Governor declares emergency for flooded Houston

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Saturday declared a state of emergency for the Houston area, drowning under torrential rains coming from a tropical storm stalled over the area.

The governor acted on an appeal from Houston Mayor Lee Brown, who had issued a local disaster proclamation.

Brown said he called the governor at 2:30 a.m. Saturday to express the urgency of the city's situation. As much as 28 inches of rain have fallen in some areas of Houston since Tuesday, when Tropical Storm Allison stalled above the city, said Meteorologist Brad Huffines.

Brown said one person has died as a result of the flooding. The victim was in a bank building downtown, he said.

IN-DEPTH Hurricanes: How they form and tips on preparing for them

"This incident is of such severity and such magnitude that an effective response is beyond the city of Houston's capacity to recover without supplementary state and federal assistance," Brown said. "This request is necessary in order to preserve and protect life and property."

Police were dispatching units via portable radio after water disrupted communications centers for the police, fire and public works departments.

President Bush declared 28 counties in southeast Texas a federal disaster area.

The flood has left about 10,000 families in need of temporary housing, and damaged an estimated 3,000 homes and businesses, Brown said. More than 200 residents have been evacuated to shelters.

Coast Guard units from Houston and Galveston were rescuing people from rooftops Saturday. Lt. Mara Booth-Miller said the Coast Guard was "getting dozens and dozens of calls" and that a woman in labor was among the first rescued.

"We do have some folks that are trapped in their attic," she said. "Some of them cannot get to the roof."

Artee Jones, a spokesman for Houston TranStar, a consortium of government agencies that provide transportation and emergency management for the region, said that flash flood warnings already in effect for the greater Houston region would likely be extended as the day went on.

"This is the worst storm we've seen in years, and it doesn't look like it's going to let up for a while," said Jones.

Motorists stranded, cars flooded

Flooded cars sat abandoned on roadways all around the city. Interstate 10, a major artery known as the Katy Freeway, appeared more like a river than a roadway.

Along one stretch of I-10, trailers of 18-wheelers floated, their cabs barely visible above the surface. CNN affiliate KHOU-TV reported cars were underneath some of the trucks.

"It's just a big mess out there," said Bob Slovak, of Bush Intercontinental Airport, where many of the airlifted residents were being taken before they could be transferred to shelters. "Not much you can do."

The Red Cross opened six shelters for motorists and the Austin National Guard was authorized to provide additional assistance.

Eight bayous were at or near cresting Saturday morning, Brown said. He encouraged residents to stay inside their homes unless they were in danger of being flooded.

"Right now there's a lull in the action, but this afternoon we could experience the same type of weather that we experienced last night -- and that was a lot of rain," Brown said in a morning news conference.

More rain in sight

The National Weather Service said 10 inches more rain was possible in some areas of east Texas later Saturday. The rain is expected to subside Sunday.

Power outages forced eight of Houston's 30 hospitals to shut, Brown said.

The slow-moving weather system, the remnants of Tropical Storm Allison, made landfall along the Gulf Coast on Tuesday, and Houston residents awoke Thursday to the flooding of hundreds of homes.

Harris County Emergency Management spokesman Rusty Cornelius said that so far there had been no reports of fatalities and no serious injuries.

Allison was the first of the Atlantic hurricane season's storms, forming in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico on a straight-line course for Houston.

Now reduced to a tropical depression, the storm began to drift on Saturday back toward the Gulf.