Texas floods: toll continues to rise after torrential rains leave state awash
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Version 0 of 1. Torrential rains have killed at least 16 people in Texas and Oklahoma, including four in Houston where floods turned streets into rivers and led to about 1,000 calls for help in the fourth-most populous US city. Numerous people remained missing in Texas after the storms slammed the states during the Memorial Day weekend, causing record floods that destroyed hundreds of homes and swept away bridges. A coffin from a Houston cemetery was unearthed and washed ashore on the banks of a bayou. “A lot of folks drove their car into high water and had to abandon those vehicles,” Houston Mayor Annise Parker said at a news conference. Two of the dead in Houston were found in their cars and another two were found in a bayou. The Oklahoma medical examiner’s office said six people died in weather-related incidents over the holiday weekend in the state. Though Parker said parts of the city were unscathed, more than 1,000 vehicles were submerged in the Houston floods and people took instead to bicycles, kayaks and surfboards to navigate water-covered streets. The Houston fire department brought about 500 people to safety in boats, local media reports said. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he had assured the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, of federal help. Abbott has declared a state of disaster in at least 40 Texas counties, including Harris county, which includes Houston. Abbott said he deployed the state’s National Guard and was worried the death toll could rise. “It’s devastating to see what I saw on the Blanco river when this tidal wave of water just swept away neighborhoods,” he said, recalling a disaster area in central Texas. Thirteen people were missing due to flooding that hit along the Blanco river, county officials said. They were from two families whose vacation home was swept off its foundation in Wimberley, a town about 30 miles (50km) south-west of Austin. About 30 other people who were previously unaccounted for had been contacted, Hays county officials said. Dogs and boats were being used to search for the missing. The river rose so quickly and with such force that it caused a flood gauge to break, Hays county officials said. There was no damage estimate available for Texas, which has a $1.4tn-a-year economy and is the country’s main domestic source of energy as well as an agricultural and manufacturing power. Houston resident Dutch Small, 40, climbed on to the roof of his car when the water came up to his knees inside his vehicle and was eventually rescued by a passing tow truck driver. “It happened so fast. Every person that died in the flooding, I know what was going through their minds. They didn’t measure the threat accurately. They were like me,” Small said. The National Weather Service issued tornado and thunderstorm watches for later on Tuesday and said more rain was expected this week in Texas and Oklahoma. More than 200 flights had been cancelled by early on Tuesday evening at airports in Houston and Dallas, some of the nation’s busiest, as blocked roads made it difficult for workers to get to their jobs. A sinkhole closed a runway at the Dallas/Fort Worth international airport. Roughly 100,000 customers lost power throughout the state after the storm due to high winds and rising waters that snapped power poles. In Houston about 11in (28cm) of rain fell on Monday while parts of Austin were hit by as much as 7in. Helicopter crews in both cities plucked to safety people who had been stranded in cars and on top of buildings. |