Some in Texas are still in the process of repairing their homes due to Hurricane Harvey from two years ago. James Revia was one of them and on Thursday, the waters came again. Floodwater was 4 feet deep around Mr. Revia’s house in Winnie, and his propane tank was leaking when firefighters rescued the single father and his four children Thursday morning.
The family lost furniture and beds in Harvey and now, the arrival of Tropical Depression Imelda has dumped more than 40 inches of rain in some areas of Texas over three days this week, Mr. Revia suspects he has lost his car and wonders what the new damage to the house will be.
“We really haven’t recovered from Harvey,” Mr. Revia said. “It’s a good thing [we were rescued], because we’d be really stuck.”
Mickey Galley carried his 3-week-old infant through waist-deep water to a rescue boat in Winnie. They were among hundreds who made it to a Red Cross shelter Thursday night, manned by many of the same volunteers who knew the ropes from Harvey.
Among those who died from the storm were a man electrocuted trying to rescue his horse and another who drowned in his car, both near Beaumont, as well as one who drowned in his van and a fourth man was found in a ditch near Houston, authorities said.
Thursday was the fifth-wettest day on record for Houston, according to the National Weather Service. If preliminary rainfall totals are confirmed, Imelda would be the seventh-wettest tropical cyclone in U.S. history.
Deondria De Leon spent much of Thursday in a truck with her husband, Jose De Leon, driving down water-filled roadways to retrieve her mother from her home and their nephew, who was trapped at a Walmart.
Ms. De Leon said flooding was worse than Harvey.
“I’m afraid of the climate change that I see on the news,” she said. “It seems like it’s getting worse every year.”
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