Body found inside car at flooded Galleria-area underpass in Houston

HOUSTON (KABC) -- A woman was found dead inside a car that rescuers had been working to recover from a flooded underpass in the Galleria-area.

Officials began pumping water out of the underpass off Westpark at Post Oak Monday. When they finally were able to reach the SUV, they found the victim in the third row.

The Harris County Toll Road Authority says the exit was blocked off to keep drivers from going into the underpass, but video showed the victim driving around a truck barricading the roadway and into the high water. A worker inside that truck followed the car and tried to save the driver, but after two attempts, he started to worry about his own safety and retreated. Officials believe the victim's car was submerged in at least 20 feet of water.

Earlier Tuesday, another woman was found dead in a completely submerged vehicle in the Briarcreek area. Family members identified the deceased as 42-year-old Teri Rodriguez. They say Rodriguez was driving home from her sister's house around 3 a.m. when she drove down a flooded roadway.

As the floodwater begins to recede, crews are on the lookout for drivers who may have been overwhelmed by the high water and drowned.

An hour later, authorities found her car submerged in 10 feet of water near FM1960, east of 45.

On Monday, six other potential flood-related deaths in the Houston area were reported. Four of those were in Harris County.

A man and woman were found inside two separate vehicles in the 3600 block of the West Loop South. One of those victims was identified as Sunita Singh. The driver of an 18-wheeler, 61-year-old Pedro Rascon Morales, was found inside a cab submerged under water in the 800 block of the North Sam Houston East Parkway, and there was another man -- 66-year-old German Antonio Franco -- who was found unresponsive in a flooded vehicle in the 17400 block of Imperial Valley Drive.

In Waller County, a Royal ISD teacher was found in a vehicle submerged under water, and in Austin County, a woman also reportedly drowned when she drove into high water.

Nearly a dozen Red Cross shelters have opened in the Houston area to help hundreds of flood evacuees after storms dumped more than a foot of rain.

A Red Cross statement Tuesday says 11 shelters have been assisting about 400 residents forced from their Houston-area homes due to the high water.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.