It is all fun and games until lunchtime...
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
George Castanza: "I'm outta here!"
Nope--just cars and light trucks floating - no submerged 18-wheelers yet.
Answering the question of where TV news anchors go when you don't see them anymore ... to the Harris County airport system, a la Marlene McClinton.
It is all fun and games until lunchtime...
Yeah. Think "Turbo Seattle".
So they aren't still playing Connie Chung's rendition of "Thanks for the Memories"?
Ha, the head of the Office of Emergency Management in Brazoria County is named Rick Perry. Sounds like him, too.
They have him on the phone on Ch 13 now - they asked him how it's looking.
"Kinda dark."
Keep in mind that rain is only in southeast Texas.....the rest of the state could use the rain too....
Two Questions:
Where is FEMA?
Where is Shepard...he needs to be on camera, live in Houston, Crying on CUE!!!!
It rains a lot. 6.5 inches in 75 minutes happens quite often. Tropical Storm Allison dumped 7.2 inches in 70 minutes in 2001.
Not exactly "quite often" - we've been in a drought, just like the rest of TX.
I know.... I was stranded on a overpass over White Oak bayou for 4 hours.....it could have been worse. The lady in the car next to me was 9 months pregnant and..........after a time needed a port-O-can...
It rains 10 inches and you want to bash illegals. People are sick of this thread spamming.
Amen
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