MAY 29, 2015
DALLAS, TEXAS (AP)
Authorities said Friday they reclaimed four more bodies from
Texas waters, adding to the growing death toll inflicted by record-setting
storms that continue to submerge highways and flood homes.
At least 28 people have been killed nationwide in the
storms, 24 in Texas. At least 11 are missing in Texas.
More than 7 inches fell overnight from a line of
thunderstorms that stalled over Dallas, which is in its wettest month ever
recorded at 16.07 inches. The National Weather Service reports rainfall records
have been crushed across the Lone Star state - from Corpus Christi along the
Gulf of Mexico to Gainesville near the Oklahoma border. Even Amarillo in the
dusty Texas Panhandle is in its second wettest month on record, said
Meteorologist Dennis Cain from Fort Worth.
The downpour has ina state that until recently was suffering
a severe drought. Swelled rivers and lakes may not recede to normal levels
until July.
"In a lot of places we've exceeded the wettest year
ever," Cain said. "You're talking maybe a 150 or 200 year event. It
is quite astounding."
The greater Dallas area was one of the hardest hit on
Friday. Firefighters in the suburb of Mesquite recovered the body of a man who
drowned in his truck after it was swept into a culvert. Houston-area
authorities found the bodies of two men who had been reported missing.
The body of 87-year-old Jack Alter, who was swept away when
a boat attempting to rescue him from a bayou overturned, was found in the
Houston Ship Channel. The search for a missing 51-year-old man was called off
Friday after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found a body on a southeast
Texas beach that matched his description. The unidentified man and two others,
who later escaped, had been fishing in the Brazos River Thursday when they were
caught in the currents.
First responders said the body of an unidentified person was
pulled near the banks of the Blanco River late Thursday.
A storm system last weekend that prompted the initial
flooding also killed 14 people in the northern Mexico when a twister hit the
border town of Ciudad Acuna.
The rain also seeped into homes Friday and stranded hundreds
of drivers, many of whom lingered along highways that were nearly gridlocked
from the high water and abandoned vehicles.
Fire rescue crews responded to hundreds of calls that
included trapped vehicles and accidents, authorities said.
Exacerbating the problem for first-responders are people who
have been going around barricades to take pictures of the floodwaters, said
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. He said those people are endangering
themselves and stretching thin the first responders' resources.
"Floodwaters are never safe to play around, take a
picture around, walk around," Jenkins said. "We don't need any more
loss of life."
The Colorado River in Wharton and the Brazos and San Jacinto
rivers near Houston were the main focus of concern as floodwaters moved from
North and Central Texas downstream toward the Gulf of Mexico. The mayor of
Wharton, a city about 60 miles southwest of Houston, ordered the evacuation of
homes along the Colorado River, which is expected to crest in the area at just
over 43 feet on Saturday morning.
Floodwater was already creeping into neighborhoods in the
suburban Houston city of Kingwood near the swollen San Jacinto River, where
residents were keeping a close eye on water levels.
"Everybody's worried about it," James Simms said
from his second-story balcony, looking down at a flood that had reached his
garage. "Those people who are going to leave are already gone. There's
others like us who are going to wait until it's mandatory."
Teams continued to search through debris piles along rivers.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, the Blanco River tore through Wimberley, a small
tourist town between San Antonio and Austin. County authorities on Friday
identified the body of a 6-year-old boy who was killed when waters overflowed
his family's cabin.
First responders with Texas A&M's Texas Task Force One
from dawn until dusk combed a 25 mile area along the river since Sunday. Will
Welch, communications manager for the Texas A&M Engineering Extension
Service, said responders have been using search dogs to comb through tightly
compacted debris piles constructed of Cypress trees, cars and bits of homes.
"Seeing a 10-foot in diameter tree stuck in the top of
another that is 15 feet in diameter - It looks like the most powerful tornado
you can imagine (went down) either side of the riverbank."
Welch said responders have been taking the search acre by
acre, combing through a precarious soup of snakes, bacteria, herbicides,
insecticides and fuel and other hazards intertwined with the other debris.
"It's like the front end of a bulldozer just scoured
the river basin and just wiped out everything in its path," Welch said.
