CNN
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The body of a young boy was recovered from floodwaters near Fort Worth, Texas, on Sunday as search and rescue teams across the state continued to patrol roads and neighborhoods flooded by rain.
The death is the first reported after the storm, which prompted disaster declarations for more than a third of the state's counties.
Johnson County Emergency Management Coordinator Jamie Moore said the dead boy was found after authorities responded overnight to a vehicle stuck in rushing water. Moore said the three residents escaped, but a 911 caller said they were engulfed by floodwaters as they tried to flee to safety.
Moore, who was involved in the search, said a man and a woman were rescued.
“Please keep this family in your prayers,” Moore told CNN.
Days of rain have caused rivers further south to swell, flooding homes and businesses and forcing thousands of people to evacuate.
At least 224 people were rescued from their homes and cars in Harris County as more rain fell Sunday, significantly outweighing the torrential rains already in the county, prompting evacuation orders and flood watches, officials said Saturday night. Announced. Houston area flooded. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo told CNN there were no deaths or serious injuries reported in the area, adding that 153 pets were also rescued during the deluge.
“It's really sad to see the impact, not just on public infrastructure, but on people's lives, housing, infrastructure,” Hidalgo told CNN on Saturday.
“We urge everyone to wait a little while before going home.”
Lekan Oyekanmi/AP
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials used boats to rescue residents from the floodwaters.
CNN correspondent Rosa Flores was on a boat Sunday with rescue workers from the Harris County Sheriff's Office who said the boat had climbed over a fence and mailbox. The stop sign was at eye level.
Water levels had receded in some areas on Sunday, but remained very high.
First responders took CNN to an area where the banks of the San Jacinto River were out of sight.
“It's kind of hard to tell where the river ends,” said Lt. David Jasper.
Brent Taylor, chief public information officer for the Houston Emergency Management Agency, told CNN's Amara Walker that many Houston residents evacuated before the worst of the weather.
“Houston Police and Houston Fire are patrolling areas near the river where water levels are very high,” Taylor said. “There have been instances where it was just someone screaming for help, saying, 'Hey, I'm stuck here!'
“We have high water rescue vehicles. We have jet skis, we have airboats. Our Houston Department of Public Works has dump trucks equipped to move people through these high waters. “We have, so it's really a unified effort to make sure these Houstonians are safe,” he added.
Harris County Sheriff's Office Deputy Darrell Bailey told CNN reporters in the car that not everyone wanted to leave their homes.
“There are a lot of people in this area who don't want to leave because they have nowhere to go and they don't want to go to a shelter,” he says.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Western Gulf River Forecast Center website shows eight river gauges in Texas at major flood stage, 21 at moderate flood stage and 38 at minor flood stage.
Most of the weekend's rain fell in West and Central Texas, but there was a significant chance of even heavier rain in the greater Houston area on Sunday.
National Weather Service Office in Houston Posted in X 1:30 p.m. Central Time: “Next storm arrives and continues to storm along I-10.”
A severe thunderstorm watch remained in place for Jackson, Wharton and Colorado counties until 7 p.m., but storm activity is expected to subside this evening.
Earlier, authorities said another 1 to 3 inches of rain could fall by Monday morning. Up to 4 to 8 inches may be visible in some areas.
“Multiple heavy rainfall events over the past week may cause flooding to occur sooner than expected under normal circumstances. Today's rainfall will exacerbate existing river flooding.” warned the Houston Weather Service.
The region has experienced significant rainfall over the past week, with some areas receiving two months' worth of rain in just five days. The Bureau of Meteorology has listed some of the precipitation totals collected.
- Groveton, Texas – 23.56 inches
- Huntsville, Texas – 21.76 inches
- Splendora, Texas – 21.01”
- Willis, Texas – 20.75 inches
- Livingston, Texas – 18.42 inches
But there is a breath of relief on the horizon. The weather forecast for the rest of the week in Houston calls for dry weather and warm temperatures Monday through Saturday, with plenty of sunshine to dry out the area.
This week's storm is just the latest in a series of brutal weather events to hit the state since early April. Dozens of tornadoes have struck from the Panhandle to the Gulf Coast, dumped softball-sized hail in some parts of the state, and river levels have been decimated in East Texas after months of heavy rain. It has risen to a level not seen since the disaster. Floods from Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle/Associated Press
In Kingwood, Texas, a bridge over Lake Houston along the West Lake Houston Parkway from Kingwood to Atascocita was closed Saturday due to rising water.
Mandatory evacuations are in place in the Houston area and surrounding counties as local officials draw comparisons to past disasters. San Jacinto County Emergency Management Coordinator Emmitt Eldridge told CNN the flooding was “85% worse than Hurricane Harvey.” “This was historic flooding for Walker County. We had more water in this disaster than we did in Hurricane Harvey,” said Sherry Pegoda, Walker County's acting emergency management coordinator.
Emergency managers said in a Facebook post that a mandatory evacuation order is in effect for unincorporated low-lying areas in Polk County until Sunday evening, as well as riverfront homes in Harris and Montgomery counties. Ta.
More than a third of Texas counties are under disaster declarations after Gov. Greg Abbott expanded storm-related declarations in response to flooding, according to a news release. More counties could be added in the coming days, especially if more storms are expected.