Texas Braces for Still More Rain, Floods
Pastor Dale Morgan
Texas Braces for Still More Rain, Floods*
Friday July 6, 2007 2:46 AM
By SEAN MURPHY
Associated Press Writer
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Residents in Texas braced for more rain and more
flood damage Thursday while floodwaters slowly subsided in parts of
Oklahoma and Kansas.
An estimated 1,000 homes in Texas have already been severely damaged or
destroyed by the widespread flooding since late May. The slightest
additional rainfall could cause flash flooding where rivers, lakes and
reservoirs are already full to the brim.
``Unprecedented,'' said Jack Colley, chief of the Texas Division of
Emergency Management. ``Mostly this time of year we're fighting wild
fires ... The problem with this is, the water won't go away.''
Colley said the state's major river basins are at flood stage, the first
time that's happened since 1957.
The affected area covers 49 counties and 48,000 square miles from North
Texas to the Rio Grande Valley, a section roughly the size of the state
of Mississippi. Thirteen deaths have been blamed on the weather over the
past 2 weeks in the state, Gov. Rick Perry's office said.
The latest death occurred early Thursday morning near Clifton in Bosque
County, when a car driven by a 37-year-old woman hydroplaned, collided
with a curb and plunged into a creek, authorities said.
Four people have been reported missing, including a 6-year-old boy swept
into the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday as strong currents ripped him from
his father's arms at the mouth of the Brazos River in Freeport.
In Missouri, the body of a 16-year-old girl was also found Wednesday
night in a submerged SUV after she apparently tried to cross a flooded
creek.
So far, the heaviest flood damage has been in Miami, Okla., where the
Neosho River crested at about 29 feet, its highest stage since 1951. The
river was not expected to be back within its banks until late Sunday.
About 600 homes and businesses were believed damaged, City Manager Mike
Spurgeon said.
``We're starting to see an average drop of about a half-inch every
hour,'' he said Thursday with some relief, though he estimated it could
take six months to a year to rebuild in the parts of town most heavily
damaged.
Displaced residents watched and waited, anxious to begin salvaging soggy
belongings. Dorena Jackson walked near her neighborhood, trying to get a
glimpse of the home that she waded out of two days ago.
``I don't even have a change of clothes,'' Jackson said. ``I lost
everything as far as I know.''
Concerns also eased Thursday that a full Lake Texoma along the
Oklahoma-Texas line would send floodwaters into the Red River.
Ross Adkins, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said
water could spill over the Denison Dam, but no major damage to homes was
anticipated. The last major flood was nearly 5 feet over the spillway in
1990. This year's level is expected to crest at 1 foot over the spillway.
Still, residents, particularly those living in farm areas near the
river, were warned to take precautions.
Thursday, the National Weather Service forecast a return to drier
conditions in northeastern Oklahoma over the next 10 days, with an
occasional isolated rain shower.
As floodwaters receded in hard-hit southeastern Kansas Thursday,
emergency personnel worked to get several semitrailer loads of bottled
water into flooded communities where water treatments plants were down
because of high water or power loss.
In northeastern Oklahoma, the Caney River began slowly falling after
cresting at 34.18 feet, according to the National Weather Service. The
river, which forced hundreds of residents near Bartlesville from their
homes this week, wasn't expected to fall below flood stage until Sunday
night, the weather service said.
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Associated Press writers Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, Roxana Hegeman in
Wichita, Kan., and Justin Juozapavicius in Miami, Okla., contributed to
this report.