Conroe firefighters
evacuate Jim Treadway via boat after Treadway was stranded when Pecan
Bend Road was washed out near the San Jacinto River on Friday, May 27,
2016, in Conroe, Texas. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP)
HOUSTON—At least two people are dead and five others are
missing after this week’s torrential rains in Texas and Kansas,
officials said Saturday, noting that though the threat of severe weather
had lessened in Texas over the long holiday weekend, the focus is now
on swollen rivers and waterways that are slowly rising and could flood
homes.
“The skies are clear and things look good. But we want to make sure
people understand that we are not out of the woods yet. We have to keep
an eye on water that’s coming through our bayou system,” said Francisco
Sanchez, a spokesman for the Office of Emergency Management in Harris
County, where Houston is located.
Other parts of the U.S. got drenched Friday, including Kansas, as
well as on Saturday, when a tropical depression in the Atlantic Ocean
brought rain and wind to the coast of South Carolina.
In central Kansas, the Wichita Fire Department said Saturday that
it’s searching for an 11-year-old boy who went missing after he was
swept away by a swollen creek Friday night. The department said on its
Facebook page that two cadaver police dogs are taking part in the
search.
A
man, foreground, checks to make sure everyone made it safely out of a
truck that flooded when the three men in the background drove around a
closed road barrier along Nichols Sawmill Road and lost control of the
vehicle in rising flood water Friday, May 27, 2016 in Magnolia, Texas.
(Michael Ciaglo/Houston Chronicle via AP)
In Washington County, Texas, located between Austin and Houston, two
people have died and two are missing after more than 16.5 inches of rain
fell in some places on Thursday and Friday. The torrential rainfall
swelled rivers and other waterways, washing away mobile homes and
flooding other structures. Authorities performed more than 50 water
rescues.
Washington County Judge John Brieden said Saturday that one person
was found dead in a mobile home that was swamped by floodwaters and a
second person was found in a vehicle that had gone off a road and into a
submerged ditch.
Roland
Courville steers a boat across Mill Creek Road as he helps people
escape from a neighborhood cut off by a flooded Spring Creek, Friday,
May 27, 2016, in Magnolia, Texas. (Michael Ciaglo/Houston Chronicle via
AP)
Brieden also said two motorists are missing in separate parts of the
rural county: One vehicle was located without its driver, and the other
vehicle can’t be found. Brieden says the fear is that it may be
submerged and won’t be located until floodwaters recede.
Near Austin in Travis County, which saw up to 9 inches of rain this
week, officials are searching for two missing people whose vehicle was
swept off a flooded roadway, according to emergency services spokeswoman
Lisa Block.
A
car and home sit in flood water from Spring Creek along North
Ravenswood Drive, Friday, May 27, 2016, in Magnolia, Texas. (Michael
Ciaglo/Houston Chronicle via AP)
The rising water in several Houston-area rivers and creeks prompted
Harris County officials to ask about 750 families in the Northwood Pines
subdivision to voluntarily evacuate their homes and apartments on
Saturday. Officials also warned residents living near the west fork of
the San Jacinto River, north of Houston, that rising waters were likely
to flood homes, even those that are elevated, Sanchez said.
In Fort Bend County, southwest of Houston, officials warned residents
the Brazos River was likely to rise to the highest level ever recorded
in the county, which county Judge Robert Hebert called “a serious
incident.”
Homes
along Hawea Street in the Tahitian Village neighborhood in Bastrop,
Texas are surrounded by floodwaters, Friday, May 27, 2016, after heavy
overnight rain. (Mary Huber/Bastrop Advertiser/Austin American-Statesman
via AP)
The city of Simonton issued a mandatory evacuation for most of its 800 residents, said Mayor Louis Boudreaux.
“It’s going rather smoothly,” Boudreaux said of the evacuation.
The National Weather Service said an EF1 tornado hit Thursday in
Bryan, about 100 miles northwest of Houston. Bryan officials said 153
homes were damaged, including 53 with major damage.
In Wisconsin, another EF1 tornado damaged about 25 homes and knocked
out power to the village of Brandon on Friday, but no one was injured.
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