Residents along the forks of the San Jacinto River should evacuate immediately and not be fooled by a break from torrential storms, local officials said Friday, warning of a wall of water moving their way.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo initially issued a mandatory evacuation order for the East Fork of the San Jacinto River on Thursday afternoon, warning of water levels that will come close to those reached during Hurricane Harvey.

The order covers the area from FM 1485 to Lake Houston, Hidalgo said.

The San Jacinto River is usually 45 to 50 feet above sea level. It is expected to reach around 78 feet on Friday, which is just shy of Hurricane Harvey levels.

At a weather update on Friday, Hidalgo continued to describe the flooding as a “catastrophic event” and said there are a couple hundred structures that are at risk of flooding. At least 26 people and 30 pets have been rescued so far, she added.

“We all need to take urgent and necessary steps to respond accordingly,” Hidalgo said. At a news briefing Saturday, Hidalgo said emergency crews had rescued 178 people in Harris County.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire said Friday that residents of low-lying areas in Kingwood should evacuate during the afternoon before the anticipated cresting of the San Jacinto River’s forks overnight.

Whitmire and other officials urged residents of vulnerable areas of Kingwood not to be lulled into a false sense of security by Friday’s relatively calm weather. A crest of water swollen by releases from the Lake Conroe Dam is headed their way, they said.

“We have to guard against any false impression that we have been cleared. The water is coming this way,” Whitmire said. “We have time to prepare as we talk now, but it will be just a few hours from now where it will be impassable.”

The east fork of the San Jacinto is forecast to crest between 10 and 11 p.m. Friday and the west fork from 3 to 5 a.m. Friday, Whitmire said.

“All of this is very fluid, of course, but this is our best estimate. We have time to relocate. We have shelters in place. We have Metro here to furnish transportation. We’re all in this together,” he said.

Speaking from a vehicle bay at Fire Station 102, Whitmire said there were plenty of vehicles and first responders ready to swing into action. However, he and other officials urged residents to get out now so that they do not place police and fire in harm’s way.

“Don’t let the break in the weather give you a false sense of security,” Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña said. “If you live in a flood-prone area near rivers and tributaries, you run a high risk of flooding in the next 24 to 48 hours.”

The heavy rains caused school closures and flash floods across Houston and outlying areas. As of Thursday, CenterPoint Energy reported that nearly 82,000 customers were without power. By Friday afternoon, only about 8,000 customers were still in the dark.

‘They don’t listen to us’: Colony Ridge residents stranded

With fire ants nipping at his feet, Mike Miller tugged his boat through cold floodwaters from the Orange Branch of the San Jacinto River as he and his buddy, Jacob Smith, lent a hand to Liberty County residents stranded by Thursday’s floods.

A native from nearby Montgomery County, Porter has been helping locals navigate extreme flooding in the Houston area since Hurricane Harvey.

“This is about as bad as I’ve seen it in a long while,” Miller said while running a hand through his slightly overgrown mohawk.

As the clouds cleared Thursday afternoon and the sun began to beat down, Miller and Smith navigated their pickup down a flooded Plum Grove Road and turned onto County Road 347 where they met José Armando Duarte.

Duarte had been stranded on the county road just a few miles from his home in Colony Ridge’s Santa Fe subdivision.

After several starts and stops, Miller and Smith towed Duarte in their flat-bottom Jon boat against the current, before being forced to let Duarte out and make his way back to the development on foot.

“Current’s just too strong for this boat,” Miller said with a sigh.

Further north up the road, Edwin Gámez shook his head in despair while recounting how he was forced to abandon his car and walk his three kids through waist-high water after a friend picked up the kids from school at Cleveland ISD.

Gámez has been living in Colony Ridge’s Camino Real subdivision since 2019, but said this week’s flooding has been ridiculous.

“We don’t take welfare, we pay our taxes, we pay for our homeowner’s association, but they don’t listen to us,” Gámez said in Spanish.

Storms to dwindle

The threat of further heavy rain in southeast Texas appeared to have dwindled by Friday afternoon, according to a forecast from the National Weather Service’s Houston/Galveston office.

“A lull in activity is expected overnight into Saturday with isolated showers/storms possible. At this point, any additional rainfall will only delay improvement in the current conditions,” the office said.

Montgomery County was hit hard. The San Jacinto River Authority temporarily increased the rate of water being released from the Lake Conroe dam Thursday to 71,835 cubic feet per second and warned that downstream flooding was “imminent.” 

Dam operators said lake levels were just above 205 feet. The top of the Lake Conroe dam is 212 feet, and the maximum designed water level is 207 feet. 

“Upwards of 10 inches have fallen north of Lake Conroe and over 15+ inches in Walker County having to make its way south through Lake Conroe,” Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough wrote on his public Facebook page. 

Rising floodwaters spark evacuation orders

Although the sun broke through Thursday afternoon and storms moved out of the area, Keough urged residents to remain vigilant. In a post Thursday evening, he said that the San Jacinto River had not yet crested and officials expected another 10 to 12 feet of water rise.

Officials urged residents living downstream to evacuate to one of numerous shelters.

In the eastern part of Montgomery County, residents can go to Calvary Baptist Church at 816 N. Blair Avenue in Cleveland. Residents in the southern part of the county can access the shelter in The Woodlands at Sts. Simon and Jude Catholic Parish at 26777 Glen Loch Drive. Residents in the western portion of the county can go to the Lone Star Community Center at 2500 Lone Star Parkway for shelter.

Harris County opened four shelters: the Greens International Church at 200 W Greens Road, Houston; the Phillipian’s New Faith Missionary Baptist Church at 7858 Angus St, Houston and the Leon Z Grayson Community Center at 13828 Corpus Christi Street, Houston and the Calvary Baptist Church at 816 N. Blair Avenue, Cleveland. The county closed the shelter at the Grayson Community Center Friday.

Liberty County Judge Jay Knight issued a voluntary evacuation order for all of the low-lying areas throughout the county including: New River Lake Estates, Old Snake River Lake Estates, Trinity River Lake Estates, Knight Forest, Horseshoe Lake Estates, Sam Houston Lake Estates, Cypress Lake Estates, Dayton Lake Estates and Six Lakes Estates, the Harrison Subdivision, Moss Bluff in Lake Granada and all areas along the East Fork of the San Jacinto River.

“Get ready because we haven’t seen water of this nature come through in quite some time,” he said.

The judge cautioned that Liberty County residents have not yet seen the worst of the flooding. 

The highest the Trinity River had previously crested was around 32 feet and 7 inches during Hurricane Harvey, and county officials expect the river to crest around 32 feet again this Saturday.

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