Houston copes with deadly, historic flooding

The Houston area continued to recover Tuesday after historic flooding swept across Southeast Texas, leaving at least seven people dead and at least 1,000 homes swamped.

All of the deaths were drownings caused when people drove cars into flooded roads.

Rivers and creeks continued to rise across the region Tuesday, forcing a fresh round of evacuations, Weather.com reported. At least four of the area's school districts canceled classes because of concerns about flooded roads and power outages.

Tuesday's rain was not as widespread as previously forecast, according to KHOU-TV meteorologist Chita Johnson. Flooding is still a concern because of water moving downstream to already swollen bayous.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch for the area through Wednesday evening, though occasional heavy rain could still pelt the region through Thursday.

Officials say about 200 people were rescued from the Chasewood Common Apartments along Cypresswood Drive. Some residents said the water went up to their necks. Only a few people could be rescued at a time.

As of Tuesday morning, Cypress Creek in Cypress, Texas, crested at a near-record 127.5 feet, which is 5.5 feet above flood stage, the weather service reported. The last time the creek crested that high was in October 1994.

Many residents remained without power Tuesday. As of 1 p.m. CT, CenterPoint Energy reported there were 6,500 customers without electricity, mostly on the northwest side. That is down from the peak of about 123,000 who were without power early Tuesday.

The flood is a 1-in-200 year event, according to NOAA and the University of Oklahoma. That means there is a 0.5% chance of such an event occurring in any given year.

Over the past three days, roughly 8.8 trillion gallons of water fell on the state of Texas, according to Weather Bell meteorologist Ryan Maue. That's enough to fill more than 104,000 Rose Bowls with water.

Rainstorms last year over Memorial Day weekend caused major flooding that required authorities to rescue 20 people, most of them drivers, from high water, the Associated Press said. Drivers abandoned at least 2,500 vehicles, and more than 1,000 homes were damaged in the rain.

The year before, flash flooding in Houston and suburban counties left cars trapped on major highways.

Those storms still pale in comparison to the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Ike in 2008 and Tropical Storm Allison in 2001, according to the AP. Allison left behind $5 billion in damages and flooded parts of downtown and the Texas Medical Center, which sits near the Brays Bayou, a key watershed.

Allison remains the USA's costliest tropical storm ever recorded.

Contributing: KHOU-TV, Houston