The threat of major flooding will begin to recede in the region on Tuesday as the storms move eastward toward Louisiana and Mississippi. Parts of East and Southeast Texas remain at a slight risk for excessive rainfall on Tuesday.
“I’ve been here 13 years and this is by far the worst it’s ever flooded,” Thompson said of Hickory Creek, which runs through town.
When he walked into his heavy equipment rental business Monday morning, 3 inches of water quickly covered the floor. Within an hour, he told KTVT, the water had risen to about a foot. He said he will have to close the store for about a week to assess and clean up the damage.
The Fort Worth Fire Department responded to 500 calls for service and performed 174 high water rescues and searches, the department said on Twitter. The Dallas Fire Department responded to 195 high water incidents and rescued 21 people and 10 dogs, the department said in a tweet.
Brittany Taylor moved into her Dallas apartment just two days before the flood. Many of her belongings were still packed in cardboard boxes, which were soaked from water.
“The last thing I expected was to wake up in my brand new apartment flooded,” she said. “There was just water gushing out of the front door of the apartment. My refrigerator started floating away.”
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins declared a state of disaster for the county on Monday and asked for federal and state aid to deal with the damage, he said in a tweet.
Jenkins also announced that an unnamed woman was killed when her vehicle was swept away by floodwaters. Her car “probably” drifted off the road and was found when the water receded, according to Mesquite Fire Chief Russell Wilson.
The relentless downpour drenched an area that had been under extreme drought for the past few months. More than a quarter of Texas is under a higher drought designation, including the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The same storm system hit parts of the Southwest over the weekend and continues to threaten parts of the region, with about 9 million people across the South under a flood watch Tuesday.
Drivers were forced to abandon cars in high water
The overwhelming water level caught many residents by surprise as it rushed into homes and onto highways. Several local authorities urged residents not to drive in high water on Monday as flooding filled roads. The Dallas Police Department warned residents of numerous road closures in a tweet Monday afternoon, adding that water “is still standing on some roads, along with debris and abandoned cars.” In downtown Dallas, Cassondra Anna Mae Stewart was driving home at 3 a.m. when she noticed Interstate 30 was beginning to fill with water, she told CNN. Videos taken from the scene show water lapping over the car’s wheels as rain continues to fall on the road. “I was able to back up on an on-ramp to get off the freeway,” he said. “I took an alternate route home… although most roads are flooded down there too.” Hundreds of traffic accidents were reported during the flooding, according to Dallas police. Traffic through Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport was also severely affected, with hundreds of flights to and from the airport canceled and about half of its departures delayed, according to tracking website FlightAware. The heavy inflow of water caused sewers to overflow at various locations throughout Dallas, the city said in a statement Monday, noting that the city’s water system has not been affected. “None of the diluted sewage overflows affected the city’s water supply,” said Dallas Department of Public Works Assistant Director Zachary Peoples. The city recommends that some people in affected areas use boiled or distilled water. The sudden rainfall comes amid a “hilarious drought” that has brought an exceptionally dry year to parts of Texas, including areas affected by this week’s flooding. During the first half of the year, parts of the state experienced rainfall deficits of between 8-10 inches, according to the Drought Monitor. But those shortages will be largely eliminated in Dallas because of the flooding, while other areas will continue to experience them, the agency said. In less than 24 hours between Sunday and Monday, Dallas received an entire summer’s worth of rain — more than 7 inches. The frequency and intensity of rainfall over land has increased with each degree of global warming since the 1980s. A large share of rainfall in recent years has occurred during “intense, one-day events”, which scientists say will become more common due to the climate crisis, along with sudden shifts from severe drought to heavy rainfall.
Flooding rainfall is moving east
The wave of flooding rain is creeping east on Tuesday morning and will continue its slow progress over the next two days. The massive swath of moisture that gradually overran northern Louisiana overnight will continue to bloom as the day breaks, the National Weather Service in Louisiana wrote Tuesday morning. “A very wet weather pattern will continue across parts of the southern US from Texas to the lower Mississippi Valley over the next several days,” the Weather Prediction Center wrote Tuesday morning. The WPC said locations such as the Dallas-Fort Worth area that received heavy rainfall in the past 24 hours should be on the western fringes of heavy rainfall. “The heaviest rainfall should shift eastward across northern Louisiana today,” the WPC added. “This is followed by central and southern Mississippi on Wednesday where rainfall totals 3-5 inches with locally higher amounts possible over the next few days.” A moderate risk — level 3 out of 4 — for excessive precipitation was issued by the WPC for people living in northern Louisiana and parts of southern Arkansas and central Mississippi. This means the WPC believes there is a 40% chance these storms will cause flash flooding similar to what this storm caused Monday in Texas. “Parts of northeast Texas into northwest Louisiana have the potential for 48-hour rainfall amounts approaching 6-8 inches,” the WPC said. CNN’s Brandon Miller, Caitlin Kaiser, Caroll Alvarado, Ross Levitt, Payton Major, Angela Fritz, Alisha Ebrahimji and Jennifer Henderson contributed to this report.
