Houston starts assessing damage

Two more deaths reported; floodwaters still snarl travel

Rescue crews help move people from flooded homes Friday in Huffman, Texas.
Rescue crews help move people from flooded homes Friday in Huffman, Texas.

HOUSTON -- Emergency crews in the Houston area took advantage of receding floodwaters Friday to begin to assess the damage from one of the wettest tropical cyclones in U.S. history, a storm that led to the deaths of four men and displaced hundreds of people from their homes.

The aftermath from Tropical Storm Imelda, which drew comparisons to Hurricane Harvey two years ago, was blamed for major travel headaches as motorists slogged through water-swollen streets and air travelers faced flight delays and cancellations.

Nine barges broke free of their moorings, and Interstate 10 over the San Jacinto River was closed in both directions when two of the barges struck the bridges early Friday. Nearly 123,000 vehicles normally cross the bridges each day, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.

The heaviest rainfall had ended by Thursday night in southeast Texas, but forecasters warned that parts of northeast Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana could see flash flooding as Imelda's remnants shifted to the north.

Officials in Harris County, which includes Houston, said there had been a combination of at least 1,700 high-water rescues and evacuations to get people to shelter as the longevity and intensity of the rain quickly came to surprise even those who had been bracing for floods. The storm also flooded parts of southwestern Louisiana.

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More than 900 flights were canceled or delayed in Houston on Thursday. Further along the Texas Gulf Coast, authorities at one point warned that a levee could break near Beaumont in Jefferson County. During Harvey, Beaumont's only pump station was swamped by floodwaters, leaving residents without water service for more than a week.

Imelda's remnants on Thursday led to the deaths of two men. A 19-year-old man drowned and was electrocuted while trying to move his horse to safety, according to a message from his family shared by the Jefferson County sheriff's office. Crystal Holmes, a spokeswoman for the department, said the death occurred during a lightning storm.

A man in his 40s or 50s drowned when he tried to drive a van through 8-foot-deep floodwaters near Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston during the Thursday afternoon rush hour, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.

A third death was that of a man whose body was found in a ditch Friday north of Houston, Harris County sheriff's spokesman Jason Spencer said. Preliminary indications are that the man drowned.

Also on Friday, police in Beaumont said the body of a 47-year-old man was found in a Toyota Prius that was discovered in a flooded canal after waters receded.

The National Weather Service said preliminary estimates suggested that Jefferson County was deluged with more than 40 inches of rain in a span of 72 hours, which would make it the seventh-wettest tropical cyclone to hit the continental U.S.

"The issue is that you can't get 40 inches of rain in a 72-hour period and be fully prepared for that," Jefferson County spokeswoman Allison Getz said Friday. "At this point we haven't been able to fully assess what's happened."

Getz said dozens of people have traveled to the county with boats in tow from Louisiana and other parts of Texas to assist with rescue efforts that are an outpouring of support reminiscent of volunteer efforts during Harvey.

In nearby Chambers County, preliminary estimates indicate about 800 homes and businesses sustained some level of damage from floodwaters, county spokesman Ryan Holzaepfel said. Emergency personnel rescued about 400 people during the deluge, mostly from homes, he said.

Emergency crews on Thursday evacuated 87 residents from a nursing home in Porter, northeast of Houston, as floodwaters began to seep into the home, according to Meghan Ballard, spokeswoman for the Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management. The residents of Pine Shadow Retreat were taken to one of six separate nursing homes or senior living centers where they will be housed temporarily, Ballard said. No injuries were reported as part of the evacuation effort.

Cory Stottlemyer, spokesman for Houston's Office of Emergency Management, said floodwaters in the city Friday were receding and that fewer 911 calls were being made. But even as the intensity of the storm weakened, Harris County officials warned that some of their 4.7 million residents might not see high waters recede in their neighborhoods until the weekend.

Information for this article was contributed by Diana Heidgerd, Terry Wallace, Jamie Stengle, Clarice Silber, Paul J. Weber and Jill Bleed of The Associated Press.

photo

The New York Times/ILANA PANICH-LINSMAN

Marylin Douget carries one of her eight cats to a mostly dry shed Friday at her Anahuac, Texas, home while dealing with flooding from Tropical Storm Imelda. Damage assessment began Friday as water receded in southeast Texas after one of the wettest storms in U.S. history that led to four deaths and displaced hundreds of people.

A Section on 09/21/2019

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