HOUSTON – It was a thunderous night and a very wet morning for people in the Houston area as heavy storms swept across Southeast Texas.
A rare, slow-moving summer cold front lifted the tropical moisture causing the heavy rain. Fronts this time of year usually don't bring a drastic drop of temperatures, but the overnight occurrence caused a dip for today's forecast.
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High temperatures are expected to top out in the upper-80s on Friday and the stalled could create more rain this weekend, according to KPRC Local 2 Meteorologist Anthony Yanez.
The steady stream of downpours caused street flooding, stranding several motorists, and thousands were left without power due to storms.
Greens Bayou saw 6.48 inches of rain, more than four inches of rain fell in downtown Houston and Sugar Land totals topped three inches by 4 a.m.
Centerpoint Energy crews were dispatched to work in multiple areas around town to restore power to more than 4,000 customers.
The Harris County Sheriff's Office reported numerous streets and highways were flooded in areas including:
59 Service Road north of FM 1960
- Aldine Bender Road at JFK Boulevard
- Eastex Freeway and Rosemary
- Eastex Freeway and Aldine Mail Route Road
- Old Humble Road and Homestead Road
- 59 north and southbound between Wilson Rd and FM 1960
Dozens of residents in a midtown apartment complex woke up to find their parking garage had flooded. Tenants at the Calais apartments on Louisiana Street are given assigned parking spots, and the unlucky ones with first-floor parking spots, woke up to find their cars nearly completely submerged in water and sludge. For many of the smaller vehicles, the water rose to the hoods.
Many of the vehicles were submerged in the water, which rose to the hoods.
"Thank God I went to work today, because if I had not went to work today, my car would have been gone today," Drew, an apartment resident, said. "It seems like this is the only building, the other two seem fine. But this one, the water hasn't even gone down. All of these cars are just gone."
Drew said a neighbor sent him a picture of the flooded garage, illustrating how lucky he was.
In Kingwood, a family's home caught fire after it was struck by a bolt of lightning. A husband and wife were inside their home on Tree Lane near Plum Valley Drive when they head a loud noise, then smelled smoke. Firefighters arrived quickly, but the house was still significantly damaged.
In northeast Harris County, motorists were seen pushing stalled out cars on the Beltway near Hopper.
"We been out here since about two this morning and it was worse," one man said. "Water was way up in the car, so it's kind of receded now and the car won't start so basically, we've been stranded for a ride."
The high water had receded in most areas, by the time of the morning rush-hour commute, but a lot of damage was left behind.