Rain in Gulf Coast Raises Fears of Flooding

Heavy rainfall raised fears of flooding in the U.S. Gulf Coast region on Saturday, a day after Houston schools were closed due to the downpours and thousands of people were left without power.

The rainfall could cause flash flooding from Texas to the mid-Atlantic states of Virginia and North Carolina, with parts of southern Louisiana facing some of the most extreme risk, according to the National Weather Service.

Rainfall began in the region on Tuesday, flooding highways and downing power lines.

"It looks like today will be the end of the really heavy stuff," said Bob Oravec, a meteorologist at the federal Weather Prediction Center.

Streets were flooded in several parts of the Houston area on Friday and authorities had to rescue dozens of stranded motorists, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The rainfall struck many areas that were evacuated in 2017 due to Hurricane Harvey, the newspaper reported. The hurricane killed 68 people across the U.S. Gulf Coast and caused an estimated $125 billion in property damage.

On Friday, Houston's 209,000 public school students got the day off as the city's Independent School District, the state's largest school system, shut down its 280 campuses.

Power outages persisted in parts of the Gulf Coast on Saturday. About 19,000 customers of Entergy Texas were still without electricity in the southeast part of the state, after the company restored service for thousands of others overnight, Entergy said in a statement.

More than 10 inches (25 cm) of rain fell in parts of southeast Texas this week, including Richmond which received about 14 inches (35 cm), Oravec said.

The heavy rainfall followed flooding that occurred earlier this month along parts of the Mississippi River, including Davenport, Iowa, where the downtown was submerged.