SUGAR LAND, Texas – In the First Colony neighborhood of Sugar Land, several streets were flooded in Tuesday’s storms, surprising neighbors.
“It doesn't flood; it doesn't happen here,” said Katy Zipprian. “I can’t take my son to school today because we can’t get out of here.”
Several schools in Sugar Land were closed Wednesday because of the flooded streets.
"Once we went outside, we knew there wasn’t going to be school. There was no way people were going to be able to get in there,” Nicola Chapman said.
Chapman told KPRC that she would have had to wade through high water to take her sons to school at Settlers Way Elementary.
Robert Merkle opted to wade out of the neighborhood in waist-deep water because his home is still without power.
"It’s a little deeper than I expected,” Merkle said. “It hasn’t gone down very much today. We are keeping an eye on the sky to see if it rains some more.”
The overnight rainfall forced several drivers to park their vehicles in the middle of the street. Some drivers even had to spend the night in their cars.
Aiden, 17, a junior at Clements High School, walked around the neighborhood Wednesday morning trying to make sure everyone was OK.
“I am just going around seeing if anyone needs help,” Aiden said.
Aiden said he was up late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning.
“I had to carry some lady (through flood waters) that spent the night at my house,” Aiden said. “She started pretty much thanking me. She wanted to cry. I was like, ‘Don't worry about it.'"
Sugar Land received more than 9 inches of rain since Tuesday. The city reports its storm drains are over capacity and more than 100 vehicles were abandoned overnight.
City officials said they are doing what they can to help.
"We opened the Emergency Operations Center last night around 6:30 and we had a little over 9 to 10 inches (of rain) in about four hours, so we’ve had another heavy rainfall,” Sugar Land Mayor Joe Zimmerman said.
The majority of street flooding in the area has slowly been clearing, but there are still some impassable roads in the area.
“A car can be replaced easily. Your life can't," Aiden said.
Andrew Wolf was stunned to see the flooding around Settlers Grove.
“It's not supposed to do this in Sugar Land,” Wolf said. "We are supposed to have this wonderful flood-control system and it’s not working.”
No homes in the neighborhood were flooded, but residents said it was close.
“We were an hour away from it hitting the houses,” Wolf predicted.
Residents said it's the second time in two years they've seen flooding like this.
In other parts of Sugar Land, retention ponds and pump stations were monitored carefully. Memorial Park was closed to the public.
Across the Brazos River several miles to the southwest, George Ranch was drying out from their third flood since 2015.