Frances Leaves A Soggy Coastline

Coastal communities crawled back to life Saturday as floodwaters from Tropical Storm Frances receded and the cleanup began.

From house to house in a neighborhood in northwest Houston, furniture, clothing and toys were stacked outside in a scene reminiscent of a weekend yard sale.

"It's not that bad, but it's bad enough," Steve Siarski said as he draped drenched T-shirts and sweaters over the back of his pickup truck. "I don't have any insurance -- they told me I didn't need it when I bought this house...They lied."

Siarski's home was one of at least 1,000 damaged in flooding caused by Frances, which belted the region with up to a foot of rain after making landfall early Friday.

The storm weakened to a tropical depression as it moved inland, although its remnants caused scattered thunderstorms Saturday in Texas and Louisiana. Three tornadoes also touched down in parts of Louisiana, although little damage and no injuries were reported.

On Thursday, one man died and six people were injured in a Louisiana tornado and five people suffered minor injuries in a Texas tornado. On Friday, a woman died in a car accident in heavy rain in the New Orleans area.

Houston officials estimated residential losses of up to $95 million in that city.

Just northeast of Galveston, several homes crumbled into the Gulf of Mexico. At least 10 businesses and 60 homes suffered major damage, said Tom Lavagnino, spokesman for the Texas Department of Emergency Management.

Farther south, the town of Sargent remained under up to 5 feet of water, and some areas were accessible only by boat, said sheriff's deputy Wayne Frieda.

Two Houston-area residents were rescued Saturday in the Gulf of Mexico after surviving 15-foot seas in their sailboat during the storm. The boat had been missing since Tuesday and apparently had become disabled, Coast Guard officials said.

The conditions of Carlos Tissenbaum, 61, and Faye Cady, 62, were not immediately available.

In Louisiana, the town of Jean Lafitte remained under a mandatory evacuation order, with water flooding most streets. In Harvey, prisoners and National Guard members stacked thousands of sandbags on top of a 50-foot stretch of a levee separating the Harvey Canal from a neighborhood.

The situation was better in New Orleans' historic French Quarter. Tourists who had been hiding in their hotel rooms came out in droves to shop, stroll and drink.

"The streets here yesterday were rivers," said Jennifer Spinney, a clerk at a souvenir shop. "Today they're bone dry."

Tim Schoch of Cincinnati was out walking in short pants for the first time since Thursday, when he arrived in New Orleans for a wedding. Before Saturday, the highlights of the trip had been a 100-yard wading walk from his hotel and getting stuck in a four-hour traffic jam on the way to the ceremony.

"Today it's just pleasant," Schoch said.

By PAULINE ARRILLAGA
©1998 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed