Three Dead Following Record Flooding in Texas and Oklahoma; 2,000 Evacuated and Hundreds of Homes Destroyed
At least three people are reported to have died in record-setting rainfalls and flooding in parts of Texas and Oklahoma on Saturday and Sunday, with 2,000 people forced to evacuate. The flooding caused major damage and destroyed hundreds of homes, reports said.
Fox News reported on Monday morning that two people were confirmed dead in Oklahoma, including a firefighter who was swept to his death, and a woman in Tulsa who died as a result of a traffic-related crash. The body of a third man was recovered from the Blanko River, officials said, while several people are also believed to be missing.
"They haven't seen flooding like this for probably a good decade, probably more like 25 years, even longer, on some of these rivers," said Kurt Van Speybroeck, a NWS meteorologist based in Fort Worth, Texas, according to Reuters.
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Hays County emergency management coordinator Kharley Smith described the destruction in Wimberley, Texas: "It looks pretty bad out there," Smith said, noting that between 350 to 400 homes were destroyed in the area. "We do have whole streets with maybe one or two houses left on them and the rest are just slabs."
San Marcos spokeswoman Kristi Wyatt added that 1,000 homes were damaged throughout Hays County, CBS News reported. The record flooding caused the Blanco River to rise above 40 feet, which is more than triple its flood stage of 13 feet.
"I was thinking that we were all going to die," resident Josie Rodriguez told Fox San Antonio. "We were all crying, everyone was crying."
Trinity River near Dallas also crested near 40 feet on Monday, with the Red and Wichita rivers in similar condition.
As many as 1,000 people were evacuated from 400 homes near Lake Lewis, 50 miles north of Houston, with fears that the earthen dam at the lake may fail.
Mandatory evacuation was also issued on Sunday in Colorado for residents in the northeastern city of Sterling, while tornado watches were in effect for parts of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Illinois. Flash flood watches were issued for western Arkansas, Missouri and parts of Kansas, with the storm system pushing northeast into Iowa and Illinois on Sunday.
This year's May has been one of the wettest ever recorded in the southern Plains states, with Oklahoma City seeing 27.37 inches of rain; in 2014, the state only saw 4.29 inches.
