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For the second time in three years, some residents of Houston and Southeastern Texas were waiting Friday for heavy floods to retreat and assess the damage to homes and property from water, the number of victims of Tropical Storm Imelda has been increased to five.
Parts of the region affected by Imelda, which landed at Freeport on Tuesday and spilled massive amounts of rain, were also flooded by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, a storm that caused more than 60 inches of rain in southeastern Texas and that is causing deaths. of 68 people.
Some residents were flooded this week by both storms. "We moved everything we could ride, but you can not get all your first floor up," said Cynthia Watson of Huffman, northeast of Houston, at NBC's KPRC.
When Harvey hit, 4 and a half feet of water flooded Watson's home, she told the station. "We have lived here for 30 years without water and the last two years – the second time, so it's heartbreaking," she said.
Another resident, Erika Muzyka, told the station: "We really did not think it would happen again. I mean, we were incredulous. "
"We will have to stay with the family, and we will just do it all over again," Muzyka said. "Cut out the rock, replace the soil."
As floodwaters began to retreat in parts of Texas on Friday, authorities announced the deaths of two more people in the city of Beaumont and surrounding areas.
The claims discovered in a canal in Beaumont, a town of about 118,000 inhabitants east of Houston, and in Interstate 10 in Jefferson County bring to five the total number of deaths related to storms. Imelda, who was a tropical storm when she touched down Tuesday, and her remains, dumped rainboots on parts of the region and resulted in hundreds of rescues on the high seas.
Malcolm Foster, 47, was found dead inside a Toyota Prius in a canal after the waters withdrew to Beaumont on Friday morning, the city said in a statement.
Thursday night on I-10, about 5 km west of the city, officers were called in a broken down vehicle and found the body of Mark Dukaj, 52, of Florida, announced the Texas Department of Public Safety. The agency estimates that the van has been blocked during massive floods in the region.
Cory Stottlemyer, spokeswoman for Houston's emergency management office, said the floodwaters in the city were pulling out on Friday and that fewer 911 calls have been made, reported the Associated Agency. Press. Even though the intensity of the storm has weakened, Harris County officials have warned that some of their 4.7 million residents might not see high waters receding in their front quarters the weekend.
In addition to two deaths reported Friday Beaumont and nearby, three other deaths were attributed to the storm.
Hunter Morrison, 19, was moving his horse from the flooded waters to the heights when a storm struck, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office announced. Morrison's family stated that he had been electrocuted and drowned.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said Thursday night that rescue teams intercepted a man in a pickup truck submerged in 8 feet of water in Houston, and that he was pronounced dead at the hospital; and the sheriff said Friday that another man last seen walking during the storm had been found dead in a ditch, and investigators believe he probably drowned.
In parts of Vidor, Texas, a town of about 10,500 people northeast of Beaumont, floodwaters have reached the roofs of homes.
A portion of a major highway in the Houston area, Interstate 10, was closed after the bridge spanning the San Jacinto River was hit by loose barges, officials said. The barges are intact and there is no evidence of pollution, but Thursday afternoon, the current was still too fast to remove, officials said.
"Everyone needs help, and everyone is devastated," Linda Richardson told Huffman. "They did not expect that."
The storm is one of the wettest tropical cyclones in US history and has dumped more than 40 inches of rain near the border with Louisiana, AP reported. Hundreds of people have been displaced from their homes.
The Harris County Sheriff's Office, which includes Houston, tweeted on Friday 425 rescues on the high seas and more than 360 vehicles blocked. Houston police said Friday at 10 am, more than 1,600 vehicles were towed from the city's roads because of the storm.
The Chambers County Sheriff's Office said Thursday that the community of Winnie, which has about 3,200 residents between Houston and Beaumont, was "devastated" by the floods.
According to preliminary estimates, about 800 homes and businesses were damaged by the floods and about 400 people were saved, said county spokesman Ryan Holzaepfel.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Thursday declared a state of disaster in Brazoria, Chambers, Galveston, Hardin, Harris, Jasper, Jefferson, Liberty, Matagorda, Montgomery, Newton, Orange and San Jacinto Counties. The statement guaranteed that state resources were available to local government agencies.
While floodwaters in the Houston area would have declined, flood warnings were still in place for rivers to the east of the city, including in the Beaumont area, on Friday night, according to the National Weather Service.
The Flood Alert in the Beaumont area was to continue until 5:30 Saturday local time.
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