Skip to footer

Severe storms leave Houston residents stranded without power

Some parts of the Houston metropolitan area received more than ten inches of rain Monday night, making many roads impassable as floodwaters continued to rise.

|
Aron M. Sprecher/Getty Images
Heavy rains in Texas inundated parts of Houston on Tuesday, closing roadways including Interstate 45.
  • By Meredith Hamilton Staff writer

The Houston metropolitan area experienced heavy rainfall on Monday night, with some areas drenched in over 11 inches of rain by Tuesday morning according to a report by CNN. 

On Monday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared a state of disaster in 24 counties, including Houston. Highways experienced severe flooding and more than 80,000 people were without power due to the storm, which began on Saturday. 

The Houston metro area is under multiple river flood warnings effective through the day on Tuesday, warning that "very heavy rainfall across the area in the past 12 hours has led to rapid rises in area creeks ... rivers and bayous," the Weather Channel warned. 

On Tuesday, Houston's mass transit system suspended all bus and rail service, and the Houston Independent School District closed all of its schools and offices. 

The unprecedented rainfall has left some people stranded since Monday night. Spectators at the Houston Rockets basketball game were urged to stay in the Toyota Center following the team's 128-115 victory over the Golden State Warriors. Many left anyway, but others stayed

"I have a low car, so I'm going to wait it out," Rod Royall told the Houston Chronicle. "I've lived here my whole life. I know better than to think that I'm going to be different than the 10,000 other people that are having problems."

Fans who chose to stay were treated to a surprise. The Houston Rockets' center, Dwight Howard, remained in the Toyota Center with them. Howard told reporters, "The weather is pretty bad out, but this is a great place to be, the fans and everybody here, I feel like I'm at home." 

At 5:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, seven hours after the game ended, fans were cleared to leave, according to NBC News. 

Others were forced to spend the night in the Galleria mall west of the city after floodwaters made driving impossible. 

"We were headed out to our cars and found we couldn't get out," store worker Karina Hernandez told NBC. "The first-level garage was completely flooded. There was literally no way out."

According to the same report, a security guard confirmed that some people remained at the mall early Tuesday morning. 

"We have tried to make them as comfortable as we can," said the guard.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Severe storms leave Houston residents stranded without power
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2015/0526/Severe-storms-leave-Houston-residents-stranded-without-power
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe