Texas First Responders Continue Rescue Efforts After Flooding

April 20--First responders and rescue crews continued plucking victims from floodwaters in Harris County's inundated northwest reaches Tuesday, while much of the region saw the water slowly retreat, leaving behind a soggy mess and a long road to recovery.

A day after the nation's fourth-largest city was brought to a virtual standstill, city and county officials were assessing the damage wrought by the heaviest deluge to strike the region since Tropical Storm Allison in 2001.

At least eight people are now thought to have died in the storm, which trundled through in the early-morning hours Monday, dropping nearly 18 inches of rain in some areas and flooding at least 744 homes and 400 apartments, according to county officials.

That number, which includes Houston but not smaller cities in the county, is expected to rise.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said city staff would speak with all of the flood victims they could to determine how best to help each family, and local governments deployed inspection teams -- 20 from the city and 12 from the county -- into the field to survey flood-damaged properties.

High-water rescues continued, however, with the total calls for water rescues topping 1,800 Tuesday since the storm began, 630 of them in the unincorporated part of the county.

Many of the rescues were taking place in the northwest part of the county near Cypress Creek, which was still swollen with floodwaters.

The Harris County Sheriff's Office, the Precinct 4 Constable's Office, and other agencies spent hours plucking residents out of flooded homes and apartment complexes.

At Ravenhurst and Schroeder streets, officials with the sheriff's office and the Cypress Creek Volunteer Fire Department ferried residents from two of the worst-hit apartments, the Chasewood Apartments and the Commons Apartments in the 9700 block of Cypresswood Drive.

All morning, first responders carried residents from the apartments in small launches, then shepherded them into trucks to carry them to a nearby Lowe's where they could link up with family members or officials with the Red Cross.

They had been at it since 10 p.m. Sunday.

"We've been carrying little kids, a pregnant woman, old people in wheelchairs," said one deputy constable. By noon Tuesday, first responders had plucked about 130 people from the apartments.

Measuring the damage

Elsewhere, the waters were receding, allowing officials to take a measure of the damage done.

"If we don't get any more rain, we're in recovery mode and damage assessment," said Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said.

A city report categorized the damage to 36 of the homes and all 400 of the apartments as "major," and estimated that only 30 percent of the affected structures were covered by insurance.

Nearly 350 residents had visited one of the city's six shelters as of midday Tuesday, some of whom had stayed overnight. But the situation was in flux, with some residents switching shelters or returning home in the hopes of retrieving their belongings, while others headed to the homes of family or friends.

Turner said the city was helping displaced residents to return to their homes so they could see the damage and try to salvage what they could

Record storms raked the Houston region April 18, 2016.

Media: Houston Chronicle

At the Acres Homes Multi-Service Center just northwest of downtown, volunteers were setting up the first of 80 cots for residents expected to spend the night Tuesday, as buses bearing "special" on their destination boards waited in the parking lot to shuttle people to and from their homes.

Jay Jones passed through, carrying his 14-month-old daughter, Destiny. The 30-year-old woke up Monday morning to find an inch of water on the floor of his Greenspoint apartment, ruining his clothes, a laptop and his car parked outside.

"It came in the back patio and then the front door," he said. "It messed up the carpet where, like, an old smell was coming out of the carpet. You could smell it, and I didn't want her breathing it."

Out of baby wipes, running low on diapers and milk and finding nearby stores closed, Jones joined other evacuees at Greenspoint Mall, then was bused to a north Houston church that had served as a shelter, then to the Acres Homes center. After Destiny's mother picks her up, Jones said, he hopes to find a place to stay with family or friends.

Red Cross volunteer Jessica Logan, who is coordinating efforts at the Acres Homes center, said the 91 families who had registered Tuesday need everything: bottled water, fresh fruit, canned food, clothes and whatever else people can spare.

As dozens of Houstonians lugged garbage bags full of clothes into the shelter on Tuesday, Turner called on flood victims who are able to do so to begin dragging damaged items out of their homes and to the curb.

Officials have not yet set the schedule on which city trucks will collect storm debris -- furniture, rugs, bedding, drywall, carpeting -- but Turner said neighborhood waste depositories will be open seven days a week. Harris County officials said Precinct 4 crews and county contractors would begin debris and trash removal only after the water recedes, which might not be for days.

Monday garbage collection was delayed to Tuesday, Tuesday's collections were delayed until Wednesday, and Thursday and Friday schedules are unaffected.

Following an expected federal disaster declaration, Turner said, FEMA will be able to make temporary housing vouchers available for those who cannot afford the deposit and first month's rent on a new unit. Many of the units affected in the Greenspoint area accepted federal housing vouchers.

Severely damaged buildings close to bayous may need to rebuild at a higher elevation to meet modern floodplain rules. The Houston Permitting Center is open to answer home and business owners' questions, and the city also plans to open satellite permitting offices near affected neighborhoods.

Cypress Creek trouble

Flood Control District Meteorologist Jeff Lindner said six waterways were flooded Tuesday, less than half of the 13 at the peak of the flooding Monday. All of those were concentrated in the northwest part of the county. Across the county and the city, 160 subdivisions reported flooding.

The problem spot for continued flooding Tuesday was Cypress Creek, where emergency personnel used Humvees, air boats and high-water vehicles, to reach at least one large apartment complex and several private homes. Senior citizens in wheelchairs were rescued from the Atria Cypresswood Assisted Living Facility.

County officials Tuesday identified five of the eight people who died in the storm.

Among the victims were German Antonio Franco, 66; Pedro Rascon Morales, 61; Sunita Vikas Malhara, 49; and Teri White Rodriguez, 41, according to the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office. Charles Odum, 56, died after his vehicle went underwater in Brookshire late Sunday or early Monday, Waller County Judge Trey Duhon said.

As most Houston waterways drain east into the San Jacinto River, which empties into Galveston Bay, that river continued to rise Tuesday. It is expected to crest on Wednesday and remain in flood stage through Thursday morning, perhaps creating problems for the Highlands and Banana Bend areas. The Trinity River in Liberty County, which has flooded homes in the past, is expected to crest Wednesday night. On the Brazos River, the Fort Bend County city of Simonton on Tuesday issued a voluntary evacuation notice as the river reached an all-time high of 123.4 feet Tuesday afternoon.

Reservoirs and tributaries in northwest Harris County also continued rising and could remain high for days, the flood control district said.

That will leave Texas 6 through Addicks Reservoir submerged, and Eldridge, Barker-Cypress and Clay roads are expected to go underwater as Addicks fills up. The same was expected for the Westheimer Parkway in the Barker Reservoir. The flood control district expects both reservoirs to reach record heights this week, breaking marks set in March 1992.

Bridge destroyed

Emmett said the county also is starting to get a picture of damage to county infrastructure, including at least one bridge over Cypress Creek that had been completely destroyed.

The Houston area's largest school districts closed for the second straight day on Tuesday, and some in the hard-hit western part of the region planned to remain shut on Wednesday as well, including Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District, with 114,000 students, and Katy ISD, with more than 70,000 students.

Waller County's Royal ISD, which enrolls 2,300 students and lost one of its teachers amid the downpour, has canceled classes for the week, as has nearby Sealy ISD.

Reporters Brian Rogers, Cindy George, Ericka Mellon and St. John Barned-Smith contributed to this report.

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