Guard said they evacuated an hours-old baby by helicopter from Cleveland, Texas, amid flood waters. The baby, who was only 12 hours old, was experiencing low oxygen levels at Texas Emergency Hospital. The hospital does not have a neonatal intensive care unit and the flooding made it impossible to transport the baby to another center by ambulance. The helicopter crew transported the baby, mother and a paramedic to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. The baby is in stable condition, the Coast Guard said.
Authorities in Houston had not reported any deaths or injuries. The city of more than 2 million people is one of the most flood-prone metropolitan areas in the country and has a long history of dealing with devastating weather.
Hurricane Harvey in 2017 dumped historic rainfall on the area, flooding thousands of homes and prompting more than 60,000 rescues by government rescue personnel across Harris County.
Of particular concern was an area along the San Jacinto River in northeastern Harris County, which was expected to continue rising as more rain falls and officials release additional water from an already full reservoir. Judge Hidalgo issued a mandatory evacuation order for those living along parts of the river on Thursday.
Most of Houston's city limits were largely unaffected by the weather, except for the northeast neighborhood of Kingwood. Officials said the area got about four months of rain in about a week. Houston Mayor John Whitmire said the rising waters of the San Jacinto River were expected to impact Kingwood late Friday and Saturday.
Shelters have been opened throughout the region, including nine from the American Red Cross.
The greater Houston area covers about 10,000 square miles, a footprint slightly larger than New Jersey. It is criss-crossed by about 1,700 miles of canals, creeks and bayous that empty into the Gulf of Mexico, about 50 miles southeast of downtown.
The city's system of bays and reservoirs was built to drain heavy rainfall. But the engineering originally designed nearly 100 years ago has struggled to keep up with the city's growth and larger storms.
Residents in rural Central and West Texas are also working recover from tornadoes that left a trail of damage. In Hawley, Texas, two people were injured Thursday and the wreckers left a trail of damage. This weekend's storms pose the threat of more tornadoes.
Texas isn't the only area facing bad weather this weekend. Americans from Louisiana to Oregon are under the threat of severe and slow-moving storms. In the Oregon Cascades region, a winter weather advisory was issued as the region braced for at least a foot of snow, according to local media.
Vice President Kamala Harris canceled a planned trip to a music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada after the event was canceled due to a high wind warning. Organizers said they expect winds of 30 to 35 miles per hour, with gusts up to 60 miles per hour.
