Floodwaters swamp Beaumont hotel

BEAUMONT, Texas -- Guests waded through ankle-deep floodwater inside a southeast Texas hotel as Imelda bore down on Wednesday evening.

Guadalupe Torres shot video of the rising water at the MCM Hotel Elegante in Beaumont, Texas. At one point in the video, Torres steps outside and shows a car submerged almost up to its roof in floodwater. Other drivers can be seen trying to maneuver their vehicles out of harm's way.

Torres, who was staying on the fifth floor, said hotel guests staying on lower floors were relocated to rooms higher in the building.

"I can't leave. None of us here at the hotel can leave," he explained. "We are stuck here."

Imelda's remnants unleashed torrential rain Thursday in parts of Texas and Louisiana, prompting hundreds of water rescues, a hospital evacuation and road closures as the powerful storm system drew comparisons to Hurricane Harvey two years ago.

Although the amount of predicted rainfall is massive - forecasters say some places could see 40 inches or more this week - Imelda's deluge is largely targeting areas east of Houston, including the small town of Winnie and Beaumont.

Imelda is the first named storm to impact the Houston area since Harvey hovered for days in August 2017 and inundated the flood-prone Gulf Coast. The storm dumped more than 5 feet of water on the town of Nederland, Texas, near the Louisiana border.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.