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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
At least 224 people rescued in Texas as rivers flood to Hurricane | |
Harvey levels, with more rain forecasted | |
By Mary Gilbert, CNN Meteorologist and Joe Sutton, CNN | |
Updated: | |
3:24 AM EDT, Sun May 5, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
At least 224 people have been rescued from homes and vehicles in Harris | |
County, Texas, an official said Saturday night, with more rain expected | |
over the weekend in the wake of strong storms and downpours that | |
damaged homes and triggered evacuations. | |
No deaths or serious injuries have been reported, Harris County Judge | |
Lina Hidalgo told CNN, adding 153 pets have also been rescued during a | |
deluge that has left livestock stranded. | |
“It’s been really sad to see the impact of people’s livelihoods, | |
homes, infrastructure as well as just the public infrastructure,” | |
Hidalgo told CNN Saturday. | |
“We’re really asking folks to give it a minute before they go back | |
home.” | |
Most of the weekend rain will fall over western and central Texas, but | |
a chance of heavier rain returns for the greater Houston area on | |
Sunday. The heaviest downpours in central Texas will occur upstream of | |
the flooding in Houston – which is located in Harris, potentially | |
exacerbating flooding in a region where 12 river gauges have reached | |
major flood stage. | |
This week’s storms were just the latest in a series of brutal weather | |
events that have pounded the state since early April. Dozens of | |
tornadoes have hit from the Panhandle to the Gulf Coast, some areas of | |
the state have been pounded with softball-sized hail and months of rain | |
has fallen in East Texas in intense spurts, causing rivers to rise to | |
levels not seen since the devastating floods of Hurricane Harvey in | |
2017. | |
The Storm Prediction Center issued a tornado watch for southwestern | |
Texas – including San Angelo and Del Rio – until 10 p.m. local | |
time. Severe thunderstorms capable of producing a few tornadoes, hail | |
as large as grapefruit and damaging winds up to 70 mph are possible | |
across the region this afternoon and evening, according to the center. | |
“The risk for a strong tornado may maximize during the late afternoon | |
to early evening timeframe,” the center warned. | |
A severe thunderstorm watch is in effect from southeastern New Mexico | |
into northwestern Texas until 10 p.m. local time. It includes Abilene | |
and Midland in Texas, and Carlsbad, New Mexico. | |
The forecast comes as some communities north of Houston picked up | |
nearly two months’ worth of rain Thursday. This rainfall plunged | |
roadways underwater and forced rivers to overflow, leading to | |
evacuations and water rescues. | |
Here’s what’s happened in South Texas Friday evening: | |
• San Jacinto County, 60 miles north of Houston: About 100-200 homes | |
are affected by floodwaters and mandatory evacuations are in effect. | |
The event is “85% worse than Hurricane Harvey,” Emmitt Eldridge, | |
the county’s emergency management coordinator, told CNN. Eldridge | |
said since they are downstream from Dallas along the Trinity River, | |
“we are expecting to see a lot more water” because of additional | |
rainfall. “Anything they deal with, we deal with,” he added. | |
According to Eldridge, there have been at least 58 water rescues in the | |
county so far. More rain is expected in the area next week. | |
• Walker County, about 70 miles northwest of Houston: Authorities are | |
calling the floods historic there as well. “This has been a historic | |
flood for Walker County. We have flooded more from this event than we | |
did during Hurricane Harvey,” Sherri Pegoda, Walker County’s deputy | |
emergency management coordinator, told CNN. According to Pegoda, two | |
communities are underwater along the Trinity River and are only | |
accessible via high-water vehicles. “Almost all roads in Walker | |
County were completely submerged Monday night and into Tuesday,” | |
Pegoda said. “We still have approximately 43 roads that are flooded | |
with several major washouts and a couple of bridges that have been | |
compromised.” At least 42 high-water rescues have been performed in | |
the county since April 28, she added. | |
• Polk County, about 80 miles northeast of Houston: A mandatory | |
evacuation order remains in place for low-lying unincorporated areas as | |
severe weather is expected to impact the area Sunday, the Polk County | |
Office of Emergency Management said in a . Areas under evacuation | |
orders are along the Trinity River and below the Lake Livingston Dam. | |
“Our area may receive up to 1 to 3 inches of rainfall with isolated | |
amounts of up to 4 to 8 inches possible,” the post said. The county | |
is under a flood watch until 7 p.m. Sunday, the post said. | |
Roughly 700 homes have been flooded, according to emergency management | |
officials, who warned additional rainfall could keep flood levels on | |
the rise in the coming days. A total of 1,000 homes are in a mandatory | |
evacuation zone in the county, Polk County Judge Sydney Murphy told | |
CNN. A flood warning remained in effect Friday for the county. The | |
judge said they were concerned and keeping an eye on what was happening | |
north of the county with the flooding because it would impact the area. | |
“Due to continuous rainfall across East Texas and rising levels in | |
creeks and rivers, flood levels may increase. Please remain aware of | |
changing flood levels along the Trinity River and ALL low-lying levels. | |
If you wish to evacuate, please do so now!,” the emergency management | |
office recently said in a Facebook post. | |
• Harris County, which also includes several northern Houston | |
suburbs: Mandatory evacuations have been in place since Thursday for | |
residents on the east side of the East Fork of the San Jacinto River. | |
The river hit major flood stage on Thursday and is forecast to crest | |
Saturday morning just a few feet shy of the record level during Harvey. | |
“We want you out of this area… this is a life-threatening | |
situation,” Hidalgo said at a news conference. The level of water | |
rise anticipated will impact elevated structures and may rise to reach | |
rooftops or power lines, according to Hidalgo. | |
In the Harris County suburb of Crosby, a school bus driver spotted | |
flooding over a road that had not yet been barricaded, stopped the bus | |
and had the middle and high school students on board exit through the | |
rear door, according to a statement from the school district. Another | |
bus brought the students to school, where they were provided with | |
breakfast and dry clothes, the statement added. | |
• Liberty County, about 45 miles northeast of Houston: The Coast | |
Guard transported a 12-hour-old baby girl by helicopter from Cleveland, | |
Texas, Friday. The girl was experiencing low oxygen levels at Texas | |
Emergency Hospital, which does not have a neonatal intensive care unit, | |
according to a news release from the Coast Guard. Due to flooding, she | |
could not be transported by ambulance on the ground. The helicopter | |
took the girl and her mother to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, | |
where the baby was reported to be in stable condition, the release | |
added. | |
Voluntary evacuations due to flooding were also in place for Montgomery | |
County, just to the north of Harris County. | |
Disaster declarations are active for over a third of Texas counties | |
after Gov. Greg Abbott expanded the storm-related declarations in | |
response to the flooding, according to a news release. Additional | |
counties could be added in the coming days, particularly with more | |
storms in the forecast. | |
Parts of eastern Texas have received anywhere from three to seven times | |
their typical rainfall over the last three to four weeks. The repeated | |
bouts of heavy rainfall soaked soils, making many areas extremely prone | |
to both flash and river flooding. Nearly a foot of rain fell in some | |
spots from Thursday to Friday morning, delivering the final blow. | |
Periods of rain will continue through Friday evening, and an additional | |
1 to 2 inches of rain are possible. | |
The worst flooding is confined to southeastern Texas where at least a | |
dozen river gauges – including parts of the San Jacinto and Trinity | |
rivers – are in major flood stage, the highest level, as of Friday | |
morning. Several more sites are forecast to experience major flooding | |
by the weekend and could meet or exceed record levels set during | |
Harvey. | |
Hurricane Harvey created after dropping 30 to 40 inches of rain across | |
the entire metro in just 48 hours. While this week’s ongoing flooding | |
is notable, it’s much less widespread and occurring north of where | |
Harvey’s worst rain fell. | |
Powerful storms rolled across the state | |
As torrential rain flooded eastern Texas, severe thunderstorms spun up | |
tornadoes both north and south of the Abilene area in west Texas. There | |
were eight reports of tornadoes Thursday, according to the Storm | |
Prediction Center. | |
A “large and extremely dangerous” tornado impacted the towns of | |
Hodges and Hawley – about 10 miles north of Abilene – Thursday | |
evening. | |
Around 30 homes in Hawley were shredded by the tornado’s winds, with | |
entire sections of some homes left completely exposed. Cars in the area | |
also sustained damage from flying debris. There were “numerous” | |
injuries, but no deaths as of Friday morning, Hawley Police Chief Brad | |
Wilson told CNN. | |
At least one area school district is allowing students to study from | |
home or take time to recover Friday, following Thursday evening’s | |
damaging tornado. | |
“The Hawley community has been hit pretty hard and we have several | |
families that have lost homes,” the Hawley Independent School | |
District said in a Facebook post. | |
Rainfall totals from flooding in Texas and Louisiana this week showed | |
nearly two feet of rain in five days, according to the National Weather | |
Service. Totals ranged from 23.56 inches in Groveton, Texas, to 18.42 | |
inches in Livingston, Texas. | |
CNN’s Allison Chinchar, Sara Tonks, Ray Sanchez, Andy Rose, Joe | |
Sutton and Paradise Afshar contributed to this report. | |
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