Thousands in Baytown, Texas, must be evacuated by dark (PHOTOS)

HOUSTON (AP) —Officials in Baytown, a refinery suburb east of Houston, are urging residents of two subdivisions along a rain-swollen bayou to put white towels or sheets on their windows to alert evacuation teams to rescue them.

Baytown spokeswoman Patti Jett says the 2,000 residents of Pinehurst and Whispering Pines subdivisions must be cleared out by nightfall, when non-life-threatening rescues will stop.

Jett says the sheets and towels in the windows will allow rescuers to better identify people they need to reach.

The neighborhoods border swift-flowing Cedar Bayou.




Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner says police have rescued 1,000 people in the last eight hours, bringing the total number of people rescued to 3,052 since Tropical Storm Harvey inundated many parts of Houston.

At a news conference Monday evening, Turner also said that at least 150 critical rescue requests were still pending.

The U.S. Coast Guard said that on Monday it had rescued more than 3,000 people by boat and air and that it is getting over 1,000 calls per hour.

Officials says that in Houston, more than 100,000 customers remain without power and that number remained steady on Monday as work crews have had difficulty getting into areas due to flooding.

Meanwhile, a Fort Bend County deputy and volunteers helped pull dozens of people trapped by flooding in their Sugar Land, Texas neighborhood to safety using a dump truck. People in the Village of Oak Lake subdivision trudged through knee-to-waist high water on West Airport Road to avoid being trapped.

Many of those rescued are now sheltering at Constellation Field, home to the unaffiliated minor baseball team the Sugar Land Skeeters. The team has welcomed people to stay inside until they can return to their homes.

The owners of baseball team, Marcie and Bob Zlotnik, say they offered to open up Constellation Field and Sugarland's mayor accepted. Bob Zlotnik says: "We're doing what we can to help people out."

He says they have about 200 people staying there now and can hold 500 people.