CNN
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The body of a young boy was found in floodwaters near Fort Worth, Texas, on Sunday, as search and rescue teams continued to patrol streets and neighborhoods flooded by rains.
It was the first death reported following storms that prompted disaster declarations in more than a third of the state’s counties.
Johnson County Emergency Management Coordinator Jamie Moore said the deceased boy was found after authorities responded to an overnight call about a vehicle stuck in fast-moving water. The three occupants escaped, but a 911 caller said they were swept away by floodwaters while trying to reach safety, according to Moore.
A man and a woman were rescued, said Moore, who assisted in the search.
“I hope you keep this family in your prayers,” Moore told CNN.
With the rainy days, rivers further south swelled, leaving homes and businesses flooded and thousands of people displaced.
At least 224 people were rescued from their homes and vehicles in Harris County, an official said Saturday evening, with evacuation orders and flood watches in place as more rain fell on the state on Sunday, with a target for excessive rainfall over the already waterlogged Houston area. No deaths or serious injuries have been reported in that area, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo told CNN, adding that 153 pets were also rescued during the deluge.
“It’s really sad to see the impact on people’s livelihoods, on their homes, on their infrastructure as well as public infrastructure,” Hidalgo told CNN on Saturday.
“We’re really asking people to give it a minute before they go home.”
Lekan Oyekanmi/AP
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officers used boats to rescue residents from floodwaters.
CNN’s Rosa Flores boarded a boat with rescuers from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office on Sunday and said the craft went over fences and mailboxes. The stop signs were at eye level.
In some areas, the water had receded on Sunday but still remained very high.
First responders took CNN to an area where the banks of the San Jacinto River were not visible.
“It’s pretty hard to tell where the river ends,” Lt. David Jasper said.
Many people in Houston were evacuated before the worst of the weather, Brent Taylor, communications director for the Houston Office of Emergency Management, told CNN’s Amara Walker.
“We have the Houston police and the Houston Fire Department patrolling these neighborhoods that are close to the river and where the water is so high,” Taylor said. “There have been cases where someone would just scream for help and say, ‘Hey, I’m stuck here!’ »
“We have emergency vehicles in case of flooding. We have jet skis, we have airboats. Our Houston Public Works Department has dump trucks that can be equipped to move people through these high waters, so it’s really a unified effort to ensure the safety of these Houstonians,” he said. -he adds.
Not everyone wanted to leave their homes, Deputy Darrell Bailey of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office told the CNN team during their ride-along.
“There are a lot of people in the area who don’t want to leave because they have nowhere to go and don’t want to go to the shelter,” he said.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s West Gulf River Forecast Center website features seven river gauges. in Texas during major flooding, 19 during moderate flooding and 36 during minor flooding.
Conditions improved as Monday approached.
The National Weather Service office in Houston posted on at 7 p.m. CT: “After 93 hours in effect, the flood watch has finally expired. »
Earlier, the bureau said an additional 1 to 3 inches of rain was possible by Monday morning and some areas could see up to 4 to 8 inches. There was a 20% chance of rain Monday morning, forecasters said.
“Moderate to major river flooding will remain a concern for the next few days or more than a week,” the bureau said.
Rainfall amounts across the region have been huge over the past week, with some areas receiving two months’ worth of rain in five days. Early Sunday, the weather service listed some of the precipitation totals it collected:
- Groveton, TX – 23.56”
- Huntsville, TX – 21.76”
- Splendor, Texas – 21.01”
- Willis, TX – 20.75”
- Livingston, TX – 18.42”
The forecast for the rest of the week for Houston shows dry weather and warm temperatures Monday through Saturday, with plenty of sunshine during the latter part of the week to help dry out the area.
Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle/AP
The Lake Houston Bridge along the West Lake Houston Parkway from Kingwood to Atascocita was closed due to high water Saturday in Kingwood, Texas.
This week’s storms were just the latest in a series of brutal weather events that have hit the state since early April. Dozens of tornadoes struck from the Panhandle to the Gulf Coast, parts of the state were hit by softball-sized hail, and months of rain fell in East Texas by at -intense blows, causing rivers to rise to levels not seen since the devastating disaster. flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
News Source : amp.cnn.com
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