Floods Sweep Texas and Oklahoma Areas

Floodwaters gushed through Texas on Thursday after more than 24 hours of thunderstorms, forcing the evacuation of two towns and sending campers to the roofs of their vehicles.

At least three people drowned in Texas, and two were missing after the storms, which were photographed by the space shuttle Discovery’s astronauts orbiting 381 miles above Earth. One family was rescued from a tree.

Flooding in nearby south-central Oklahoma also forced evacuations and closed highways.

The National Weather Service reported up to 15 inches of rain overnight in some areas of Texas as storms carrying at least six tornadoes hopscotched across the state.

“I have never seen it rain this hard. It’s raining so hard that you can hardly see out,” said Laura Goehl of Stephenville, Tex., southwest of Ft. Worth, where more than 150 people were staying in shelters.

The Texas National Guard sent 35 people and 20 trucks to help evacuate hundreds of people from Brownwood, southeast of Abilene, and from a small rural community on the Brazos River near Weatherford, just west of Ft. Worth.

Police in Brownwood reported all major traffic routes flooded, with some under several feet of water. Two of the three deaths were reported in Brownwood.

About 20 miles northeast of Brownwood, at least 130 people were evacuated early Thursday from the area near the town of Proctor as Proctor Lake rose and the rain continued.

Many had to be rescued by boat after their cars and campers were flooded at a park near the lake, which was 23 feet above its normal level, the highest on record.

“We were pulling these people off the top of their campers and trailer homes,” said Sam Marshall, civil defense coordinator. “A lot of the motor homes under water are $100,000 jobs. And 28 to 30 have lost new Blazers or new automobiles.”

In Graham, northwest of Ft. Worth, a man and his four children had to be rescued from trees by authorities who used a boat and a human chain to reach them.

Also in Comanche County, more than a foot of water flooded the emergency room and first floor of DeLeon Community Hospital. A spokeswoman said the hospital’s 23 patients were not in danger.

Storms also caused damage at Laughlin Air Force Base near Del Rio, close to the Mexico border. Winds in excess of 110 m.p.h. damaged nine Air Force jets and two buildings, officials said.

To the north, high water forced the closing of sections of several state highways in south-central and eastern Oklahoma.

Billy Frank Lance, a Carter County commissioner, said several houses in the small town of Dougherty, Okla., were flooded. In Healdton, also in Carter County, authorities interrupted a cable television broadcast Wednesday night to warn viewers to evacuate.