Imelda Blamed for At Least Two TX Deaths Houston Harris County Firefighters

Heavy rainfall from now-downgraded Imelda wreaked havoc Thursday for much of southeast Texas, where officials are dealing with impassable roadways, downed trees, power outages, hundreds of high-water rescues and in one small town, a hospital evacuation.

At least two deaths have been linked to the storm. A man pulled from a submerged van in east Harris County died, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said in a tweet. In Jefferson County, a man was electrocuted and drowned while trying to move his horse, according to authorities there.

As of Thursday evening, Houston police recovered more than 200 abandoned vehicles from city roadways, and hundreds more vehicles remain stranded on highways and streets, HPD Chief Art Acevedo said during a news conference. Police will work to clear the roads through the night, he said.

About 120 people are currently housed in six storm shelters within the city, said John Fleming of the Houston Health Department.

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The same storm that pummeled areas in Chambers County overnight Wednesday, dumping nearly two dozen inches of rain in the community of Winnie, briefly intensified closer to Houston later in the morning, apparently surprising many who thought the worst was over.

Mayor Sylvester Turner said the intensity of Thursday's storm wasn't anticipated after the tropical depression on Wednesday appeared to migrate east.

"This happened very quickly," he said. "But it's just demonstrating that in this day and time, climate change is real. And we no longer have to be concerned just with a hurricane. We have to be concerned with almost any sort of weather system that can quickly evolve into a major storm and produce a great deal of rain."

In Galveston County, heavy rains hit the already saturated island community Thursday, with over 15 inches recorded at Scholes Field since Imelda made landfall, according to the National Weather Service. Another round of storms could develop over Galveston overnight.

In Bolivar, water restrictions are in place after the peninsula's water treatment facility, located in Winnie, went offline after storms pummeled the Chambers County community. It is unclear when the plant will be back up and running. Officials said there should be enough water stored to last residents for the next two days.

More rainfall is expected throughout the region with a flash flood warning in effect until 7 a.m. Friday. The counties affected include Austin; Brazoria Islands; Brazos; Burleson; Chambers; Coastal Brazoria; Coastal Galveston; Coastal Harris; Fort Bend; Galveston Island and Bolivar Peninsula; Grimes; Inland Brazoria; Inland Galveston; Inland Harris; Montgomery; Northern Liberty; Polk; San Jacinto; Southern Liberty; Trinity; Walker; Waller; and Washington.

The effects of Imelda continue in Houston, and officials across the city were reporting high water across many roadways inside the city of Houston and monitoring the water level of several bayous. City services, including those of at least two airports, Metro transit, hospitals and ambulatory services, were affected by heavy rain.

Harris County officials urgently asked residents to get off the roads and take shelter from the storm, which was dumping rain on some areas already saturated with rain over the last few days by Imelda.

"If you're at school, stay at school. If you're at home, stay at home. If you're at work, stay at work," said County Judge Lina Hidalgo. "Right now, it's about life safety."

Hidalgo said just after noon that she has declared a disaster declaration for Harris County amid the torrential downpours.

"This disaster declaration will allow us to ensure we have the maximum flexibility we need to respond and recover from this disaster," Hidalgo said on Twitter.

Gov. Greg Abbott issued a state of disaster for 13 counties in southeast Texas, including Brazoria, Chambers, Galveston, Hardin, Harris, Jasper, Jefferson, Liberty, Matagorda, Montgomery, Newton, Orange and San Jacinto, as widespread flooding continues to stall services.

Harris County Flood Control District meteorologist Jeff Lindner said several bayous were either over their banks already or quickly rising. He said central parts of the county are seeing rainfall at the rate of 4 to 6 inches an hour.

"This is a life-threatening situation," he said. "With the amount of rain we're seeing, the channels are going to have issues."

More than 1,000 people in Harris County have either been rescued from their homes or evacuated with the help of crews, Harris County officials said.

Residents also helped out their neighbors, including an Aldine High School student who jumped into Thursday afternoon's flood waters near campus with two other men to rescue a woman and her daughter.

Aldine High School football coach Hank Semler said he was astounded and proud of Jayden Payne's actions.

"To risk your own life to save people that you don't know - he didn't know that lady and her child," Semler said. "He just saw fellow people that needed help and he just immediately sprung to action."

In scenes reminiscent of past storms, parts of Houston highways were completely underwater.

At Interstate 45 in Woodland Heights just north of downtown Houston, dozens of cars sat stranded Thursday evening with water still covering their wheels.

By rush hour, nearby residents roamed the area, walking their dogs and riding bikes as commercial trucks inched their way through crowded residential streets.

One family of five stared in awe at the flooded freeway from the North Street overpass. They said the highway looked the same as it did during Harvey.

"We shouldn't be used to this," said the father, Alejandro De Almaida. "Harvey was the 500-year flood, so we weren't expecting this after two years."

One of the drivers whose car was stranded on the freeway said he had been waiting for the water to recede since 2 p.m.

His white GMC Yukon sat bumper-to-bumper with a sedan and an 18-wheeler.

"I saw a bunch of cars still passing (in the other direction), but in like 20 to 25 minutes, the water started running fast and everybody started moving to the side (of the freeway)," said the driver Saul Salazar.

The storm also affected flight traffic, grounding planes at Bush Intercontinental Airport just before 10 a.m. The Federal Aviation Administration said the airport would reopen at 1:30 p.m. Friday.

At at Metro, authorities suspended all transit services due to heavy rain and flooding.

Harris Health System closed all its outpatient facilities and its outpatient ambulatory care services "out of abundance of caution," the System said in a news release. Patient appointments will be scheduled.

Memorial Hermann Hospital System said on its website that all hospitals, emergency centers and convenient care center remained opened except for some facilities in northeast Harris County.

Memorial Hermann Northeast Hospital reportedly took in water through the front door of the emergency department, but operations were not affected and the hospital remained open to new patients. Access to the hospital, like most in the area, was limited much of the day because of access issues caused by the flooding.

In Chambers County, about 300 people have been rescued. Most of them — about 250 — were rescued on Thursday during the brunt of the flooding, said Chambers County Fire Marshal Ryan Holzaepfel.

Authorities have also brought six horses and 25 pets, dogs and cats, to safety.

Besides the water rescues there, a tornado warning was issued early Thursday in Winnie, where the town flooded overnight and the hospital was evacuated, Chambers County Precinct 1 Constable Dennis Dugat said.

The agencies helping them with rescues including the Chambers County Sheriff's Office, the U.S. Coast Guard, and City of Baytown. Several volunteers with boats are helpings with rescues, too.

In Montgomery County, all county offices were closed due to the weather according to Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough after the area had already received more than eight inches of rain.

According to the San Jacinto River Authority, the east fork of the San Jacinto River has experienced significant rainfall and numerous locations are at moderate flood stage. Lake Conroe has received less than one inch of rainfall and is still two feet below normal level and there is no lake release at this time.

More than 200 water rescues on Thursday were being carried out in Montgomery County. One call had first responders transporting 83 assisted senior living residents out of floodwaters.

The bulk of the rescue efforts are taking shape in the eastern part of the county, specifically New Caney. Troopers with the Texas Department of Public Safety have been assisting with rescues, stranded motorists and evacuations, spokesman Sgt. Erik Burse said.

Eddie Ahib, owner of the Wash N Dry, never expected this much rain. Usually when it rains, he said, the parking lot will flood, but never before has so much water filled the laundromat and stayed there.

"We always have water up there, but not this much," Ahib said. "The creek around there is flooded all the time."

During Harvey two years ago, Ahib said he put down several sandbags at the East Davis store. While water did get into the building, it didn't stay very long and it wasn't as deep as it was today.

Before he can open up the business again, he'll have to wait for the building to dry out and test the machines. Some of them will likely have to be replaced.

He wasn't able to prepare at all for Tropical Storm Imelda, he said, because he never expected this much water.

"This time, we were not expecting this much rain," he said.

In Beaumont, authorities said all service roads are impassable and two local hospitals are inaccessible, the Beaumont Enterprise reported. Interstate 10, between Houston and Beaumont, was impassable due to the severe flooding in the area, officials.

The Beaumont Police Department said on Twitter that 911 has received requests for more than 250 high-water rescues and 270 evacuations.

Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Branick said the Green Pond Gulley Levy, which holds 4,600 to 5,600 acres of water is "deteriorating and could break at any moment" and asked residents in the Gilbert Lake Estates neighborhood to evacuate immediately.

Rescue boats were en route to the area, he said, adding that residents who have a spare boat should pick up their neighbors and head to the Highway 365 overpass at Interstate 10.

"It's bad. Homes that did not flood in Harvey are flooding now," Branwick said.

Just outside of Beaumont, Vidor police chief Rod Carroll said the department has multiple water rescues under way and have already executed multiple water rescues.

The Cajun Navy, who were instrumental in conducting water rescues during Hurricane Harvey, posted to social media that they were coming to Texas to assist with effects of the storm.

Catherine Dominguez, Shelby Webb, Dug Begley, Jay R. Jordan, Todd Ackerman, Sarah Smith, David Taylor, Nicole Hensley, Dylan McGuinness, Jamie Swinnerton, Jose R. Gonzalez, Nick Powell, Julian Gill, Reid Laymance and The Associated Press and The Beaumont Enterprise contributed.

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