Although the icy conditions were expected to persist in parts of Oklahoma and Kansas through the end of Saturday, temperatures on Sunday were expected to be above freezing in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, allowing the region to thaw out, the National Weather Service said.
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A second band of wet weather will move through rain-drenched Texas Sunday, bringing an additional 0.5 to 1.25 inch of rainfall, said Paul Walker, a senior meteorologist with Accuweather.
On Saturday in North Texas, teams were still unable to reach a auto that was washed into a creek on Thanksgiving Day with a woman in her 70s trapped inside, said Fort Worth firefighter Kyle Clay.
Most of the Dallas-Fort Worth area remains under a flash flood watch, with rain expected to continue.
Another three deaths are blamed on flash flooding in Texas, where one person is missing. Two people were rescued, but the third person’s body was later recovered near Mansfield, about 18 miles southeast of Fort Worth, sheriff’s spokesman Tim Jones said.
Sheriff’s deputy Krystal Salazar was swept away during a water rescue in Tarrant County, reports NBC. Firefighters in Garland found a man’s body inside of his vehicle on Friday. Jose Vargas, 48, was found after Johnson County sheriff’s deputies tried to rescue him with two other people who were in a pickup. Salazar stopped to assist a motorist stranded in high water on the 11600 block of Oak Grove Road around 2 a.m. While wading through the approximately five feet deep water, the officer was overtaken and swept away. The driver of the SUV was held on a vehicular manslaughter charge. In Topeka, because of the spike in accidents, police said officers would respond only to accident calls that involved injuries, disabled vehicles, hit-and-runs or driving under the influence.
Rain was forecast Sunday from Texas to the Mid-Atlantic states.
“Only thing we have to worry about now is the overpasses and bridges”.
In Oklahoma, road crews have been applying salt and sand in the Panhandle and northwestern part of the state since Thursday amid an ice storm warning that was in effect until noon Saturday. State troopers are trained to drive slower in icy conditions, “and I probably drive slower than all of them”, Barkley said.
Another 4 million people were under a winter weather advisory or freezing rain advisory.
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“If temps continue to fall, we’ll definitely see some refreezing of the wet roads”, Oklahoma Department of Transportation spokesman Cody Boyd told CNN affiliate KFOR.
