Harris County, Houston officials prepare for worst-case flooding scenario
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Harris County officials are just hours away from activating a Level 3 emergency plan ahead of severe rain expected this weekend from remnants of the strongest storm to hit the eastern Pacific coast.
"We all prepared for this hurricane," said Enrique Tron via FaceTime in Puerto Vallarta to ABC-13's Foti Kallergis. "We are lucky to be protected by the Sierra Madre (mountains) south of here."
Torn said Hurricane Patricia which packed winds of 200mph, missed the popular pacific Mexican tourist town. Torn shared video his friend just south of Puerto Vallarta captured of Patricia making landfall. High winds could be seen shredding parts of the town. A big rig also seen tipping over.
Houston is bracing for what could be torrential rain that may sling into the area late Saturday.
"We saw what happened on the Memorial Day floods," said Harris County Judge Ed Emmett. "We really don't want people out in that kind of weather at night when you can't see which streets are flooded."
At 2pm Saturday, Transtar will turn into a 24-hour emergency operations center for Harris County. Roads, major waterways and underpasses will be closely monitored as the rain begins to approach the area.
"We want to be sure that if we have an underpass that's likely to go underwater, that we get someone law enforcement out there in advanced of the public being able to drive into it," said Emmett.
Emmett said he's urging everyone in Harris County to run errands early on in the day and stay off the streets beginning Saturday evening.
