One week after Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas coast, some families now face the prospect of having to bury their loved-ones.
At least 42 people are believed to have died in the devastating storm, which left more than 185,000 homes damaged and 9,000 destroyed.
In Houston, family and friends of Benito Juarez Cavazos, one of the victims of the storm, held a memorial for the 42-year-old man.
He came to Texas illegally from Mexico 28 years ago and was in the process of getting his green card.
His cousin, Maria Cavazos, said. ‘It’s very unfortunate that right when he finally had hopes of being able to maybe go to Mexico soon to go see his family it all went downhill.
‘Sadly, he’s going back to Mexico, but in an unfortunate way.’
The funeral of 82-year-old Ola Mae Winfrey-Crooks is due to take place later today.
She drowned when her car was swept off a farm-to-market road at the San Jacinto River near her home north of
A memorial is also due to be held later today for 58-year-old Ruben Jordan who disappeared while driving during the storm.
Two rescue volunteers were confirmed dead on Monday after the boat they were in crashed into live power lines.
Yahir Vizueth, 25, and Jorge Perez, 31, were part of a group in Houston, including three brothers, that had been rescuing families stuck in rising floodwaters on Monday.
On their third rescue effort, their boat ended up drifting into live power lines, killing two and sending five others vanishing downstream.
It is not yet clear when their funerals will take place.
As of yesterday, two men, Yahir’s brother Benjamin Vizueth and family friend Gustavo Rodriguez-Hernandez, 40, were still missing.
On Friday, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced that ongoing releases of water from two reservoirs could keep thousands of homes flooded for up to 15 days.
He told residents that if they stayed and later needed help, first responders’ resources could be further strained.
Residents of the still-flooded western part of Houston were asked to evacuate due to the releases from two reservoirs protecting downtown.
The ongoing releases were expected to keep some homes flooded that had been filled with water earlier in the week.
Homes that are not currently flooded probably will not be affected, officials said.
District meteorologist Jeff Lindner said some of the affected houses had several feet of water in them with the water reaching to the rooftops of others.
Turner pleaded for more high-water vehicles and more search-and-rescue equipment as the nation’s fourth-largest city continued looking for any survivors or corpses that might have somehow escaped notice in flood-ravaged neighborhoods.
By yesterday evening, the storm had dumped more than 9 inches of rain in parts of Arkansas and Tennessee and more than 8 inches in spots in Alabama and Kentucky.
An estimated 156,000 houses were damaged by flooding in Harris County, according to the flood control district for the county, which includes Houston.
While nearly 87,000 homes had major or minor damage and at least 6,800 were destroyed
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