Number of flooded homes exceeds last year’s total
The tally of flooded homes in Harris County reached 6,700 on Sunday, surpassing the total from last year’s Memorial Day flood.
An additional 300 homes were damaged in Waller County. The assessments are preliminary, and numbers are expected to continue to rise.
In unincorporated Harris County alone, surveyors estimated $43 million in residential losses and $13 million in commercial losses by Sunday night, said Francisco Sanchez, spokesman for the county’s emergency management office. The estimates are required before the region can be designated a federal disaster area, allowing victims to apply for money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
But residents don’t have to wait for food, housing or clothing. Anyone who needs immediate help should call 211, Sanchez said. The same applies to Waller County.
Shawna Reagin, helping people in Inwood Forest scrape out their homes’ sodden innards, marveled at the mounds of debris piling up on curbs.
She worried about looters pilfering items from yards in the northwest Houston neighborhood where she grew up and was glad to see what appeared to be stepped-up police patrols.
“The enormity of the damage is so overwhelming,” she said.
Afternoon thunderstorms brought patches of heavy rainfall and minor street flooding Sunday. Engineers closed floodgates at the Addicks and Barker reservoirs to keep the rain from inundating bayous downstream. The reservoirs reached their peak from last week’s deluge, said Kim Jackson, spokeswoman for the county flood control district. They aren’t expected to finish draining for weeks.
The region should expect continued rain this week, possibly aggravating flooding, according to the National Weather Ser- vice.
The flooding threat is lower during the middle of the week, with a storm system moving across the Great Plains late Tuesday into Wednesday only expected to cause light rain in the Harris County region.
But a storm system approaching from the west next Saturday and Sunday could lead to heavier rain at the end of the week. That storm could raise flooding concerns, according to meteorologist Melissa Huffman. It’s too early to predict that storm’s rain totals, Huffman said.
This week’s rain could affect morning commutes and prolong road closures, Huffman said.
Relief efforts continued throughout the region, with the Red Cross operating four shelters in Spring, Conroe, Brookshire and Wharton.
Residents from Greenspoint, one of the hardest-hit areas of the city, settled in to hotel rooms, where they relocated after staying in the Campbell Center arena last week. More than 150 families have accommodations for up to three weeks at a cost of about $150,000 from a storm relief fund, Mayor Sylvester Turner’s office said.
About 1,800 Greenspoint apartments had flood damage, and 400 workers were on site making repairs, the mayor’s office said.
In Waller County, nine people sought refuge at a civic center in Brookshire on Sunday, down from about 100 people staying in a shelter at Royal High School last week, said Brian Cantrell, the county’s emergency coordinator. Officials tentatively expect to begin curbside debris pickup on county roads May 2, he said. The Texas Department of Transportation will coordinate pickup on state highways and farm roads.