Houston residents confined by massive street flooding all over the city ventured out between the ongoing downpours Sunday night to see how far they could go.
Most of them did not get far.
At the corner of Kirby and Main Street near the Houston Medical District, oncology dietitian Maria Petzl surveyed the high water for any path to work.
“We have been driving around trying to get a feel for where we can even get to and essentially we can get a mile or two down the road and we’re stuck,” she said. “People who are in there got in last night or early this morning, they’re there until the roads clear and the rest of us can get in.”
A military type vehicle from Houston’s Metro Transit Authority pushed through the high water in that neighborhood Sunday night.
The city’s transit buses and trains are all parked. But Metro driver Adrian Poo was providing very limited service with his high water vehicle.
“I’m just running around making sure folks can get to shelters and that kind of stuff,” he said.
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A group of girls looking for food walked through high water from the second floor of a Medical District hotel Sunday night where they were staying to celebrate Alexandria Monroe’s 18th birthday this weekend.
“The weather just ruined everything,” she said. “It’s just horrible.”
Her friend Chloe McClain said they did see the forecast before they arrived on Friday.
“We didn’t think it was going to be a literal hurricane,” she said. “People said that, but we didn’t think it was going to do this.”
Everyone in Houston hoped the forecast would be wrong.
Panhandler Richard Russ who normally works the corner of Kirby at Main Street said business is very bad.
“This is usually packed, four lanes here, four lanes going in, all day long. It was spooky,” he said.
All those people were out during a break in the downpour that continued later Sunday night. More rain is in the Houston forecast.
