| Washington Post | - |
WIMBERLEY,
Tex. - Authorities were still searching Tuesday for 13 people,
including three young children, after punishing storms tore through
Texas and Oklahoma, killing at least 17, forcing thousands from their
homes and leaving thousands more without ...
In flood-ravaged Texas, families start their searches for the missing
Families and friends were left waiting for word on the missing and searching through the rubble of houses ripped off their foundations by fast-moving floodwaters. Across a vast swath of the southern plains, people struggled to make sense of the destruction.
“We’ve been here 42 years and never seen anything like this,” said Marie Balke, who lives on a hill in Wimberley several miles from the swollen Blanco River. “You can’t believe the size of the trees that are broken and in the river. It’s such a disaster.”
At least four people died in Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city, which was lashed early Tuesday by the tail end of the storm. Torrential rains caused bayous to swell far beyond their banks, stranding cars on major highways and forcing city officials to suspend bus and rail service and close schools.
Even as authorities were assessing the damage, the region was bracing for more battering storms later in the week.
Texas
leaders say the death toll is rising and more than 4,000 structures
have been damaged after torrential rains caused flooding in the state
during the Memorial Day weekend. (Reuters)
In surrounding Hays County, more than 1,200 people were forced to evacuate and 13 people were missing as of late Tuesday, including several families vacationing together over the long holiday weekend in a cabin on the Blanco River that was torn from its moorings and washed downstream.
Jonathan McComb was in that cabin when the water surged, his father, Joe McComb, said in an interview.
“They heard something terrific hit the poles that were holding the house. Either one or two must have broken, but it was dark and nobody could really see what was going on,” Joe McComb said.
“Whatever it was hit the side of the house, it broke the poles and then the water just lifted the house and started floating downriver.”
Jonathan McComb’s wife, Laura, was in the cabin at the time, along with their children — Andrew, 6, and Leighton, 3 — and their dog, Maggie. Two other couples were also inside, one with another young child.
The cabin was pulled along by the river until it smashed into a bridge, broke apart and dumped its occupants into the water.
“Everybody got separated from everybody,” Joe McComb said.
Jonathan McComb lost sight of his family before making his way to shore. He climbed out of the water near San Marcos, about 12 miles downstream from where he had been staying.
“He’s real beat up, but he’ll recover. It’s a miracle,” McComb said, adding that the family is now “hoping that another miracle will happen and all or some of them will be found.”
Others managed to sleep through the maelstrom. Barbara Eakin, 83, woke at daybreak, later than usual, and realized her alarm had not gone off because the power was out. She headed downstairs and “was halfway down when my foot hit mud,” she said.
At first, she thought a tornado had hit. Then she looked out the window and saw other houses standing. Slowly, it dawned on her that the river had run right through her home.
“Everything was topsy-turvy, including two refrigerators,” Eakin said. “There wasn’t anything left standing.”
Southwest of San Antonio, flash flooding swept away Devine High School homecoming queen Alyssa Ramirez, 18, who had been on her way home from her high school prom.
Ramirez was a “super, super young lady,” said Linda McAnelly, superintendent of schools for the Devine Independent School District. “Vivacious. Happy. Beautiful, in and out. She had a strong faith in God.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) declared states of emergency in 32 counties, adding them to 13 others where emergencies had been declared after torrential rains earlier this month. Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) declared emergencies in all of the state’s 77 counties.
In Washington, President Obama said he had spoken with Abbott on Tuesday and offered federal assistance.
“We have FEMA personnel already on the ground,” Obama said.
The storms swept through the region from late Saturday to early Tuesday. Although they caused millions of dollars in damage, heavy rain over the weekend and through much of the past month has eased the extreme drought that had gripped much of Texas and Oklahoma. Oklahoma City and the Texas cities of Wichita Falls and Corpus Christi are all in the midst of their wettest months on record.
Houston is in the midst of its eighth-wettest May on record. Monday night, the rain fell in buckets, with as much as an inch falling in just five minutes, according to local flood records. The city activated its highest level of emergency operations management Tuesday for the first time since Hurricane Ike struck in 2008, officials said.
The flooding paralyzed Houston, swamping major highways and leaving abandoned cars bobbing like buoys.
“The challenge is that most of the city is fine and the streets are clear. And people don’t realize that just a mile away, they have a dangerous condition,” Houston Mayor Annise Parker said at a news conference.
Many city workers were told to come in to work late, and court hearings were canceled. Meanwhile, because of the flooding, fans at Monday night’s NBA playoff game between the Houston Rockets and the Golden State Warriors were asked to remain inside the Toyota Center after the game’s end.
By late Tuesday afternoon, tens of thousands of people were still without power, according to CenterPoint Energy. The Houston-based company said it was sending out hundreds of inspectors to assess the damage.
In Oklahoma, at least seven people died in accidents attributed to the storms. Six people were killed by flooding, while one person was killed by a tornado, the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said late Tuesday. They included a firefighter who died while attempting a water rescue, a woman who died in a traffic accident in Tulsa, and two other men who died of unspecified causes, according to the state’s Department of Emergency Management.
Oklahoma emergency officials say there have been 11 storm-related deaths in the state since May 5.
In the Sooner State, too, the latest storms closed roadways and left thousands without power. At least two places — the town of Silo and McCurtain County — were left without drinking water because of flood damage. People were trapped in rental cabins and homes by the rising water, while dozens of head of cattle and calves were stranded on an island, emergency officials said.
A tornado in Atoka, in the southern part of the state, significantly damaged four homes and injured one person, emergency officials said.
Tornadoes were also reported in Texas, around Houston and Austin, as well as in Coryell and Lampasas counties. Across the Rio Grande in Mexico, a deadly tornado ravaged the border town of Ciudad Acuña on Monday, killing more than a dozen people and damaging hundreds of homes.
For newcomers to Texas more accustomed to the recent drought, the storms were a harsh welcome. Lou Conter, who retired from Defense Department, moved with his wife from Maryland to Wimberley in January.
On Tuesday, Conter was using a rake to comb through the muck on the riverbank near the house they were renting. They were out of town when the rain started Saturday night and returned to find the house nearly gone. Only the front wall was still standing.
“I still love Texas,” Conter said, shrugging. “But this puts a damper on it.”
Harper
is a freelance writer. Berman reported from Washington. Angela Fritz,
Sarah Larimer and Sarah Kaplan in Washington contributed to this report.
Mark
Berman is a reporter on the National staff. He runs Post Nation, a
destination for breaking news and developing stories from around the
country.
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