Floodwaters in the Houston area and parts of Southeast Texas began to go down on Monday. This allowed residents to start going back to their homes and check the damage caused by heavy rain over several days. The rain led to hundreds of rescues, including people stranded on rooftops.
Officials in Harris County, where Houston is located, reported no deaths or major injuries from the flooding. However, Gov. Greg Abbott said there were at least three deaths in the state. One of them was a 4-year-old boy in North Texas who died when the car he was in got swept away by fast-moving water.
After several days of heavy rain, Monday brought mostly sunny skies and very little rain in the Houston area and other parts of Southeast Texas.
Floodwaters in the Houston area and parts of Southeast Texas (Via Henry White/Shutterstock)
“We can see that things are getting better, and we’ve gotten through the worst of this weather event,” said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the county’s top elected official, during a news conference on Monday.
According to National Weather Service meteorologist Jimmy Fowler, areas near Lake Livingston, northeast of Houston, received more than 23 inches (58 centimeters) of rain over the past week. In northeastern Harris County, which is one of the largest counties in the U.S., rainfall ranged from 6 inches (15 centimeters) to nearly 17 inches (43 centimeters) during the same period.
