Posted on 06/19/2006 10:43:29 AM PDT by cbkaty
The National Weather Service said the heaviest concentration of rain in Harris County -- between 9-10 1/2 inches -- fell southeast of downtown, in the area around Houston's Hobby Airport.
A flash flood warning was in effect in Harris County and Galveston County until noon. Flood watches were in effect in all the surrounding counties.
Harris County airport system spokeswoman Marlene McClinton said the airport itself did not flood, but the roads around it did, preventing crews from getting to work.
She said the airport was shut down for about 2 1/2 hours, but was reopened by 8:45 a.m. As of 9:40 a.m., McClinton said 23 arrivals and 32 departures had been canceled and she said more cancelations were possible.
McClinton said small planes were being diverted to Bush International Airport, north of downtown, which just over 2 inches of rain.
Parts of Interstate 10 and other major arteries were flooded, and numerous school districts called off classes.
Gov. Rick Perry deployed 25 Texas Army National Guard trucks with crews, three helicopters with flight crews, swift water rescue teams and one incident management team from the Texas Forest Service to the flooded area.
Houston emergency management spokesman Pat Trahan said Monday morning that no deaths had been reported as a result of the rains or flooding.
Trahan did know how many rescues had been performed, but Houston assistant fire chief Omero Longoria told KTRH Radio in Houston that the fire department had answered about 500 high-water rescue calls.
Houston fire department had set up four command centers around the city and a shelter had been opened at a high school, Trahan said.
In Louisiana, emergency crews evacuated more than 100 patients from Holly Hill Nursing Home, where the water was a foot deep in the halls. Fire departments from Sulfur and Lake Charles and two ambulance companies were moving patients to another nursing home in Lake Charles, about 15 miles away, officials said.
"There's pretty widespread flooding around the parish. A lot of roads are closed," said Dick Gremillion, the Calcasieu Parish emergency preparedness director.
Police urged residents of Sulphur to stay home unless there was an emergency.
Some houses in the town flooded, but most of the flooding appeared to be caused by wakes produced by passing vehicles, Assistant Police Chief Glenn Berry said.
Josh Lichter, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Houston, said another rainmaking storm was expected to develop late Monday afternoon.
"We're not exactly sure where these new storms are going to form," Lichter said. "We're going to get another round of storms forming. Our concern is that it's going to happen right over the same area of Houston and that could definitely cause some significant problems."
Lichter said the rains were expected to move out of the Houston area by Wednesday.
"We probably have another 48 hours of this," he said Monday morning.
Stay with Eyewitness News and ABC13.com with the latest on the weather and traffic conditions
Kinky has a chance......
Karl Rove did his famous flood-dance in Houston.
Good Grief.
Well dark clouds are rollin' in
Man I'm standin' out in the rain
Well dark clouds are rollin' in
Man I'm standin' out in the rain
Yeah flood water keep a rollin'
Man it's about to drive poor me insane
Well I'm leavin' you baby
Lord and I'm goin' back home to stay
Well I'm leavin' you baby
Lord and I'm goin' back home to stay
Well back home are no floods or tornados
Baby and the sun shines every day
SRV (God rest his soul)
If you see an old guy in a boat with two of everything float by, it's time to leave...
I really liked his '83 or '84 version of Texas Flood on Austin City Limits.
About an hour ago the MSNBC weather fellow said they had a report that 6 1/2 inches of rain had fallen at the airport in a 75 minute period.
Sheesh, what a stupid statement, hijacking your own thread. Why hold back, go ahead and make it a Terri Schaivo issue, too.
I guess as long as YOUR house or car isn't flooded it isn't a big deal.
That is a fairly heavy sprinkle.
After one hurricane, we were stopped in a long line of cars waiting for standing water covering about 3/8 mi of roadway to recede. Then a semi pulled out of line and slowly crossed the "puddle".
My dad observed, "Heck, that's no deeper than what we drive this ol '48 Ford through when we're going duck hunting". So he swung out of line, pulled up to the water, and stopped...
Then he went back to the trunk, retrieved our little 3hp air-cooled Evinrude outboard, clamped it to the back bumper -- and cranked it up.
Then, as we "putt-ed" our way across, he laughed uproariously at all the stranded motorists who piled out of their cars to watch!
(...and folks wonder where I got my wierd sense of humor...) LOL!!!
I once measured about 2 1/2" in an hour from the remnants of a hurricane coming up the east coast, but 6 1/2 in 75 minutes is simply amazing.
Yep, some nearby areas got 10 inches in 2 hours. This is Houston's equivalent of blizzard snow days. The mayor's bright orange raincoat at his news conference was a nice touch. Just watch out for the floating balls of fire ants.
So, are they in TS Allison territory yet? You know, where I-10 looks like a giant canal?
You'll know it's bad when we get FEMA to bus all of our poor people and crooks to the New Orleans SuperDome...
I wish you guys in Texas would send some of that rain our way! North Georgia is awfully dry right now!
"Goodness gracious, great balls of fire" ants.
Goodness gracious! Great Balls of Fire! Ants!
I really feel for those bearing the brunt of it.
My side of town got rain but no flooding.
I did see a couple of ducks with frogs on their back.
GMPostA
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