(Houston) Houston officials are urging residents to prepare for worsening flooding after days of heavy rain led to dramatic rescues and mandatory evacuation orders.
“This threat is ongoing and will get worse. This is not a typical river flood,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the highest elected authority in the nation’s third-largest county, warned Friday.
Mme Hidalgo said a school bus carrying children had to be rescued after entering the waters, but everyone on board was safe.
Officials revealed that 26 people and 30 pets were rescued from floodwaters in the Houston area.
More than 9 inches of rain fell in the past 24 hours, according to the National Weather Service, which issued a flood alert through Tuesday for the region.
A flash flood warning was also in effect for the area Friday morning.
The area along the San Jacinto River was of particular concern, as it was expected to continue rising as rains intensify and authorities release water from an already full reservoir .
Mme Hidalgo had issued a mandatory evacuation order for people living along parts of the river on Thursday and called the situation “life-threatening” and “catastrophic.” Mme Hidalgo said several hundred structures were at risk of flooding.
The weather service said the river was at 20.18 meters Friday morning and was expected to crest at 23.35 meters Saturday.
The river’s flood level is 17.68 meters, according to the weather service.
Mme Hidalgo warned people who live along the river in southern parts of the county that they could be stranded for days if they stay home.
No injuries or deaths were reported, but authorities said several people were rescued from the waters.
The American Red Cross opened nine shelters in the Houston area and southeast Texas due to flooding.
Several roads north of Houston remained closed Friday due to flooding, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. A section of Highway 59 between Cleveland and Shepherd, about 50 miles northeast of Houston, was closed due to flooding.
In the town of Conroe, just north of Houston, rescuers drove boats into nearby subdivisions to rescue people and animals from their homes, then transported them to higher ground.
Neighborhoods and businesses in Livingston, northeast of Conroe, were flooded, with water rising up to the windshields of pickup trucks and the bottom of windows in some buildings.
In College Station, a driver was rescued Thursday from a light pole on which she had taken shelter when the car she drove into a flooded parking lot was swept away by the current.
Storms that hit southeast Texas and parts of Louisiana over the past month dumped more than two feet of rain in some areas, according to the National Weather Service.