Officials in Houston are urging residents to prepare for worsening flooding after heavy rains that have led to high-water rescues and mandatory evacuation orders. "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. Hidalgo said that a school bus carrying children required a rescue after driving into high waters but that everyone on board was safe, the AP reports. More than 9 inches of rain fell in the past 24 hours, according to the National Weather Service, which issued a flood warning until Tuesday for the region.
Of particular concern was an area along the San Jacinto River, which was expected to continue rising as rain falls and officials release water from an already full reservoir. Hidalgo on Thursday issued a mandatory evacuation order for those living along portions of the river, adding that several hundred structures are at risk of flooding. The weather service reported the river was at 66.2 feet on Friday morning and expected to crest at 76.6 feet on Saturday. Flood stage for the river is 58 feet.
Hidalgo warned others living along the river in southern portions of the county that they could be stranded for days if they remain in their homes. No injuries or deaths have been reported, but officials said several people needed to be rescued. In Conroe, just north of Houston, rescuers drove boats into subdivisions to remove people and pets from their homes. In College Station, a driver was rescued from a light pole she had climbed after the car she drove into high water was washed away in a creek. Storms over the past month in southeast Texas and parts of Louisiana have dumped more than 2 feet of rain in some areas.
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