Heavy rains over Texas have led to water rescues and orders to evacuate

HOUSTON —  Heavy storms slammed the Houston area again Friday, widening already dangerous flooding in Texas and putting stranded drivers in need of high-water rescues. Officials redoubled urgent instructions for residents in low-lying areas to evacuate, warning that the worst was still to come.

“This threat is ongoing and it’s going to get worse. It is not your typical river flood,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top elected official in the nation’s third-largest county, said Friday.

She described the surge of water as “catastrophic” and said several hundred structures were at risk of flooding. There had already been at least two dozen water rescues in the county, and 30 pets were carried to safety. Schools in the path of the flooding canceled classes, and roads were jammed as authorities closed highways taking on water.

For weeks, drenching rains in Texas and parts of Louisiana have filled reservoirs and saturated the ground. Floodwaters partially submerged cars and roads this week across parts of southeastern Texas, north of Houston, where high waters reached the roofs of some homes.

More than 11 inches of rain fell during a 24-hour period that ended Friday morning in the northern Houston suburb of Spring, according to the National Weather Service, which has issued a flood warning for the region until Tuesday.

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 felt relief when the water began to recede Thursday.

Then the danger grew while they slept.

“Next thing you know, overnight they started releasing more water from the dam at Livingston. And so that caused the level of the river to shoot up by almost 5 or 6 feet overnight,” Fernandes said. Neighbors who left an hour later got stuck in traffic because of flooding.

In Montgomery County, Judge Mark Keough said there had been more high-water rescues than he was able to count.

“We estimate we’ve had a couple hundred rescues from homes, from houses, from vehicles,” Keough said.

On Facebook, he admonished drivers to be cautious: “We are still having to rescue motorists who ignore barricades or water over roadways and place themselves and first responders in harm’s way.”

In Polk County, about 100 miles northeast of Houston, officials have made more than 100 water rescues in the last few days, said Emergency Management Coordinator Courtney Comstock.

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 metro areas in the country and has long experience dealing with devastating weather.

In Crosby, school officials said the driver of a school bus carrying 27 students stopped his vehicle just before driving into high water Friday. The students managed to exit through a rear door.

Of particular concern was an area along the San Jacinto River, which was expected to continue rising as more rain falls and officials release extra water from an already full reservoir. Hidalgo issued a mandatory evacuation order Thursday for those living along portions of the river.

The weather service reported the river was above 69 feet at noon Friday and expected to crest at 78 feet. It is anticipated to fall below flood stage of 58 feet Tuesday afternoon, according to the weather service.

Hidalgo warned others who live along the river in southern portions of the county that they could be stranded for days if they remain in their homes. Shelters opened across the region, including nine by the American Red Cross.

In the city of Conroe, just north of Houston, rescuers took boats into subdivisions to carry people and pets from their homes to higher ground.

In nearby Livingston, neighborhoods were flooded, with water rising to the windshields of moving vans and above the bottom of windows of some buildings.

In College Station, a driver was rescued Thursday from a light pole she had climbed when the car she drove into high water in a parking lot was washed away in a creek.

Storms over the last month in southeast Texas and parts of Louisiana have dumped more than 2 feet of rain in some areas, according to the National Weather Service.

Lozano and Oyekanmi write for the Associated Press. AP writer Ken Miller contributed to this report.