Fierce Storms in Texas Kill Three, Force Hundreds to Evacuate

Violent thunderstorms roared across northern Texas for the second time in two weeks Wednesday, flooding roads, forcing scores to evacuate and killing three people.

Some areas got up to 7 inches of rain in 24 hours. Forecasters said the heavy rain and flooding would continue through this morning.

The storms snarled traffic throughout the Dallas-Ft. Worth area late Tuesday and early Wednesday. Numerous roads were closed and rescue workers and wreckers were used to haul people out of cars that became stranded in deep water.

Seventy-six people were taken to shelters in Ft. Worth. Downtown Gainsville, about 40 miles north of Dallas, was completely closed by flooding.

Also in Gainsville, 36 elderly people were evacuated from the Turner Hotel, a five-story apartment complex, when electricity went out as the basement flooded. They were taken to a Red Cross shelter, said volunteer Nona Sluder.

Authorities in Ft. Worth evacuated more than 70 people from three mobile home parks and other residences.

The Army Corps of Engineers monitored the rise of Lake Texoma at the Texas-Oklahoma border, which had climbed above 639 feet--a foot below the overflow mark.

Mike McCoy, a park manager, said engineers expected the lake to rise into spillways sometime during the night for only the second time ever and crest at 641 feet today.

In Abilene, the National Weather Service reported a rainfall total of 3.16 inches by Wednesday afternoon. Abilene school officials closed schools as a precaution.

Residents of the Horseshoe Bend area along the Brazos River repeated emergency drills they became familiar with last week, said Mike Pascal, Parker County fire marshal. Pascal said the evacuations went smoothly Wednesday.

Nearly 1,000 people were evacuated from Horseshoe Bend because of serious flooding last week. But authorities evacuated fewer than 400 on Wednesday, Pascal said.

Two men died early Wednesday when flash flooding swept through Ft. Worth. Both were swept away when they apparently left a vehicle after trying to drive across a flooded creek, said police Sgt. Jon Grady. Their bodies were found two miles downstream.

A fire captain was swept downstream while trying to rescue the men. But he managed to grab a tree and was later rescued, Deputy Fire Chief K. D. Laymance said.

Elsewhere in Ft. Worth, street department workers found the body of a missing woman late Wednesday at a park.

The deaths bring this spring’s toll from heavy rain and flooding in north-central Texas to nine.