Texas Flood Death Toll Hits 20

H O U S T O N, June 12 -- Dayon Kane spent the day spraying his home with disinfectant, pulling up soggy carpets, and carrying soaked clothes and furniture to the street curb.

A respite from the rain Monday gave Kane and thousands of otherresidents a chance to return to their homes, some of which werealmost completely submerged a day earlier.

"Mud is just everywhere," Kane said. "All of our furniture isin different rooms of the house. I don't know how to describe it.It's eerie."

Flooding caused by remnants of Tropical Storm Allison had forcedsome 20,000 Houston-area residents to flee as nearly 3 feet of rainswamped parts of the city in less than a week. The storm has beenblamed for at least 20 deaths in Texas and Louisiana.

"When you get 28 inches of rain like most areas of Houston gotand you live by one of the creeks or bayous you're, well, up acreek," said John Siggins, manager of Eagle Transmission inFriendswood, a repair shop that has taken in a number offlooded-out cars.

The bulk of the residential damage was on Houston's east sidewhere Greens Bayou and Halls Bayou had strayed far from their banksand swamped neighborhoods.

Power of Water

Kathy Vossler, a Houston attorney, found insulation from hersecond floor hanging down into the first. Her ceiling is now thefloor. Her refrigerator is on its side in the middle of the kitchenfloor.

"It's amazing what the power of water can do," Vossler saidMonday, holding back tears as she sat on the back of a pickuptruck, waiting for insurance adjusters to show up at her home notfar from Greens Bayou. "You walk in and the ceiling insulationhits you in the face and it smells like bad fish."

Most of the rest of the nation's fourth-largest city, however,appeared near normal on what Mayor Lee Brown declared a "day ofrecovery." Freeways were open. Water was back within the banks ofbayous.

The storm caused more than $1 billion in damage in Houston, saidHarris County Tax Assessor Paul Bettencourt.