No Relief For Rain-Weary Texas
For some folks living along a rain-swollen river, another day of downpours meant watching and waiting — but not leaving.
Despite storms that have claimed 11 lives since last week in North and Central Texas, some in Parker County — who say they've weathered floods before — ignored the evacuations ordered for about 2,000 residents near the Brazos River.
The river was more than 2 feet above its flood stage Thursday night but had gone down nearly a foot by Friday morning. Still, it was expected to rise and cause more flooding if another flood gate was opened at Possum Kingdom Lake's dam, which officials said could be done to prevent the dam from breaking if more rain comes.
Large portions of North Texas remained under a flash flood watch Friday afternoon. The rains had tapered off and become more isolated, but National Weather Service meteorologist Greg Patrick said storms could cluster and create a more widespread threat of flooding by the weekend.
In the area about 20 miles south of Weatherford, rescuers used a boat to get four children out of a house, although their grandparents chose to stay, said Janice Stroud, Parker County's assistant emergency management coordinator.
"If people don't want to leave, we can't force them to," she said.
A similar situation is happening along the record-high Lake Leon near Eastland, about 90 miles west of Fort Worth. About 25 people still refuse to leave their homes, three days after evacuations were ordered for the 150 or so homes near the lake that has already flooded dozens of homes, said Lt. Sam Williams of the Eastland Fire Department.
"They're in the most dangerous areas," he said Friday. "We certainly are (worried). They've been contacted two or three times to leave."
About a dozen people evacuated Thursday from along Gonzolus Creek in the Stephens County town of Breckenridge in North Texas.
In West Texas, Brownwood officials and volunteers bagged more than 40 tons of sandbags to give away in case of more rain, and two roads remained closed in the city. Several people around Lake Brownwood picked up sand, said Emergency Management Coordinator James Cook.
In San Antonio, there were 52 street closures and 43 calls for high-water rescues, although it's unclear how many people were rescued, said Sandy Gutierrez, a spokeswoman for San Antonio's Emergency Operations Center.
In Marble Falls near Austin, which received the brunt of a deluge earlier in the week, cleanup efforts were under way, and Gov. Rick Perry was scheduled to fly over the area to survey damage Friday.
Bottled water had to be handed out because the water treatment plant was damaged during the storm, CBS News correspondent Hari Sreenivasan reports, leaving most of the Marble Falls' 7,200 residents without running water.
Despite periods of drizzle, residents began clearing the debris, rubble and mud from the streets.
"We're through the crisis point and now we're at the point it's time to roll up our sleeves and get dirty," Mayor Raymond Whitman said.
It's the wettest year on record in Austin, with more than 30 inches of rain since January, and Dallas-Fort Worth, Waco and Wichita Falls have received near-record amounts. The rainfall has more than compensated for a drought that gripped much of Texas in 2005-06, National Weather Service meteorologist Mark Lenz said.
All 77 of Oklahoma's counties were under a state of emergency late Thursday. Officials said 46 homes in Pottawatomie County sustained major damage. Three water rescues were performed Thursday in Kingfisher County in central Oklahoma.
The National Weather Service on Thursday recorded rainfall in Oklahoma City for the 16th straight day, two days longer than the previous record, set from May 29 to June 11 in 1937. Forecasters predicted the rain could continue for several more days.