HOUSTON (AP) — Officials in Houston are urging residents to prepare for worsening flooding after days of 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,” Hidalgo County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top elected official in the nation’s third-largest county, said Friday.
Hidalgo said a school bus carrying children required a rescue after driving into high waters but that everyone on board was safe.
More than 9 inches (23 centimeters) of rain fell during the past 24 hours, according to the National Weather Service, which has issued a flood warning until Tuesday for the region.
A flash flood warning was also in effect in the area Friday morning.
Of particular concern was an area along the San Jacinto River, which was expected to continue rising as more rain falls and officials release extra water from an already full reservoir.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top elected official in the nation's third-largest county, on Thursday issued a mandatory evacuation order for those living along portions of the river and called the situation “life-threatening” and “catastrophic.”
“This threat is ongoing and it’s going to get worse. It is not your typical river flood,” Hidalgo said.
Hidalgo said several hundred structures at risk of flooding.
The weather service reported the river was at 66.2 feet (20.18 meters) Friday morning and expected to crest at 76.6 feet (23.35 meters) on Saturday.
The flood stage for the river is 58 feet (17.68 meters), according to the weather service.
Hidalgo warned others who live 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 have reported several people being rescued from high waters.
In the city of Conroe, just north of Houston, rescuers drove boats into neighborhood subdivisions to rescue people and pets from their homes, then carrying them from the boats to higher ground.
Neighborhoods and businesses in Livingston — northeast of Conroe — were flooded, with water rising to the windshields of moving vans and above the bottom of windows of some buildings.
In College Station, a driver was rescued Thursday from a light pole she had climbed when the car she drove into high water in a parking lot and was washed away in a creek.
Storms over the past month in southeast Texas and parts of Louisiana have dumped more than 2 feet (61 centimeters) of rain in some areas, according to the National Weather Service.
