Deadly storms swamp central US, forcing evacuations
SAN MARCOS—A line of storms stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes dumped record rainfall on parts of the Plains and Midwest, spawning tornadoes and causing major flooding that forced at least 2,000 Texans from their homes.
Three deaths were blamed on the storms on Saturday and Sunday, including two in Oklahoma and one in Texas, where a man’s body was recovered from a flooded area along the Blanco River, which rose 7.9 meters (26 feet) in an hour and created huge piles of debris.
The line of storms prompted tornado warnings and watches as far north as Illinois on Sunday night, and the weather system was expected to linger over a large swath of the region on Monday, putting a damper on some Memorial Day plans. Among the worst-affected communities were Wimberley and San Marcos, which are in Central Texas along the Blanco River.
“It looks pretty bad out there,” Hays County emergency management coordinator Kharley Smith said of Wimberley, where an estimated 350 to 400 homes were destroyed and where three people remained missing on late Sunday. “We do have whole streets with maybe one or two houses left on them and the rest are just slabs.”
Kristi Wyatt, a spokesperson for San Marcos, said about 1,000 homes were damaged throughout Hays County, which includes Wimberley and which will be toured on Monday by Gov. Greg Abbott. Five San Marcos police cars were washed away and the fire house was flooded. The city imposed a 9 p.m. Sunday curfew that would remain in place overnight.
Rivers swelled so quickly that whole communities awoke on Sunday surrounded by water. Rescuers used pontoon boats and a helicopter to pull people out.
A tornado briefly touched down on Sunday in Houston, damaging rooftops, toppling trees, blowing out windows and sending at least two people to a hospital. Fire officials said 10 apartments were heavily damaged and 40 others sustained lesser damage.
About 1,000 residents were evacuated from roughly 400 homes near an earthen dam at Lake Lewis, about 50 miles north of Houston.