100 Year Rainfall hits Houston area

CBS/AP) HOUSTON - Historic rainfall levels that drenched the Houston area this week flooded dozens of homes and caused widespread street flooding, but the rain also is likely to result in the end of drought conditions in Southeast Texas, officials said Friday.

Officials estimated that fewer than 100 homes were flooded after Cypress Creek, located in the northwest part of the Houston area, rose above its banks after getting about 14 inches of rain over the past couple of days, said Francisco Sanchez, a spokesman for the Harris County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

County officials were still trying to reach flooded neighborhoods oan Friday to better assess the damage, but initial reports had homes affected anywhere from a few inches to a couple of feet of water, Sanchez said.

"Some areas along Cypress Creek got more rain in the last 24 hours than in Hurricane Ike (in 2008) or from major flooding in 1998," Sanchez said.

CBS Affiliate KHOU reports it will be mostly dry Saturday morning, but there is a 60-percent chance of rain beginning in the afternoon.

A flood warning is in effect until 8:50 a.m. Sunday for northwest Harris County and Montgomery County. A flood warning is in effect until 10 Sunday night for the Spring Creek area of Harris County.

In northwest Harris County, a good portion of the subdivision called the Enchanted Valley Estates was only accessible by boat. Homeowners could be seen using canoes, pontoon boats and even a jet ski to navigate around the area.

Firefighters rescued several families from the Norchester subdivision near Cypress Creek Friday when two to three feet of water seeped into their homes overnight.

Several people also had to be rescued early Friday morning after driving into high water.

Gary Whitaker Jr., who lives in one of the areas affected by Cypress Creek, said street flooding in his neighborhood had started to recede on Friday but a nearby subdivision still had streets that were impassable. Water from the creek was flowing "like a waterfall" across one street and into a golf course, he said.

"Quite a few people in our subdivision couldn't go to work today. They couldn't get out (due to flooded streets). It was pretty risky," he said.

Whitaker, 36, who lives in Cypress, an unincorporated area in northwest Harris County, said there were no reports of flooded homes in his neighborhood.

The American Red Cross in Houston sent out workers Friday to affected neighborhoods to assess the flooded homes, said spokesman Cameron Ballantyne. The agency had not opened any shelters.

In Montgomery County, located just north of Harris County, officials reported seven to eight flooded homes.

A shelter had been opened in Montgomery County at Living Stones Church in Magnolia, but church secretary Linda Arnold said no residents had used the facility.

Victor Murphy, a climate expert with the National Weather Service, said one rain gauge on the border of Harris and Waller counties recorded 10.3 inches of rain in a 10 hour period.

Murphy said that amount of precipitation within that short period of time suggests that area experienced a "100-year rainfall event," which caused Cypress Creek to overflow.

Other areas in Southeast Texas also got large amounts of rain, including just west of Bay City in Matagorda County, which received about 18 inches this past week.

"Rainfall in the entire (Southeast Texas) area this week was in the 8 to 10 inch category," he said. "The average weekly rainfall for this time of year is about 1 inch or so."

While the current U.S. Drought Monitor shows some parts of Southeast Texas as being abnormally dry, that does not include this week's rainfall totals.

"When the next U.S. Drought Monitor comes out Thursday, there will not be any drought in Southeast Texas," Murphy said. Most of the rest of the state was expected to remain in drought conditions.

Even if Southeast Texas only experiences average rainfall or dry weather the rest of the summer, drought conditions should be kept at bay until at least the fall, Murphy said.

Sanchez said officials were hopeful Cypress Creek, which was still rising Friday, would eventually recede if the area was not inundated with more rain. Water levels at two other nearby creeks which had also flowed out of their banks, had started to fall.

Rain was forecast for this weekend but the chances of showers were expected to be lower than earlier this week.

Bank robber sought in Cypress

The FBI is trying to identify the man who robbed the Wells Fargo Bank located at 25694 Northwest Freeway in Cypress, Texas, Monday. Bank surveillance video captured clear photographs of the man during the robbery.

At approximately 12:18 p.m., the man entered the bank and handed the teller a threatening note which demanded cash. The teller complied and gave the man some money. He carjacked two people while fleeing, said investigators. The vehicles were later recovered a short distance from the bank. No one was physically hurt during the robbery. 

The robber was described a black male, in his late twenties to early thirties, 5’5” – 6’ tall, 200 pounds with a dark complexion.

The FBI Bank Robbery Task Force has responded to 88 bank robberies in the Houston and Harris County area to date in 2012.

Crime Stoppers is offering up to $5,000.00 for information leading to the charging and arrest of this robber. If you have information about this case, please call the Crime Stoppers tip line at 713-222-TIPS (8477), or the Houston office of the FBI at 

'GI Joe Bandit' behind bars

KHOU: CYPRESS, Texas – A bank-robbery suspect dubbed the "GI Joe Bandit" was behind bars Wednesday in the Harris County Jail.

John Mathew Billings turned himself in to authorities on Friday.

He was wanted in connection with a robbery at the BBVA Compass Bank in Cypress on March 7, 2012.

In that incident, investigators said Billings walked in, pointed a pistol at the tellers and demanded cash.

He got away with an unspecified amount of money.

No one was injured.

Billings was being held on $30,000 bond

CYPRESS, Texas — Investigators say two students have been accused in a fake lunch money scam at a Houston-area school.

KPRC-TV ( http://bit.ly/IfMovd) reports the computer-printed $20 bills confiscated at Cypress Ranch High School have the same two serial numbers.

Officials say one boy was suspended and then arrested at home, while the other was arrested at school Wednesday.

Both teens have been charged in juvenile court with forgery. Names of the 16- and 15-year-old boys haven't been released.

Harris County constable's Lt. Donald Steward says lunch room workers reported some bills used to pay for lunches did not appear to be real.

Steward says at least $500 worth of fake bills were confiscated from the older suspect. The younger boy

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/04/26/3914128/2-boys-allegedly-passed-fake-cash.html#storylink=cpy

More charges filed against Cypress sex offender

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The Harris County Precinct Four Constable Office High Tech Crimes Unit announced four charges of possession of child pornography were filed against Gary Marcus Palmer, 35, from Cypress, Texas.

This is the second time investigators with Precinct Four and the Houston Metro Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force have reportedly dealt with Palmer. Earlier this year, Palmer was charged with indecency with a child after investigators with the High Tech Crimes unit were alerted to Palmer's alleged attempts at luring young boys with promises of alcohol, drugs and free cell phones.

Palmer, who officials say already a registered sex offender for crimes against children, has been in the Harris County Jail since late 2011 on a number of charges, including failure to register as a sex offender.

Precinct Four investigators were alerted two weeks ago by the Tomball Police Department about a computer in a pawn shop with child pornography images. Investigators were able to trace that the computer reportedly belonged to Gary Marcus Palmer. An exam of the hard drives revealed nearly 500 images of known child pornography.

Harris County Crimes Against Children prosecutors accepted four counts of possession of child pornography, adding to his current cases in the 178th District Court.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

Cypress students take a stand against bullying with music video

khou.com
Posted on April 2, 2012 at 6:31 PM
Updated Monday, Apr 2 at 6:40 PM

CYPRESS, Texas —Students at Cypress Ranch High School are taking a stand against bullying that coincides with the nationwide release of a documentary that focuses on the victims of the spiraling epidemic.

Hundreds of them recently took part in a lip-synch video promoting an anti-bullying message they hope will go viral on the Internet.
“We made this to see how many lives we could touch,” said Triple Oswald, the student body president who came up with the idea.

The video features a scene in which a girl is being bullied when another student decides to intervene. Then other students break out in song and dance.
The song features music and lyrics written by Kaitlyn Knippers, a student who was once bullied herself.

“I feel like this, for me, was such a great personal achievement because now I feel like I can stand up for myself,” said Knippers.

On Friday, the film “Bully” was released nationwide in limited distribution. The film is unrated and set for wide distribution on April 13.

Tornadoes ravage Arlington/Dallas Ft Worth

Tornado-wrecked Dallas begins assessing damage
By PAUL J. WEBER, Associated Press –


ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The tornado hurtled toward the nursing home. Physical therapist Patti Gilroy said she saw the swirling mass barreling down through the back door, after she herded patients into the hallway in the order trained: walkers, wheelchairs, then beds.
"It wasn't like a freight train like everybody says it is," said Gilroy, who rounded up dozens to safety at Green Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. "It sounded like a bomb hit. And we hit the floor, and everybody was praying. It was shocking."

The National Weather Service said as many as a dozen twisters touched down in a wrecking-ball swath of violent weather that stretched across Dallas and Fort Worth. The destructive reminder of a young tornado season Tuesday left thousands without power and hundreds of homes pummeled or worse.

As the sun rose Wednesday over the southern Dallas suburb of Lancaster, one of the hardest hit areas, it was clear that twisters had bounced in and out of neighborhoods, destroying homes at random. Vehicles were tossed like toys, coming to rest in living rooms and bedrooms.

At one house, a tornado had seemingly dipped into the building like an immersion blender, spinning directly down through an upstairs bedroom and wreaking havoc in the family room below before lifting straight back up and away. A grandfather clock leaned slightly but otherwise stood pristine against a wall at the back of the downstairs room that was filled with smashed furniture and fallen support beams.

Despite the intensity of the slow-moving storms, only a handful of people were hurt, a couple of them seriously, and no fatalities were reported as of late Tuesday.
The Red Cross estimated that 650 homes were damaged. Around 150 Lancaster residents stayed in a shelter Tuesday night.

"I guess 'shock' is probably a good word," Lancaster Mayor Marcus Knight said.
The exact number of tornadoes won't be known until surveyors have fanned across North Texas, looking for clues among the debris that blanketed yards and rooftops peeled off slats.
April is typically the worst month in a tornado season that stretches from March to June, but Tuesday's outburst suggests that "we're on pace to be above normal," said National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Bishop.

An entire wing at the Green Oaks nursing home in Arlington crumbled. Stunning video from Dallas showed big-rig trailers tossed into the air and spiraling like footballs. At the Cedar Valley Christian Center church in Lancaster, Pastor Glenn Young said he cowered in a windowless room with 30 children from a daycare program, some of them newborns.

Ten people in Lancaster were injured, two of them severely, said Lancaster police officer Paul Beck. Three people were injured in Arlington, including two Green Oaks residents taken to a hospital with minor injuries, Arlington Assistant Fire Chief Jim Self said.

Gilroy said the blast of wind through Green Oaks lasted about 10 seconds. She described one of her co-workers being nearly "sucked out" while trying to get a patient out of the room at the moment the facility was hit.

Joy Johnston was also there, visiting her 79-year-old sister.
"Of course the windows were flying out, and my sister is paralyzed, so I had to get someone to help me get her in a wheelchair to get her out of the room," she said.
In one industrial section of Dallas, rows of empty tractor-trailers crumpled like soda cans littered a parking lot.

"The officers were watching the tornadoes form and drop," Kennedale police Chief Tommy Williams said. "It was pretty active for a while."

Most of Dallas was spared the full wrath of the storm. Yet in Lancaster, television helicopters panned over exposed homes without roofs and flattened buildings. Residents could be seen walking down the street with firefighters and peering into homes, looking at the damage after the storm passed.

Hundreds of flights into and out of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field were canceled or diverted elsewhere Tuesday. About 500 flights remained grounded Wednesday, airport officials said.

The storms knocked out power for thousands. Utility Oncor said nearly 14,000 homes and businesses, mainly in the Arlington area, still had no electricity early Wednesday.
Meteorologists said the storms were the result of a slow-moving storm system centered over northern New Mexico.

Dixon reported from Lancaster. Associated Press writers Nomaan Merchant, Terry Wallace and David Koenig in Dallas, Betsy Blaney in Lubbock, Angela K. Brown in Fort Worth and Robert Ray in Lancaster contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.