Texas Soaked by Erin, Braces for Dean
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Perilous Times and Global Warming
Texas Soaked by Erin, Braces for Dean
*
By ELIZABETH WHITE
Associated Press Writer
SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Rescuers searched Friday for people swept away in
flash floods caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin, as wary
residents across the Gulf Coast watched Hurricane Dean charging through
the Caribbean.
At least five people died Thursday and another two were missing because
of Erin's thunderstorms.
The storms dropped up to 11 inches of rain in parts of San Antonio,
Houston and the Texas Hill Country. Officials throughout central and
south Texas expected more rain Friday, with forecasts of 8 inches in
West Texas.
"The ground's already saturated, then with the amount of rain we got
today it's just running off and causing flash flooding, so if we get
additional rain it will be a major concern for us," said Orlando
Hernandez, emergency management coordinator for Bexar County, where San
Antonio is located.
In the eastern Caribbean islands of St. Lucia and Martinique, Hurricane
Dean tore roofs off buildings and knocked out power. Airports were
closed, hotels evacuated and tourists sent to shelters as 100 mph winds
swept over the islands. But Dean, the first hurricane of the Atlantic
season, appeared days away from the Gulf Coast. Dean strengthened into a
Category 4 hurricane Friday and was expected to get stronger in the next
day.
The National Weather Service forecast several potential tracks for the
unpredictable storm over the next five days - some had it barreling into
Mexico; others had it hammering the Texas coast.
In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry declared the storm an "imminent threat" and
initiated full-scale preparations. Fuel trucks were dispatched to
coastal communities, storm-response task forces were put on alert and
supply trucks and other resources were pre-positioned along evacuation
routes.
"It's so far out, but it's not too early to start preparing," said Perry
spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger. "We have more notice than with Erin.
We're glad for that especially since (Dean) is projected to bring some
strength."
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco declared a state of emergency Friday and
requested a federal declaration that would allow federal resources to
flow to the state should Dean strike any part of the Louisiana coast.
Forecast projections showed a slim chance of the storm jumping northward
toward Louisiana, but it was enough to put Louisiana emergency
preparedness officials on high alert, given the weakened condition of
the state's coastline since it was pummeled by hurricanes Katrina and
Rita a little less than two years ago.
In Texas, overnight rain prompted the evacuation early Friday of three
areas along the Medina River and Medina Lake in Bandera County, county
dispatcher Barbara Kincaid said. About 50 people were evacuated from the
Lake Hills subdivision on Medina Lake, she said. Most of the river
evacuations were RVs parked along the water. There were no reports of
injuries.
The storms in Houston killed three people: two died when a roof over a
grocery store's storage unit collapsed. One of those was identified
Friday as store employee Daniel Whitt, 29. The other man, a Coca-Cola
delivery worker, was not identified.
The third Houston victim was a trucker who drowned when his 18-wheeler
went into a deep retention pond.
In San Antonio, a 19-year-old man, identified as David Alexander Diaz,
was swept away by floodwaters after he got out of his car. His body was
found about three miles downstream.
Searchers in Kendall County found the body of one of two people missing
after their pickup truck was washed over a bridge and into a creek just
as rescuers tried to pull them out, sheriff's Chief Deputy Matt King
said. The victim was identified as Juan Ramon Zaragoza, 48. His son,
Juan Pablo Zaragoza, 28, was still missing, King said.
Authorities in San Antonio were still searching for a woman who was
caught in high water near a mall.
Summer storms have poured record rainfall across Texas and parts of
Oklahoma and Kansas, with floods killing 21 people since mid-June. One
July storm dropped 17 inches of rain in 24 hours and brought Texas out
of a more than decade-long drought.
In Mississippi, Gov. Haley Barbour and Federal Emergency Management
Agency officials warned 13,000 families living in FEMA trailers since
Katrina that they must evacuate if Dean hits the Gulf Coast.
"Today people in Mississippi don't need to panic, but they need to
think," Barbour said Friday.
Barbour said people should think about where they will go if an
evacuation is ordered and how they'll travel. He said people should make
sure they have fuel, water, and a source of communication if electricity
is lost.
"No government is big enough to do everything for everybody," Barbour said.
Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, the executive of the county that includes
Houston, called Erin's rain and flooding "a wet run" for the impending
Hurricane Dean.
Hurricane specialists expect this year's Atlantic hurricane season -
June 1 to Nov. 30 - to be busier than average, with as many as 16
tropical storms, nine of them strengthening into hurricanes. Ten
tropical storms developed in the Atlantic last year, but only two made
landfall in the United States.
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Associated Press writers Matt Curry, Matt Joyce and Terry Wallace in
Dallas; Chris Duncan in Houston; and Betsy Blaney in Lubbock contributed
to this report.
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On the Net:
National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/