Record rainfall wreaked havoc across a swath of the central US, causing flash floods in normally dry riverbeds, spawning tornadoes and forcing at least 2,000 people in Texas from their homes.
Tornadoes struck, severely damaging an apartment complex in Houston, Texas yesterday. A firefighter in Oklahoma was swept to his death while trying to rescue people from <g data-gr-id="23">high</g> water and a woman in Tulsa died in a traffic-related crash.
In Texas, a man’s body was recovered from a flooded area along the Blanco River, which rose 26 feet (8 meters) in just one hour and left piles of wreckage 20 feet (6 meters) high, authorities said.
“It looks pretty bad out there,” said Hays County emergency management coordinator <g data-gr-id="20">Kharley</g> Smith, describing the destruction in Wimberley, a community that is part of a fast-growing corridor between Austin and San Antonio.
“We do have whole streets with maybe one or two houses left on them and the rest are just slabs,” she said, noting late Sunday that three people from Wimberley still weren’t accounted for.
From 350 to 400 homes were destroyed in Wimberley, Smith said. In nearby San Marcos, flooding had damaged about 300 homes, she said.
Authorities also warned people to honour a night-time curfew and stay away from damaged areas, since more rain was on the way, threatening more floods with the ground saturated and waterways overflowing.