Storm leaves city drained By RACHEL GRAVES Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle

As much of the water from Tropical Storm Allison drained away Sunday, it left in its place a city in chaos -- coated in debris, dotted with bodies and cluttered with upended cars strewn at haphazard angles.

As of Sunday night, 17 people had died in the storm and others were missing.

Many residents who fled their homes earlier in the weekend saw them again for the first time Sunday. They returned to a thick coating of mud and a powerful stench. Attempts to stack couches, televisions and beds out of harm's way were for naught in some neighborhoods, where the water line was 4 feet high.

Mayor Lee Brown called for a "day of recovery" today, urging public and private employers to give their workers the day off to clean up from the storm. A 30 percent chance of more showers is forecast for today.

Six days into the storm, getting around Houston remained a nightmare of flooded streets. Even where the water had receded, some roads were too damaged to navigate. One stretch of westbound Interstate 10 between Washington and the West Loop peeled "like an orange," said Eliza Paul, an engineer with the Texas Department of Transportation. She said workers were trying to repair the damaged asphalt by this morning.

Electricity had been restored to all but 3,500 homes Sunday evening, and only a few people reported problems with their natural gas. About 20,000 people remained without phone service because one of Southwestern Bell's facilities was underwater.

The American Red Cross estimated as many as 19,000 homes in the Houston area were flooded, and Brown put damage estimates -- including commercial buildings and downtown theaters -- at $1 billion.

The nightmare took a more tragic form for Jesse Jones. He stood along White Oak Bayou on Sunday morning watching police drag the bodies of two friends from the debris.

Jones and others were streaked with mud from trudging through the muck looking for Jeffery Green, 39, and Freda Michelle Willis, 35. They called police after finding one of the bodies. Jones came to the bayou because survivors who had been stranded with the two told them the victims had last been seen there, clinging to a sign along Interstate 45 north of downtown.

On Houston's east side, people waded through waist-high water and clamored for boat rides to get back to their homes. Rescue crews continued to help people out of flooded houses and apartment buildings even as the water level dropped.

People clustered on high ground, surveying their neighborhoods and wondering how to begin cleaning up their houses and paying for the damage. They shared stories of how they escaped the rising water and helped their families and neighbors to safety.

Victor Genera and his neighbors in the Lakewood neighborhood on Houston's east side spent early Saturday morning sitting on top of their cars in the pouring rain, hoping to be rescued.

"We kept waiting for the boats to come, and nobody came," Genera said.

At daybreak, they tied an extension cord around two trees as a safeguard against the current on their road-turned-river and started carrying families to safety on an inflatable mattress.

Nearby, Andre Bailey and Derrick Peel stared in disbelief at 3-week-old furniture, now destroyed. Lakewood residents said no one in the area has flood insurance because no one could recall it ever flooding before.

About 100 Hunterwood residents gathered at the edge of flooding from Greens Bayou, arguing with Houston police who were not letting them back to their homes. Believing that they would be able to return, residents had left their children behind and taken boats to dry land to get food for their families.

"We're worried about our kids," said Kaye Woods, whose three children, mother and sister remained on the other side of the floodwater.

Ron Gates was at work when the flooding in Hunterwood started and he was frustrated at being separated from his family.

"I've been trying to get home since Friday," he said, adding that his three daughters and wife were still in their flooded home. "None of them know how to swim."

The U.S. Coast Guard rescued 194 people during the weekend, many from flooded homes near Greens Bayou. By Sunday evening, guardsmen had turned their attention to environmental cleanup.

In Wood Shadows in east Harris County, residents bailed out their homes with buckets, as if they were leaky boats. Piles of soggy carpets and soaked mattresses gave the neighborhood the look of a giant junkyard.

Downtown and in the Texas Medical Center area, officials were working feverishly to pump water from buildings before electricity could be restored. Sixteen blocks worth of underground parking garages were "filled to the brim," said Jordy Tollett, the mayor's chief of staff.

The Wortham Theater, Jones Hall and the Alley Theater were all damaged and without power, and Tollett said he did not know when they would reopen. At Jones Hall, the Houston Symphony's home, offices were submerged and all their papers destroyed.

Emergency shelters set up by the American Red Cross housed more than 9,000 people Saturday night. About 7,500 people were expected in the shelters Sunday night as people began returning to their homes.

Among the abandoned cars littering Houston were some being used for rescue. At least four city Public Works vehicles were left to high water, and a firetruck lay on its side in an east Houston ditch Sunday.

Gov. Rick Perry toured the Houston area by helicopter Sunday and said he saw hopeful signs of recovery, including the receding floodwaters.

Perhaps the best sign came from the National Weather Service, which forecast partly cloudy skies and no return of Allison.

Chronicle reporters Edward Hegstrom, Matt Schwartz, Audrey Warren and Jo Ann Zuņiga contributed to this story.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/topstory/937327

-- Rich Marsh (marshr@airmail.net), June 11, 2001