HOUSTON _ A miles-long string of booming thunderstorms from Tropical Storm Harvey brought torrential rains overnight Saturday that flooded Houston's streets, drowning one person.
The rain came down so hard and fast meteorologists at the National Weather Center here declared a three flooding emergencies across the metropolitan area, warning residents of dire danger if they left their homes or shelters for the roadways.
Rain gauges in some West and Southwest Houston neighborhoods reported receiving upward of 4 inches of rain in just one hour. Closer to downtown, the rain was nearly as impressive and dangerous, measuring between 2 to 3 inches.
Former longtime Houston Chronicle science and weather writer Eric Berger, who now runs the respected Space City Weather blog, tweeted that the city was on the cusp of a flooding catastrophe.
The city was pummeled by storm after storm after storm as the miles-long parade of storms stalled in place over the city, dumping inch after inch after inch of rain on roughly the same place.
One woman died Saturday night when she stepped out of her car on a flooded roadway and was swept away, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo confirmed. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner mentioned the case in a late-night press conference to reiterate the dangers of driving through the storms. The Houston Chronicle and KHOU-TV first reported the news of the woman's death.
The torrential rains in Houston came after a relatively quiet Friday and Saturday across much of the city. In Houston, between 2-3 inches of rain fell overnight Friday and another inch or two during the day Saturday.
It had been a day of reprieves: Downpours would suddenly begin and stop _ sometimes with half-hour lulls in between _ as the bands of Harvey swirled overhead. Blustery winds replaced steady breezes, which would just as easily give way to perfectly still skies.
Some in posh central city neighborhoods even woke up to some sunlight peeking through the clouds.
"It's difficult to get some folks to take it seriously when they see blue skies," said Harris County spokesman Francisco Sanchez.
But that was the challenge officials here face as now Tropical Storm Harvey slowly drifts and continues to pump in bands of rain across the Houston area.
Not all of metro Houston lucked out: The far northwest corner of Harris County and neighboring Fort Bend County were raked by heavier rains and as many as 10 tornadoes.
Those storms _ like the ones now soaking Central Houston overnight Saturday _ were from Harvey, the powerful Category 4 hurricane turned tropical storm that crashed into the Coastal Bend region the night before, devastating communities there with torrential rains, massive storm surge and powerful 130 mph winds.
But for much of Houston, Saturday was just another day as Harvey's promised storms still loomed in the distance. The city's flood-prone streets seemed to hold up well, with just a few reports of localized flooding through the daytime hours.
But there were some problems in some usual trouble spots. Local television KTRK-TV broadcast images showing Keegan's Bayou, in the city's far southwest corner, rapidly rising. And Houston Police took to Twitter to warn that standing water was building on the elevated portions of some freeways, which serve as the city's veins.
And while some inner-city neighborhoods, such as Montrose and the Heights, stayed almost entirely dry, a band of storms pounded suburban and refinery towns, like Pasadena, to the east _ quickly dropping upward of 2 inches of rain.
Harvey was rougher on the suburbs Saturday. In Fort Bend County, about 40 miles south and west of Houston, there were reports of at least two possible tornadoes that damaged dozens of homes and a business.
One possible twister touched down in a suburban neighborhood in Missouri City, damaging more than 50 homes, the Houston Chronicle reported.
The second hit a building along Interstate 10 in Katy, ripping apart an auto parts store.
The rapidly rising Brazos River forced state officials to evacuate the Ramsey, Terrell and Stringfellow state prisons in Brazoria County. Authorities said they were moving the inmates to facilities in East Texas.
Harvey hit the northwestern corner of Harris County hard too, late Saturday afternoon. Videos shared on social media and initial reporting from the Chronicle and other local media sources indicated that at least three tornadoes struck the suburbs of Jersey Village and Cypress and the town of Tomball.
But the threat for the Houston region remains what is yet to come from Harvey. It's the story of not the first 2 or 3 inches of rain that fell Friday night, but the 20 or 30 inches that meteorologists fear will follow in a possible repeat of Tropical Storm Allison.
Harvey is expected to slowly drift up the coast toward Houston, bringing days of rain _ like Allison did. That precipitation will fall onto increasingly waterlogged streets, which will flow into increasingly full bayous, which could rise out of their banks and offer a repeat of the devastation seen in 2001.
"We're seeing the same dynamics of a storm floating around the Gulf, coming back in, kind of just meandering around Southeast Texas and that's very problematic," Sanchez said. But those infamous Allison rain totals were concentrated in specific, narrow areas. Harvey brings the threat of 20-30 inches of rain across the city, totals its system of bayous won't be able to handle.
"If these forecast totals actually pan out, bayous will be overwhelmed, that's just a reality of the situation," said Sanchez.
But all of that depends on where Harvey moves, how quickly it moves, how much rain it drops and how quickly it does so. And meteorologists are still struggling to pin down those details.
"Right now the forecast is bad, to very, very bad," said Sanchez.
So Houston watches and waits.
