I lived there for a short while once.
A lot of the ground in many places in the Houston area has a lot of clay content. Clay can absorb a lot of water, but not quickly. We’d watch as a major storm was making the street into a river with the water coming up and over the curb. Then once the heaviest part of the rain subsided, the water ould begin to recede. People on highways around Houston during such storms just pull to the side, let the rain finish, watch the water gradually recede and then join the others getting back on the road.
Of cousre any where in the country with these big storms there will be idiot drivers who will think “their car” can make it through some deep “puddle” (usually where the road dips down), instead of just wating safely for better conditions to arrive. No. Unlike the “suckers” just sitting there, they’re not going to let a deep puddle hold them up.
Maybe it is not has bad as I think
Our power flickered and we had 1/2 an inch water in our living room. The internet is still out except for the cellular phone
I lived in Houston six years. It is close enough to the coast to get all the rain, but not close enough to the coast for the coastal winds to drive the allergens out of the air. Miserable.
“A lot of the ground in many places in the Houston area has a lot of clay content.”
Worse, and as in all big cities, all the concrete on the ground, road, buildings, etc. Water has no place to go but rise up.