Saturday's storms left about 128,000 residents without power and more than 150 motorists needing rescues from the Houston Fire Department.
"People just drive off into it and they don't realize how deep it is and the car stalls," said HFD spokesman Jay Evans.
Evans said the department dispatched dump trucks to south Houston, where the storms were most severe, in case neighborhoods had to be evacuated, but that was not necessary. He said no fatalities were reported connected to the deluge.
CenterPoint Energy crews continued to work Sunday repairing downed lines and transformers, mostly in Bellaire and South Houston, said Penny Todd, a spokeswoman for the electricity service company.
The storm left 128,000 households without power at different times, she said. At its peak, about 35,000 people were without power and 11,000 were still affected at noon Sunday.
Pooling water shorted out transformers on the ground and high winds pulling down limbs severed power lines, Todd said.
Sugar Land authorities blamed the downpour for a collapsed roof at a convenience store Saturday. The owner of the gas station/food mart at Dulles and Lexington called police after hearing creaking overhead at 6:14 p.m.
After the owner went outside, the roof collapsed from the weight of the accumulated rain. Police and firefighters secured the area, said Doug Adolph, spokesman for the Sugar Land Police department. "There was pretty significant damage," Adolph said. He said there were no injuries.
The Harris County Flood Control District has had no reports of structural damage to homes or businesses, said Kimberlye Jackson, spokeswoman for the agency. She urged residents and business owners to visit www.readyharris.org to report damage to help improve area projects to reduce flooding risks.
Bands of rain began blowing across the area Saturday afternoon dropping as much as 8 inches of water around Missouri City, Stafford and Sugar Land, said National Weather Service staff meteorologist Patrick Blood.
"There was quite a disparity between the northern and the southern parts of the county," Blood said. "We had pretty good totals especially in the southern end."
He said pockets of Harris County saw 7 to 8 inches of rain, and many parts of town received 4 inches or more.
At George Bush Intercontinental Airport in northern Harris County, however, the rain total was only about a quarter of an inch.
Chronicle reporter Minh Dam contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHQuNsnKAZo2ikjjsF1zcuyR4_x8Q&url=http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Storms-briefly-leave-thousands-without-power-4470732.php?cmpid=houtexhcat
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