FLOOD TOLL RISES
7 DEATHS CONFIRMED: Search continues for man who fell from boat REGION ON EDGE: Surging rivers pose threats; more rain in the forecast
The cleanup crews stationed at a southwest Houston feeder road watched Wednesday as the water from Monday night’s flooding receded, slowly exposing the roof of a red Ford F-150 pickup. They soon found the body of the driver.
Hours later, near the Fort Bend city of Rosenberg, rescue workers found the body of a 73-year-old woman missing from the day before, her 2000 silver Ford Crown Victoria submerged in high waters.
As water levels dropped around the region Wednesday — despite an influx of heavy morning rain — the costs of the week’s deluge became ever more apparent, as rescue workers pulled more bodies from the mud and rain soaked streets and fields, and as residents began setting their homes back in order.
The two victims found Wednesday are the latest casualties from the devastating storms that struck the Houston region, raising the death toll to seven. The search continues for an 87-yearold man who fell into the waters from a Houston Fire Department boat that capsized shortly after picking him and three others up.
Elsewhere in the region, rising floodwaters threatened communities from Wharton to Liberty County. In Wharton, 50 miles southwest of Houston, city officials called for a voluntary evacuation of the west part of the city in advance of an expected rise of the Colorado River.
In Fort Bend County, officials identified the dead woman as Alice Tovar, who worked at the Chevron gas station at the corner of Gerken and Texas Highway 36. Authorities said Tovar’s daughter received a call from her niece Tuesday, concerned because she had not seen her grandmother’s car parked at work. Authorities scoured the area with airboats and four-wheelers. Texas EquuSearch also helped comb the area.
Searchers found Tovar’s body about 60 yards from the road in a grassy area around 6:30 p.m., said Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls.
The identity of the red pickup driver in Houston has not been released. Authorities said he like-
ly didn’t realize the water on the Galleria-area feeder road, which extends south of Post Oak Boulevard and leads to West Loop South, was too deep to enter.
The other five who died were identified on Wednesday as Shirley Alter, 85; Anh Phan Nguyen; Christopher Kirby, 35; Nihad Jeri-es Konsul, 64; and Dennis Callihan, 65. All but Callihan, who died of a heart attack after pushing a vehicle from a flooded street, likely drowned.
At two Red Cross shelters set up to house those displaced by recent storms, including a tornado on Sunday, dozens had registered by Wednesday and more were expected.
City leaders, meanwhile, are trying to determine the total number of affected structures, encouraging residents to report damage through 311. The information helps city leaders make a better case for a federal disaster declaration and with it more money with recovery efforts, said Michael Walter, spokesman with the Office of Emergency Management.
On Wednesday, the estimated number of buildings damaged in the area was 4,000, said Mayor Annise Parker.
Rain record broken
The storm brought additional rain to an already soaking month, which, with four days to go, is officially the wettest month in the state’s history, with averages topping 7.5 inches around Texas.
“It has been one continuous storm after another for the past week to 10 days in several regions of the state,” said John Nielsen-Gammon, the state’s climatologist and a professor of atmospheric science at Texas A&M University. “It has rained so much that the ground just can’t soak any more moisture into it, and many creeks and rivers are above flood stage.”
Just as the region had started to dry out, widespread thunderstorms returned to Houston on Wednesday morning, complicating cleanup and recovery efforts. Houston is likely to see only scattered thunderstorms Thursday — along with a fair amount of sunshine — but conditions for Friday through Sunday may bring more heavy rainfall.
Most of the southern half of the region got less than 1 inch on Wednesday; many areas north of Interstate 10 received 2 to 3 inches of rain in just a few hours.
The rain forced Harris County officials to warn residents living near the west fork of the San Jacinto River that rising water levels would inundate streets nearby and possibly cut off access to homes in the area. The early morning storms, which dropped as many as 4 inches of water in areas, could cause the already-elevated river to inundate streets near Humble.
The Harris County Flood Control District did not order evacuations but instructed people to avoid driving and to remain in their homes.
To the east, Liberty County officials said about half the people living along the rising Trinity River have voluntarily left their homes. Those who decided to stay generally live in houses on stilts, said Tom Branch, the county’s emergency management coordinator.
With Lake Livingston’s dam releasing 72,600 cubic feet of water per second upstream of Liberty , the Trinity reached 3½ feet above flood stage at the U.S. 90 bridge in town.
“It’s coming, but it’s coming slowly,” Branch said. “The people living along the river know what to do.”
Cypress Creek rose above flood stage at several locations Wednesday morning and is expected to continue rising, according to the National Weather Service. The creek was above flood stage near Sharp Road, at Huffmeister Road and at Stuebner-Airline Road, the weather service said.
Around the region, there were pockets of high water on more than half a dozen roads around the region, according to Houston TranStar.
Financial costs mounting
As the storm waters receded in some communities, the financial costs of the storm continued to become more clear, as city officials said about 750 cars were towed Tuesday and city staff is actively surveying damaged property.
The Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office reported making hundreds of highwater rescues and that area firefighters dealt with at least 10 fires sparked by lightning strikes in the last two days. The fires injured two firefighters, who suffered from smoke inhalation and a leg injury, HCFMO spokesman Dean Hensley said.
Flooding at the City Hall Annex parking garage damaged 16 city cars, Parker said. Though flood gates were installed at the garage in the wake of Tropical Storm Allison in 2001, those gates were left open Monday night, frustrating the mayor.
Another 50 city vehicles were lost or damaged during the storm, Parker said. The rain also damaged nine unmarked vehicles belonging to the Harris County Sheriff ’s Office.
Dre Dupont, director of fleet services for the county, said his crew recovered the unmarked vehicles from the county sheriff’s lot at 1200 Baker St., which is adjacent to Buffalo Bayou.
The vehicles, a mix of SUVs and sedans made from 2007 to 2014, had been filled with water, some up to their hoods.
They were unmarked vehicles that were designated for the sheriff’s administrative staff rather than for patrol. Dupont said he wasn’t sure yet whether the vehicles could be repaired or whether their electrical systems and airbags were damaged beyond their worth to repair.
Parker said the weeks of “soaking rain” that led up to the barrage of storms Monday night into Tuesday morning left the city particularly vulnerable to flooding, and there was nothing the city could have done to better brace for the weather.
“There’s not anything anybody can do to stop flooding under those circumstances,” Parker said.