At least 5 dead in Houston-area floods

A truck is shown partially submerged along the Beltway 8 feeder road near Hardy Road on Monday. A truck is shown partially submerged along the Beltway 8 feeder road near Hardy Road on Monday. Photo: Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle Photo: Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 284 Caption Close At least 5 dead in Houston-area floods 1 / 284 Back to Gallery

Gov. Greg Abbott announced late Monday afternoon he has signed a disaster declaration for the Houston area because of powerful thunderstorms that led to several fatalities, damaged hundreds of homes and paralyzed the region.

The declaration covers nine counties: Harris, Bastrop, Colorado, Fort Bend, Grimes, Montgomery, Waller, Wharton and Austin. That will allow local officials to implement state emergency-assistance plans and order curfews, if necessary, as the heavy rains continue in the forecast through at least Tuesday.

If property losses are excessive, a federal disaster declaration is expected in a few days after detailed damage assessments, officials said. They said Harris and Waller counties are the most affected so far.

Abbott also announced that the IRS has agreed to grant extensions for tax filings for those Texans who are directly affected the flooding.

Authorities said at least five people drowned as a result of the storm. Earlier Monday, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett confirmed two fatalities were near U.S. 59 and Interstate 610. Emmett said surveillance camera footage showed a car drive around a barricade into high water in that area.

Sgt. Herbert Martinez of the Harris County Precinct 5 constable's office said two fatalities were reported at Greenspoint Drive and the Beltway and at West Hardy Road and the Beltway.

Martinez said the toll road authority had responded to the West Hardy Road death and said authorities had witnessed the man drive an 18-wheeler into high water. He said a medical condition may have been involved. It's unclear what led to the other death.

In addition, Royal Independent School District in Brookshire tweeted that one of its teachers, Charles Odum of Royal Junior High, died in rising floodwaters on Monday.

A flood-related fatality was reported in Waller County, which was hard hit by the storm. A man of an unknown age was found by rescuers around noon Monday in a submerged vehicle near the intersection of Wilson and Adams Flat roads, said Brian Cantrell of the Waller County Sheriff's Office. Investigators believed the vehicle had been caught in rushing water.

Houston Police Department spokeswoman Jodi Silva said officers responded to reports of bodies found in flooding at the feeder road connecting 610 and I-59 near the Houston Chronicle building.

Silva said responders could not yet offer any further information.

Harris County officials said the high water rescue number had risen to 1,222, with 897 in Houston limits and 325 outside.

County Judge Ed Emmett said "timing means everything" when evaluating the impact of a storm. Much of the last 24 hours' rainfall came during the night time, which made it both difficult to predict but also allowed people to make choices about going out, as opposed to last year's Memorial Day floods.

Emmett said the officials' preparation for the floods and rains on Monday went "as well as they can go," but said heavy, concentrated, sustained rains will have consequences despite any amount of preparation.

"Some things you can't avoid," he said.

School districts and colleges across southeast Texas canceled classes Monday as a flash flood watch remained in effect due to heavy rainfall. More than 121,000 customers were without power in the Houston area at one point, but the figure had dropped to 47,000 as of about 3 p.m., according to CenterPoint.

RELATED: Some schools will be closed or delayed on Tuesday

Forecasters said that on Tuesday, up to three more inches of rainfall may be possible.

RELATED: City responds as rain pounds Houston

Heavy rain leaves Houston, other areas underwater

The storms hit overnight and are expected to continue throughout the day and into Tuesday, according the National Weather Service.

RELATED: ABC 13 reporter saves man from flooded Houston car

"This is a major rain event," Emmett said. "I hate to use the word 'Allison' but it's got all the similar features."

Emmett said 13 of 22 of Harris County's creeks and waterways were out of their banks and heavy rains from the north and northwest would continue to flow down and cause swells.

Chaos in Greenspoint area

Mayor Sylvester Turner sought to assure what could be hundreds of residents stranded on the upper floors of flooded Greenspoint-area apartments that the city is moving to help them.

News footage through the afternoon has shown residents hauling children out of the flooded complexes in everything from plastic tubs to air mattresses to, in one case, a refrigerator. Turner said he has deployed 10 Metro buses and nine fire department rescue vehicles to the area to move residents to Aldine ISD's M.O. Campbell Education Center, which the city is using as a shelter.

"There's no question we're getting a number of calls, people stranded and in need of rescue, and we're deploying assets to that area to meet the immediate need," Turner said. "We know there's many individuals who are stranded. I know people are wanting to get out of that area. I've directed all of our resources that are available to move expeditiously into those areas. I want to assure people that's being done."

"Do not think the city is not seeing you," Turner continued, addressing Greenspoint residents. "It's a situation where all throughout the city, and quite frankly all throughout our region, we're dealing with high water."

City personnel reached roughly 1,000 units this morning, Turner's spokeswoman Janice Evans said, with some residents being helped to higher levels of the apartment buildings and some being moved to the Greenspoint Mall. The city must now move those at mall to M.O. Campbell, along with those who did not leave the area this morning and any residents who may be stuck in another 500 units nearby that may not have been reached in the first response this morning.

"I don't want people to leave a unit on the second floor. Shelter in place," Turner said. "We are responding and we will continue to respond until every single person is in a safe and dry area."

Turner said he understands why Greenspoint residents – hungry and stressed, surrounded by floodwaters – would say they feel abandoned, but Turner said a command center was set up in the Greenspoint area at 3:59 a.m, so personnel have been working in the area for hours.

Leaving the city emergency center for a joint press conference with County Judge Ed Emmett, Turner said he plans to visit the Greenspoint area afterward.

Shelter-in-place orders

Turner said reports he's getting suggest more people in the area are being relocated to the M.O. Campbell Education Center, a shelter now housing about 300 people, but he said other residents have resisted first responders' offers to help them leave their dwellings.

"There have been many individuals who have waived the rescuers on and said they're fine, they don't want to go," Turner said. "But I want to go out there myself and assess the situation."

In addition to Greenspoint, city personnel are focusing on the Meyerland area and parts of northwest Houston that were hit particularly hit by flooding.

Those needing assistance to reach a shelter are asked to call the city 311 help line at 713-837-0311.

Shelters in place were:

Meyerland area: Johnston Middle School, 10410 Manhattan.

Northwest area: (Bingle, Little York, TX 249, Alabonson, Victory): St. John United Methodist Church, 8787 N. Houston Rosslyn.

Westside: Jersey Village Baptist Church, 16518 Jersey Drive.

Northside: M.O. Campbell Education Center, 1865 Aldine-Bender.

The mayor sounded a cautiously hopeful tone during a 12:30 p.m. update on Houston's latest flood, saying the National Weather Service believed most heavy rainfall would stay to the city's south, leaving the city limits to receive perhaps half an inch of rain through the rest of the day. However, he said, conditions can shift quickly, and the area remains on a flood watch until Tuesday morning.

Nearly 100 intersections were closed due to high water, Turner said, and the city had received reports of flooding in 72 homes or businesses, though Turner said the full tally likely was far higher, as he has heard suggestions that 200 homes in Meyerland could be affected. The flooding comes less than a year after sudden downpours caused major flooding on Memorial Day weekend.

"I regret anyone who's having to go through the flooding of their homes again," Turner said. "For some individuals, they've just finished the repairs and moved back into their homes, and then less than a year later here we go again. I know it's very difficult. But I will say that there were areas that flooded this time that haven't flooded in years. And this is happened not just in our region but throughout the state. This is just one of those things that no one can control."

Flights canceled

At Bush Intercontinental Airport, 224 flights had been canceled, and 54 more had been scrapped at Hobby Airport; the nearby intersection of Monroe and Airport also was underwater, with several stranded vehicles there, Turner said.

Metro still was not operating, Turner said, and 44,157 homes inside the city limits remained without power.

Turner acknowledged the event was difficult to forecast, but said city officials would not have prepared any differently than they did. City personnel were on alert last night, as he and Emmett decided to close the city and county court systems and tell only public safety personnel to report to work. All school districts were able to close before thousands of residents left their homes, he said.

"I don't think anyone expected the rainfall to come as soon as it did and persist as long as it did, and it just got worse," Turner said. "That's a lot of rain to be coming in a very short period of time. There's nothing you can do whether you're in the city or the county or any other governmental entity that can stop that amount of rainfall."

Houston Fire Department responded to 610 emergency calls after midnight, the mayor said.

About 100 residents of apartments in North Houston had been evacuated from three apartment complexes and were being sheltered in the Greenspoint Mall, Turner said, noting that the Red Cross also had opened a shelter at 16518 Jersey Drive.

More than 70 subdivisions in the Houston metro area were flooded as of 6:55 a.m. Metro suspended bus operations Monday because of the flood watch, which will remain in effect through 7 a.m. Tuesday.

Some homes in hard-hit northwest Harris County, where 8 to 16 inches rain fell overnight, reportedly had several feet of water inside, rising up to kitchen sinks, Sanchez said.

Sanchez said residents inside Beltway 8 along Brays Bayou may also see flooding inside their homes. Officials fear, he added, homes inside the 610 Loop could also get flooded.

"This will definitely be an historic event," Sanchez said.

The flash flood watch covers Harris, Brazoria Fort Bend, Galveston, Montgomery, Waller and other counties in the region. Flooding is especially possible along Greens Bayou near the Eastex Freeway as well as areas along Buffalo Bayou near Piney Point Village and Cypress Creek near Westfield.

In Montgomery County, where 4 to 8 inches of rain had fallen over several hours, the Red Cross opened three shelters for people forced from their homes.

The shelters are located at First United Methodist Church 4308 W. Davis in Conroe; the East Montgomery County Friendship Center, 21679 McCleskey Road in New Caney; and South County Community Center, 2235 Lake Robbins Drive in The Woodlands.

A coastal Flood Warning was in effect until 4 p.m. Water has already moved over Bolivar Peninsula and Galveston Island's roads.

>> Is it flooding in your area? Show us conditions in your area by sending photos to photos@chron.com. They could appear on Chron.com.