Heavy rain across the south-central US has resulted in at least two deaths and one person missing in north Texas, with flood watches in effect as far north as St. Louis.
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A motorist and sheriff’s deputy were swept away in the Dallas area during a high water rescue early Friday as flash flooding begins to impact parts of Texas.
During an attempt to rescue her, sheriff’s deputy Krystal Salazar got caught in the surging waters and had to hold on to a tree for two hours.
Crews went into recovery mode to try and find the woman. The motorist remains missing.
No highways in the Texas Panhandle and South Plains were closed despite the icy conditions, but about 100 crashes had been reported as of Friday evening, said Trooper Cindy Barkley of the Texas Department of Public Safety office in Amarillo.
In North Texas, where more than 4 inches of rain overnight in the Dallas-Forth Worth area pushed the annual rainfall total into the record books, at least two people have died after being washed away in the deep, rapid floodwaters.
Firefighters in Garland, a Dallas suburb, found the body of a 29-year-old man inside a submerged Hyundai Elantra after the auto was swept from a bridge.
Northeast Texas, eastern Oklahoma, southern Missouri and most of Arkansas are under either flash flood watches or warnings through Sunday morning.
Her vehicle was washed off a county road northwest of Joshua.
Jones said two people were rescued, but the third person died.
Heavy rain is expected to continue throughout the weekend.
In Fort Worth, first responders called off their search for a 70-year-old woman who was swept away by the floodwaters, reports Arezow Doost from CBS station KTVT.
Johnson County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Tim Jones says emergency services received a 911 call early Friday for a high water rescue at the Rock Creek bridge, west of Fort Worth. A city fire department dive team found the deputy clinging to a tree. The National Weather Service warned of freezing rain and sleet in northern and western Oklahoma Friday, with up to a half inch of ice possible in some areas. With 4.55 inches of rain falling Thursday through 7 a.m. Friday, it has rained 55.23 inches this year at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, eclipsing the previous record of 53.54 set in 1991.
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