South Texas Floods Kill 6, Force Thousands to Flee : Disaster: Storm system dumps up to 20 inches of rain in Houston area. Others are missing after being swept away in floodwaters.

Rivers and creeks raged with floodwater Monday in southeastern Texas, killing at least six people and chasing thousands from their homes.

The torrential storms began Sunday, pounding some areas with up to 20 inches of rain by Monday evening.

About 3,000 residents downstream from a dam 60 miles northeast of Houston were told to evacuate because of the rising Trinity River, and 5,000 residents to the south fled their low-lying homes.

“It’s bad, and it looks like we’re not going to get any better,” Polk County Sheriff Billy Nelson said. “We have had lots of rescues. We’ve got people hanging onto tree limbs and stuff. It’s pitiful.”

Nelson said the waters in some areas had reached rooftops.

Some of the worst flooding was in Montgomery County, about 40 miles north of Houston. Water from a flooded creek swept a car carrying two men off a road Sunday. One body was found; the other remained missing.

A man trying to drive through high water in Grimes County drowned when his pickup was swept into a swollen creek and overturned. A car carrying a woman and four children was carried away by a flash flood in the same county. The woman and two children survived, a third child was drowned and a fourth was missing.

Searchers were using horses and planes to look for the missing child.

“The current is so strong right now that boats are just out of the question,” Sheriff’s Deputy Jackie Siracusa said.

Other fatalities included an elderly man found dead in his truck near a highway in Polk County after he tried to drive through high water, Nelson said. A man died of a heart attack when his van got stuck as he tried to cross a flooded highway in Conroe, police Lt. Russell Reynolds said.

And a man’s body was found floating in a rain-swollen ditch just east of Houston. Details were not released, but authorities attributed the death to flooding.

A subdivision near Conroe, 25 miles north of Houston, was swamped in waist-high water. Authorities were evacuating hundreds of homes in the upscale neighborhood.

Shelters were set up at a Lutheran church in Conroe and two schools in Polk County. Some people hunkered down in their homes to wait out the storms.

“I figure we can stay as long as the water is only knee-deep or so,” said Jerry Dixon, who lives near Conroe.

Conroe resident Duane Mayeux said he used his truck and a winch to rescue a man in a camping trailer who woke to find himself trapped by rising water.

“He was frantic. He had water up to the door of his trailer,” Mayeux said. “If he hadn’t woke up, he would have floated away.”

There were no damage estimates, but state officials said up to five bridges were reported to have washed away near College Station, where up to 14 inches of rain has fallen since Sunday. College Station is about 90 miles northwest of Houston.

In the 24 hours ending at midday Monday, nearly 18 inches of rain fell in Montgomery County. Other rainfall amounts in that period range from 10 inches to nearly 16.

“We are dealing with a massive amount of water in a confined area over a considerable period of time,” Gov. Ann Richards said as she designated 16 counties disaster areas, clearing the way for her to request federal assistance. “We’ve got every agency in that area plugged in and ready to assist in any way they can.”

Emergency officials said heavy rains were expected to last through Monday night as a rain system from the Gulf of Mexico stalled over the area.

The storm system also drenched parts of Louisiana. From Saturday night to Monday morning, 11 inches fell in Chatham, La., and 10 inches fell at Negreet and Vixen.