Rain showers caused flooding on roads in parts of Texas early Saturday, an official said, after severe weather killed at least 21 people earlier in the week, prompting President Barack Obama to declare a disaster in the state.
Texas has endured record rainfall for the month of May. The recent flooding turned streets into rivers, ripped homes off their foundations, swept over thousands of vehicles and trapped people in cars and houses.
Obama signed a disaster declaration late Friday to free up federal funds to help rebuild areas of Texas affected by the storms. No estimate has been given for the damage in Texas.
By Sunday morning, a cold front had moved in. While scattered showers were still possible, forecasters said drier weather had settled over the region for the coming week, giving swollen rivers time to drain.
Kent Prochazka, a meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration outside Houston, said storms moved into the Gulf of Mexico overnight as a cold front blanketed the region, bringing with it a swath of cool, dry air.
“It will give us a chance to dry out and not add any more water to the rivers,” Prochazka said, noting that river levels were already falling before the storm and that the effect of a few inches of additional rain was “minimal.”
“The fact that we handled 10 to 12 inches of rain in such a short period of time is a testament to the improvements they’ve made in that flood-control system” around Houston, he said. “Back when I started working in the ’90s, if we had that type of event it would have been double, triple the flooding.”
In Fort Bend County south of Houston, several rural communities along the Brazos River were still evacuated Sunday as the river approached its crest at 49.55 feet, but residents were expected to return in the coming days as the water drains, said Jeff Braun, the county’s emergency management coordinator.
“We had some street flooding and some additional road closures and water getting closer to houses. But fortunately the storm finally blew through, so this morning all our jurisdictions are stable,” Braun said. “Water in some places may be there for two or three days as it slowly recedes. There’s dry weather coming in with a northern front and lasts for about a week and that will be a good respite.”
He credited the suburban county’s 100 miles of levees with protecting its major roads and cities.
Sunday was a cleanup day for many in the Houston area who were stripping soggy drywall, piling debris and positioning fans to dry out scores of flooded homes.
Reuters contributed to this story.