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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Young boy dies in Texas floodwaters as authorities make more than 200 | |
rescues across state | |
By Sara Tonks, CNN Meteorologist, Joe Sutton, Paradise Afshar, and | |
Melissa Alonso, CNN | |
Updated: | |
2:12 AM EDT, Tue May 7, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
The body of a 4-year-old boy was recovered from floodwaters near Fort | |
Worth, Texas, on Sunday, as search and rescue teams statewide continue | |
to patrol streets and neighborhoods inundated by rainfall. | |
The death is the first of at least two reported fatalities following | |
storms that have prompted disaster declarations for over a third of the | |
state’s counties. | |
Johnson County Emergency Management Coordinator Jamie Moore said the | |
deceased boy was found after authorities responded to a call around 2 | |
a.m. for a vehicle stuck in rapidly moving water, in Johnson County, | |
about 30 miles south of Fort Worth. | |
The boy, Lucas Warren, along with his mother Chelsea Warren and her | |
husband, all got out of the car, but a 911 caller said they were swept | |
into the floodwaters when they tried to get to safe ground, according | |
to Moore. | |
“A current came up real high, and he just let go,” Chelsey Warren | |
told . “And I didn’t hear anything from him. I think he just went | |
under.” | |
First responders arrived and were able to rescue the man and woman | |
around 5 a.m., said Moore, who was involved in the search. The man and | |
woman were transported to the hospital. | |
The body of the boy, who was going to turn 5 in three weeks, was found | |
in the water around 7:20 a.m., Moore said. | |
“I hope you will keep this family in your prayers,” Moore told CNN. | |
A has been set up for the family of Lucas Warren. CNN has verified the | |
page with GoFundMe. | |
With days of rain, rivers farther south have swollen, leaving and | |
thousands of people displaced. | |
At least 224 people have been rescued from homes and vehicles in Harris | |
County, an official said Saturday night, with evacuation orders and | |
flood watches in place, as more rain descended on the state Sunday, | |
with a bull’s-eye of excessive rainfall over the already waterlogged | |
Houston area. No deaths or serious injuries had been reported in the | |
area, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo told CNN, adding 153 pets have | |
also been rescued during the deluge. | |
“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 on Saturday. | |
“We’re really asking folks to give it a minute before they go back | |
home.” | |
A second flood-related death was announced Monday afternoon in Bosque | |
County, Texas. | |
A woman called 911 dispatch early Sunday morning after she was unable | |
to make contact with her husband, according to the Bosque County | |
Sheriff’s Office. The woman said her husband “had exited the | |
residence to check on the rising water near their home, an RV located | |
near a creek,” the sheriff’s office said. | |
Flooding in the area hindered emergency responders from getting to the | |
scene but eventually, they were able to rescue the woman; however, they | |
“located the body of the husband who had been swept away in the | |
rushing water and drowned,” the sheriff’s office said in a | |
statement on Facebook. | |
The identity of the victim was not released. “Our prayers are with | |
the family as they mourn the loss of their loved one,” Sheriff Trace | |
Hendricks said. | |
Bosque County is located approximately 60 miles south of Dallas-Fort | |
Worth. | |
Boats needed in high-water areas | |
CNN’s Rosa Flores rode in a boat Sunday with rescuers from the Harris | |
County Sheriff’s Office and said the craft passed over fences and | |
mailboxes. Stop signs were at eye level. | |
In some areas, the water had receded Sunday but was still very high. | |
The first responders took CNN to an area where the banks of the San | |
Jacinto River were not visible. | |
“It’s kinda hard to tell where the river ends,” Lt. David Jasper | |
said. | |
Many people in Houston were evacuated before the worst of the severe | |
weather, Brent Taylor, chief communications officer for the Houston | |
Office of Emergency Management, told CNN’s Amara Walker. | |
“We have Houston Police and Houston Fire who are patrolling these | |
neighborhoods that are near the river and where the water is gone so | |
high,” Taylor said. “There’s been some instances where it’s | |
someone just yelling for help saying, ‘Hey, I’m stuck over | |
here!’” | |
“We have high water rescue vehicles. We have Jet Skis, we have air | |
boats. Our Houston Public Works Department has dump trucks that can be | |
outfitted to move people through those high waters, so it really is a | |
unified effort to make sure that these Houstonians are staying safe,” | |
he added. | |
Not everyone wanted to leave their homes, Deputy Darrell Bailey of the | |
Harris County Sheriff’s Office told CNN’s crew on their | |
ride-along. | |
“They have a lot of people in the area who don’t want to leave | |
because they’d have no place to go and they don’t want to go to the | |
shelter,” he said. | |
The website for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s | |
shows seven river gauges in Texas in major flood stage, 19 in moderate | |
flooding and 36 in minor flooding. | |
Forecast calls for some rain into Tuesday | |
Conditions were improving as Monday drew closer. | |
The National Weather Service office in Houston at 7 p.m. CT: “After | |
93 hours in effect, the Flood Watch has finally expired.” | |
Earlier, the office said 1 to 3 more inches of rain were 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 through the | |
next several days to over a week,” the office said. | |
Rainfall amounts in the region have been huge over the past week, with | |
some areas picking up two months’ worth of rain in five days. Early | |
Sunday, the weather service listed some of the rainfall totals it | |
collected: | |
The rest of the week’s forecast for Houston is showing dry weather | |
and warm temperatures from Monday through Saturday, with lots of | |
sunshine during the latter part of the week to help dry the region out. | |
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 . | |
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Lucas Warren’s | |
age. He was 4. | |
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