Allison, which pounded the area with heavy rains Tuesday and early Thursday, returned to the Houston area Friday with more rounds of flooding. Throughout the rush hour, several cars were trapped in flooded streets and freeways in Houston. The company operates power-receiving stations, or vaults, in the basements of most buildings and sends the electricity from the vaults into the buildings. Normally, water drains through storm sewers, but too much water was rushing through the area and overflowed into the basements, Painter said. The company planned to cut power before the water rose too deep in the power rooms, he added.
Vaults have floor drains but the water is coming in too fast.
During prime time Friday and through early today, the three major networks covered the storm continuously, with the exception of KPRC-Channel 2 breaking away to cover Game 2 of the NBA finals. KHOU-Channel 11 went off the air temporarily early today after water entered the station at 1945 Allen Parkway. The station showed live footage of employees trying to push water out of the building. In Montgomery County, which was largely spared from the storm's first assault earlier this week, some areas were swamped Friday with as much as 8 inches of rain within a few hours. Her condition and other details were unavailable.