5 killed in Houston's flooding as cleanup continues in affected area

Houston authorities confirmed later Tuesday that the fierce storms in the fourth largest U.S. city of Houston overnight have killed five people and at least two others remained missing.

Houston Mayor Annise Parker said that the floodwater also caused significant damage to an estimated 4,000 residential homes in the Houston area, according to local TV ABC13 reports.

"The parts that were affected by the weather in Houston were very severely hit. We've had 10 days, two weeks, of steady rain. The grounds were completely saturated and there's really been no place for the water to go," Parker said.

The freeways and nearly all local streets are to be cleared of abandoned cars, Parker said, adding there have been more than 2,500 cars left stranded on highways and roadways.

Meanwhile, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who arrived in Houston earlier Tuesday, toured the hardest hit parts of the city from a helicopter. He said after the inspection that this time's flooding damage here is similar to that in the city in 2001 when tropical storm Allison happened.

"This and Tropical Storm Allison are the worst two flooding situations that I've seen," Abbott said. "Part of the effective response in this flood was because of lessons learned in the aftermath of Allison."

At Parker's request, Abbott also added Harris County, where Houston is located, to a growing list of 46 counties of the Lone Star state under disaster declarations, and this opened the door for homeowners and businesses affected by the storms to get compensation, and allowed local governments to be reimbursed for their response and recovery efforts.

In 2001, tropical storm Allison hit Houston, causing 22 deaths and 5 billion U.S. dollars in damage.

Apart from Houston, the two cities in the central region of the state, San Marcos and Winberley, have also been battered by the severe storm since the weekend.

Currently, the statewide storms have claimed at least 12 lives, including five in Houston, and a total of 32 people, including two in Houston, are still missing.

In the neighboring state of Oklahoma, storms and tornadoes also killed at least four people and injured many others.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday ordered federal aid to supplement Oklahoma and local recovery efforts in areas affected by the severe storms and tornadoes that occurred on May 5-10, this year. Endi