KHOU.com
Posted on January 9, 2012 at 3:28 PM
Updated today at 7:31 PM
HOUSTON ? A cluster of severe storms moved through the Houston area Monday morning, creating dangerous conditions on the roads and dumping up to six?inches of rain.?The winds also kicked up, including at least?two confirmed tornadoes.
A twister damaged several homes in a Mission Bend subdivision in Fort Bend County. Baset Jalili and her family had to run for cover when the tornado hit?their house near Gaines and Bissonnet.?
"You can hear it, it just starts getting louder?the wind hitting the house," said?Jalili. "The front door was actually locked. It just flew open. I took my mom and sister, we just took cover in the closet until it calmed down a little bit."
They weren't hurt, but their house, garage and roof were damaged. Other houses in the area also have damage.?
The same tornado caused damage near Highway 6 in southwest Harris County. An O?Reilly?s gas station between Beechnut and Bellaire is cleaning up storm damage tonight. Nearby, the tornado flipped four trailers at a business. Workers were inside some of those trailers, but no one was seriously?hurt.
A tornado also touched down at Mall of the Mainland
in Texas City around 1 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.Customers inside said everything suddenly started blowing around about 1 p.m. The wind peeled back the mall's roof in at least three spots and that sent rain gushing through "like a river."
There's 2 to 3 inches of water?throughout the mall.
Dow and Debbie James were at a?movie theater in the mall?when the tornado hit.
"We heard a big noise. The roof collapsed in what was a game room," Dow James said. "And the roof blew away, and water come rushing into the mall area."
"It was like a flash flood in the mall," said Debbie James. "The water started pouring in."
At least one wall was damaged and could collapse any time, according to the Texas City Fire Marshal.
Some vehicles in the parking lot had their windows blown out.
The mall was evacuated and there were no reports of injuries.
The mall remained closed indefinitely.
Hundreds of drivers were stranded?by high water throughout the Greater Houston area and in surrounding counties.?
Houston fire crews were called out to rescue some frantic drivers as the water rose around their stalled cars. An?HFD spokesman said?they couldn?t get to some streets because the water was too high?even for their trucks.
Major closures included: Highway 288 at the South Loop; Westpark Tollway at the South Post Oak ramp; Allen Parkway west of downtown; and Highway 90 between Richmond and Rosenberg in Fort Bend County.
Highway 288 reopened around 3:30 p.m. Monday. Water had receded in most other areas, but Allen Parkway was still flooded during afternoon rush hour.
?I?ve been watching the rain gauge tick up and up and up,? said KHOU Meteorologist David Paul. ?288, on the south side, had almost 5 inches of rainfall in about an hour and that?s overwhelmed the primary?drainage there.?
It was a similar story all over the area?including the Galleria,?Montrose and Greenway Plaza?as flash flooding caught people off guard.?
A Flood Warning was in effect until 11:54 p.m. Monday for Harris County.
?If you don?t have to go out, don?t do it, because this is going to be an absolute mess,? said? Paul.??It is dangerous out there.??
Rainfall totals reached up to 6 inches by 10:30 a.m. in Conroe, according to Paul. Braes Bayou guages also showed 5 to 6 inches of rain in southwest Houston.
Most areas in Harris County and other surrounding counties?had at least three inches of rain by 11:30 a.m.
The pounding rain was letting up in many areas by noon, but it?s going to take a while for the water to recede.??
CenterPoint?Energy said more than 20,000 customers were without power. The Houston Independent School District reported intermittant outages at the Love, Cullen and Looscan campuses.
Source: http://www.wfaa.com/news/texas-news/136967338.html
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