He asked residents of his city to stay home and off the roads.
“Stay at home. Don’t travel on the roads. It’s dark; there are trees on the roads. … So be very patient, cautious, look out for each other, stay home tonight, don’t go to work tomorrow unless you are an essential worker,” he said.
Houston Independent School District schools will be closed Friday, Whitmire said.
Whitmire said downtown Houston is a “mess,” that firefighters were removing live wires from Route 290 and that most of the city’s traffic lights are out.
He said city agencies will work around the clock and overnight to clear the debris and make conditions safer.
In an earlier statement, Whitmire said “many roads are impassable due to downed power lines, debris and downed trees.” He also addressed the “significant” power outages and reports of damage in the area.
The National Weather Service expected 3 to 6 inches of rain to fall, with higher totals possible in some areas. A flood warning was in effect until Friday morning.
The National Weather Service office in Houston warned that tornadoes were possible as “severe thunderstorms continue to occur in our coastal counties.”
Flood warnings for parts of South Texas are in effect through Friday morning, according to the National Weather Service, covering parts of Harris County as well as cities including Austin, Brazos, Burleson, Grimes, Houston, Madison, Montgomery, North Liberty, Polk, San Jacinto, Southern Liberty, Trinity, Walker, Waller and Washington.
Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia on social media asked their teams “remain in place” as “many members are down, making the roads unsafe.” He added that his crews were on standby to begin removing the debris “as soon as the winds die down.”
Photos and videos on social media show intense flooding and downed trees in Houston, as well as downed electrical towers and power lines.
In a video posted on Facebookrain leaks into Minute Maid Park, where the Houston Astros play. Another video shows hordes of baseball fans leaving the stadium in bad weather.
Winds in the area were so strong that they seemed to rip panels off the roof of a Hyatt Regency Hotel in Houston, another video posted on social media show.
And the windows of a building in Houston’s Wells Fargo Plaza appear to have been destroyed in a post on X.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
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