The Houston area got hammered this morning, with ten inches of rain in some places. The Chronicle has an multiple-source story that gives a good rundown of what’s going on (or not going on, as it were):
Heavy rains reated a nightmare commute for Houston-area residents early today, flooding major roadways and threatening some homes.
As much as 10.5 inches of rain was reported by the heart of the morning commute today, said Rusty Cornelius, administrative coordinator for Harris County Emergency Management. The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for Houston and Galveston counties until 10 a.m.
The Houston Area Red Cross has opened a shelter at the Channel View High School and a spokeswoman said the agency is looking at opening additional shelters on the East Side.
The worst problems were reported in southeast Houston and western Pasadena. The National Weather Service reported that almost 6 inches of rain fell within 75 minutes early today near Hobby Airport. The weather service also estimated 5 to 8 inches of rain fell in three hours along Sims Bayou in southeast Houston.
Laurence Simon emailed this morning that he had a very fun commute into work, and it should come as a surprise to no one that Metro’s “transit backbone” is experiencing a hiccup:
METRORail is running between Smithlands and UH-Downtown, but not from the Fannin South Park & Ride lot and Reliant platform due to flooding at Loop 610 and Fannin.
And KHOU-11’s News Blog has a long list of schools that will not be open today.
UPDATE: Isiah Carey reports that Mayor White is assessing the situation from an HPD helicopter.
