At least 5 dead and 2 missing in San Antonio after heavy rains flood parts of Texas

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Heavy rains in San Antonio rapidly flooded roads, swept away submerged cars and sent some people scrambling up trees to escape fast-rising waters Thursday while firefighters made dozens of rescues across the nation’s seventh-largest city. At least five people died and two were still missing, authorities said.

The deaths all occurred in the northeast part of the city, where authorities found over a dozen vehicles in the water. More than a dozen smashed and overturned vehicles littered a creek after being tossed and carried by floodwaters.

Some of the people rescued in that area said they were swept off an interstate access road by “sudden fast rising water,” San Antonio Fire Department spokesperson Joe Arrington said in an email. He said floodwaters swept vehicles into a creek and carried them downstream.

Crews brought in search dogs Thursday afternoon to help find missing people, Arrington said.

By afternoon, crews could be seen pulling heavily damaged vehicles out of the creek.

Calls for water rescues began before sunrise, officials said. Two women and two men were found dead, according to police Chief William McManus, who did not have their ages.

The fire department made 70 water rescues, officials said. Fire officials said that while most of the rescue calls consisted of crews helping drivers from vehicles that were stalled in high water, several “harrowing” calls involved their crews entering swift-moving water to rescue someone.

Fire officials said in a press release that the rescue effort in the area where the people were found dead was “extremely difficult.” Officials said 10 people whose cars had been swept away in that area were rescued from trees and bushes about a mile from where they had entered the water.

The flooding occurred after a round of slow-moving showers and thunderstorms in the San Antonio area during the early morning hours Thursday, said Eric Platt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Over 7 inches (17 centimeters) of rain fell in parts of the San Antonio area, according to the weather service.

By midmorning, flooding was receding, though Platt noted that rain was still falling in some areas. He didn’t expect additional rain to be as heavy as overnight but said anything that falls on saturated ground can lead to flooding.

___

Stengle reported from Dallas.