Twister, Rain Hit Texas; N. J. Rivers Flood

A tornado ravaged a small town near Austin, and rescuers plucked residents from homes, cars and trees in the flood-stricken Dallas area as Texas bore the brunt of severe storms that soaked the Southwest and Northeast on Wednesday.

Rivers and creeks overflowed in New Jersey after two days of record rain, chasing dozens of people from their homes, authorities said.

At least three deaths in Texas were attributed to the weather.

The pre-dawn tornado cut a swath 7 miles long and a mile wide through Jarrell, killing one person and injuring at least 24. Fifteen homes and an apartment complex were destroyed in the town of 1,000 people 40 miles from Austin.

A 42-year-old woman died of a broken neck when the tornado hit her mobile home. Hospitals in Georgetown and Temple reported that 24 people sought treatment.

Floodwaters in the Dallas area, which received nearly 6 inches of rain in less than 24 hours, sent hundreds of residents to shelters. Policemen, firefighters and others rescued scores of people from homes, cars and, in one case, a tree.

Kennedale Police Chief David Geeslin said two women were stranded in a tree for eight hours after their car was washed off the roadway.

Another rescue attempt ended in tragedy as firefighters, secured with ropes strung to telephone poles, spent 2 1/2 hours trying to reach a woman whose car was swept off a bridge into a Dallas creek.

The woman, who had been waiting on top of the car, “got back into the car and, at that time, the car fell into the creek. It floated for a few minutes and went down,” firefighter Dennis Ground said. Her body was found a half mile away.

Rescued From Truck

In suburban Grand Prairie, the body of an elderly man was recovered from a truck in a creek, police Lt. James Gatlin said.

A Kennedale city councilman used his boat to rescue a man who had gone to check his cattle and became trapped by rising waters, Geeslin said.

At least 150 people were evacuated from the Five Mile Creek area, 50 from Grand Prairie and 125 to 150 from Kennedale, police said.

Floodwaters 4 feet deep poured through Alvarado, just south of Ft. Worth, forcing evacuations, the National Weather Service reported. A tornado tossed a car off the road and overturned six 18-wheel trucks on Interstate 35 near Jarrell, and several small planes were flipped over and hangars were damaged at the airport in Cleburne.

Elsewhere in Texas, a tornado battered an elementary school in Round Rock, injuring one person. Police said about seven houses were damaged.

Flood warnings were issued in northern New Jersey, where dozens of people were forced from their homes because of rising water on the Passaic River.

Newark got .71 inches of rain Wednesday and 2.11 inches on Tuesday, breaking records that had stood for up to 49 years.

Baltimore-Washington International Airport endured its 13th straight day of rain, the longest such stretch in 40 years of record-keeping there. The old record for May was nine days, set in 1979.