At least 9 killed in Houston floods, 1,150 homes damaged

Houston: At least nine people have been killed and some 1,150 residences damaged by floods in Houston this week that caused high water to spill on to roads and into scores of neighborhoods in the fourth most populous US city, officials said on Wednesday.
Eight of those killed were found in vehicles that had been in flooded areas, the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences and a local sheriff said, adding that medical examiners were working to confirm the causes of death.
The National Weather Service said more rain is on tap for the city after a record-setting drenching that dumped as much as 18 inches (45 cm) of rain on some parts of the Houston area on Monday.
The weather service has issued a flood watch from central Texas, through Houston and into large parts of Louisiana.
There have been more than 1,200 water rescues in the floods as emergency crews on boats have shuttled people from homes in areas hit by high water to dry ground and ferried motorists to safety after their cars were caught in rushing waters.
The Houston Independent School District, the United States' seventh largest, said it would reopen after the flooding caused hundreds of schools to close earlier this week.
Heavy storms that park atop the city in low winds can overwhelm Houston's system of drainage channels that move water back to the Gulf via the Houston Ship Channel, particularly if the ground is already saturated.
The city faced similar widespread flooding during a Memorial Day storm last year and Tropical Storm Allison's torrent in 2001.