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Do they think there'll be more deaths? Could be people trapped in houses, and then longer term, possible water based illnesses?
NurseHolliday-
Probably. Although most deaths tends to be from people trying to cross deep water without being aware of currents/obstacles. They encourage people to stay put and await rescue for that precise reason.
The other main causes of death tend to be the seriously ill who cannot make it to hospital.
FWIW - I spent most of the 1990s working for a news/information broadcast organisation in Houston. I covered essentially every single tropical storm in that decade often pulling 12-14 hour shifts listening to police and emergency scanners to glean information for broadcast.
I have seen and heard some shit.
Aroogah
Not really. There are two challenges, the volume of water and the geography.
It's going to be 50-60 inches of rain in a week. That's 5 feet of water falling from the sky in a week. (1524mm for those of you of a metric persuasion)
The city is not that high above sea level, it's a coastal plain, and gravity can't exert enough force on the water to get it to move back to the sea fast enough. Also, the news chat about the "river" in Houston is jokes. There are Bayous, but no rivers. A Bayou, using the wikipedia definition, "is a body of water typically found in a flat, low-lying area, and can be either an extremely slow-moving stream or river (often with a poorly defined shoreline)." This not what you think of as a river by any stretch of the imagination.
Speaking to friends in Galveston, they have been ok because it's an island and drainage is pretty good. Water will stand for a while but drain relatively quickly because the distance to the ocean is so short.
My ancestors left Galveston for Houston in 1900 due to this hurricane which killed between 6,000-12,000 people.
For perspective there have been 9 deaths reported so far for Harvey in a metropolitan area with 6 million people. The 1900 Galveston Hurricane killed an estimated 20% of the city's population.