The woman’s body was revealed as floodwaters receded, washed up against the green metal fence surrounding her apartment complex.
Neighbors knew who she was: Kiesha Williams, a nurse and single mother of two whom they had watched drown as they frantically called 911.
So far, Hurricane Harvey has claimed 31 lives in the Houston area, and more statewide as the storm spread to suburbs, then east to Beaumont and Port Arthur. But the death toll is expected to rise this week as flooding subsides and people return home and search for the missing, making grim discoveries as people did in neighboring Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. Houston officials plan to start the house-to-house search Thursday in areas where floodwaters rose 3 feet or more.
That includes Woodforest Chase apartment complex in the eastern neighborhood of Northshore.
The boxy tan stucco complex faces Greens Bayou, an unruly, brush-choked river that overflowed during the worst of the storm last weekend, sweeping families from their homes. Farther north, the same bayou swept away a van containing a family of six. The vehicle was retrieved Wednesday.
At Woodforest Chase, those who could fled to the complex’s rooftops. From there, they shouted for help and watched helplessly in horror as neighbors drowned. Another resident at Woodforest Chase who also had taken refuge on a roof, Roshanda Harris, said she saw five bodies float away, including those of three children.
