exTRA by the Trinity River Authority of Texas

For days, Houston-area residents living in the San Jacinto River watershed had watched their cars fill with muck and home windows give way to brown floodwaters, even after the skies brightened. While many fled before the floods came through, local authorities rescued over 230 people and 180 pets by the time the local emergency subsided Monday.

Sunny skies and 10-foot floods: Why did Houston neighborhoods keep flooding when the rain stopped? (msn.com)

The Navasota River watershed has received anywhere from 3 to 15 inches of rain in the last 7 days, which has caused flooding from the Navasota River into Brazos and Grimes counties. The flooding was also caused by water released by lake limestone. The water supply reservoir has released 78 billion gallons of water in the last 7 days.

Some big changes could be coming to how you water your lawn. With San Antonio Water System looking for ways to make sure customers conserve more water, the SAWS Board will vote on new conservation rules Tuesday morning.

Texas and the federal government will begin assessing the damage caused by a series of storms that battered rural East Texas and the Houston area with rain last week. Gov. Greg Abbott and the state’s emergency director Nim Kidd, at a news conference Monday in Conroe, urged residents to report damaged property to their insurance companies and the state.

The Trinity River Authority is monitoring discharges from Lake Livingston Dam following torrential rains in the past week. As of 5 p.m. Saturday, the discharge was 118,763 cubic feet per second. The TRA says the dam can handle more than 300,000 cfs.

Floodwaters in Trinity County have left residents faced with massive amounts of damage. Trinity County Sheriff Woody Wallace said he and the game wardens were trolling around in a boat on Sunday, checking on damage and searching for anyone who might need help. Even houses with six-foot stilts that usually escape flood damage were underwater this time, Wallace said.

The Trinity River Authority (TRA) holds a crucial responsibility in safeguarding water resources that are vital for the sustenance of communities. At the heart of this endeavor lies the Lake Livingston Dam, a key component in the management of water resources. 

Huntsville Mayor Russell Humphrey has issued a Declaration of Disaster due to the severe weather the city has experienced over the past five days. The declaration was issued Thursday, May 2, and will continue for the next seven days unless continued or renewed by the city council. Russell cites severe weather, damaging winds, tornadic activity, downed trees and multiple days of power outages for the reasons to issue the disaster declaration.

The City of Waco says heavy rain has caused rainwater and wastewater to overflow multiple manholes across the city. A power outage caused an overflow and partially treated wastewater to be released from the outfall at the Waco Metropolitan Area Regional Sewer System Central Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Rhome doesn’t have a grocery store or many restaurants, but those businesses are clamoring to come to the city which is poised for the inevitable growth as it sits at the confluence of two major highways in southern Wise County. But Rhome has serious issues with its outdated west wastewater treatment plant that often overflows (especially when it rains) and is closely monitored by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality because it isn’t in compliance. Rhome also needs to replace deteriorated sewer lines and drill more water wells to keep pace with the demand.

Harris County leaders are calling on officials from surrounding counties to do more to combat future flooding. This comes in the wake of flood waters from Montgomery County inundating much of northern Harris County. Judge Lina Hidalgo thanked Harris County's first responders for ensuring the county made it through the flooding of the past several days without a single fatality, conducting more than 200 rescues. 

A viral video captured the moment a Texas fisherman reeled in a big catch, a bull shark, in the Guadalupe River.

The torrential rains have moved out but a mandatory evacuation remains for families in the low-lying unincorporated areas along the Trinity River and below Lake Livingston Dam. Emergency managers and first responders continue to monitor the situation, and local and state resources remain staged in the county should they be needed.

Floodwaters closed some Texas schools on Monday after days of heavy rains pummeled the Houston area and led to hundreds of rescues including people who were stranded on rooftops. Although forecasters expected storms to begin tapering off in southeastern Texas, high waters continued to close some roads and left residents facing lengthy cleanups in neighborhoods where rising river levels led to weekend evacuation orders.

Southeast Texas is used to heavy spring rains — but the widespread flooding that the region faced this week stands out because of just how much the rivers have risen. Back-to-back storms drenched the area that includes Polk, Montgomery, Liberty and Harris counties, causing flash-flooding from heavy rain. That rain also filled creeks, rivers and reservoirs, creating a compounding, dangerous problem of too much water with nowhere to go but back out of the riverbanks.

Mayor Anthony Turner provided the results of two rounds of testing on the water of Anthony Water Utility to prove to his residents that the water is safe to drink. Anthony, Texas was among a list of 49 Texas public water utility systems that do not meet the U.S. EPA standard for the amount of "forever chemicals" in drinking water.

The Texas Water Development Board is watching out for the possibility of more flooding, but there are some safeguards in place to minimize the threat. Heavy rains over the past few weeks put several East Texas areas on guard for possible flooding from the Sabine, and that’s what the TWDB works on.

Crews took to boats Thursday to rescue people trapped in their homes by floodwaters. The National Weather Service estimates that 4-9 inches of rain fell over areas north of Houston. Flood Warnings remain in place even though forecasters are calling for less than an inch of new rain over the next 24 hours. That is because runoff continues to collect in already swollen creeks and rivers.