Floodwaters kept rising Tuesday across much of Texas as storms dumped
almost another foot of rain on the Houston area, stranding hundreds of
motorists and inundating the famously congested highways that serve the
nation's fourth-largest city.
Meanwhile, the search went on for 30 people who were missing after
flooding along the Blanco River in Central Texas, including a group of
people who disappeared after a vacation home was swept down the river
and slammed into a bridge.
Houston authorities recovered
three more bodies from the floodwaters — two of them in the city and a
third in a vehicle on Interstate 45. That brought to 11 the number of
people killed by the holiday weekend storms in Oklahoma and Texas.
The water continued rising overnight as the area received about 11 more inches, much of it in a six-hour period.
Firefighters
carried out more than 500 water rescues, mostly stranded motorists. And
at least 2,500 vehicles were abandoned on the streets by drivers
seeking higher ground, said Rick Flanagan, Houston's emergency
management coordinator.
"You cannot candy coat it. It's absolutely massive," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said after touring the destruction.
The flooding closed several highways in Houston, and the ones that stayed open became a gridlocked mess.
Interstate
45 near downtown was backed up for miles on Tuesday morning, with a
handful of motorists traveling the wrong way on the highway to retreat
from high water.
The small
cars weaved between massive 18-wheelers as drivers stared at them in
disbelief. With no end to the backup in sight, some drivers got off the
freeway, only to be held up again by water covering nearby access roads.
In
the Heights neighborhood about 5 miles from downtown, groups of people
roamed the streets after escaping their stalled cars, and police
cruisers blocked some roads where the water had caused dangerous
conditions.
Some motorists were stuck on Interstate 45 all night, sleeping in their cars until the backup was cleared about 8 a.m.
NBA fans at the Toyota Center,
where the Rockets hosted a Western Conference finals game against Golden
State on Monday, were asked with about two minutes left in the game not
to leave the arena because of the severe weather.
The
game ended before 11 p.m., but about 400 people remained in their seats
at 1:30 a.m., choosing to stay in the building rather than brave the
flooded roads that awaited them outside.
A total of 30 people were unaccounted in Hays County, about 35 miles southwest of Austin, county Commissioner Will Conley said.
Crews were also searching for
victims and assessing damage just across the Texas-Mexico border in
Ciudad Acuna, where a tornado killed 14 people Monday.
Some
of the worst flooding damage in Texas was in Wimberley, a popular
tourist town along the Blanco River in the corridor between Austin and
San Antonio. That's where the vacation home was swept away.
Source: Yahoo News
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