South-Central Texas Cleans Up After Rains
The sun was finally out over South and Central Texas on Sunday after days of torrential rain that left an Amtrak train stranded, flooded roads and sent Boy Scouts on a camping trip fleeing for their lives.
"It's hard to look at, when you walk in that kitchen and where I cook and you see everything upside down and all that mud," restaurant owner Bill Keich told CBS News correspondent Hari Sreenavasan.
The hardwood floor of his restaurant has been turned soft by four feet of water, and the kitchen will have to be thoroughly disinfected before he can reopen.
As much as 17 inches of rain had fallen in some areas between 10 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday, said Pat McDonald, a National Weather Service forecaster. Dozens of people were rescued, some by helicopter, but no serious injuries were reported in the state's latest round of flooding.
"I just quickly got the kids and put 'em on the roof because I wasn't going to risk it," resident Joann Still told CBS News.
Only isolated showers were forecast through Tuesday, but several Central Texas rivers were either at flood stage or expected to reach that level Sunday night or Monday, McDonald said. Those included the San Marcos, Guadalupe, Medina, San Antonio, Nueces and Frio rivers.
The high water posed little threat to homes but was a problem for some recreational areas and ranches, he said.
A Boy Scout troop from suburban Fort Worth camping on the Guadalupe River had to make a quick getaway early Saturday when the water rose rapidly. No one was injured, but the troop lost five vehicles, including its 15-passenger van, to the waters north of San Antonio, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.
"I've never seen water rise like that," Juan Ramirez, one of 15 Scouts on the outing, told the newspaper. "We barely got out of our tent."
"We came back down later to see whatever gear we could retrieve and we retrieved it, but lost five vehicles and two trailers," said Boy Scout leader Randy Forrester.
An Amtrak train was halted Saturday morning in Knippa, a town about 75 miles west of San Antonio, and 176 passengers had to be offloaded from the train when high waters closed more than 35 miles of track, reports Sreenavasan.
Buses drove most passengers Saturday evening to El Paso, where they boarded another train and were under way by 10 p.m., Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham said Sunday. A few passengers caught trains at other stops between San Antonio and El Paso, Graham said.
Knippa, where the train halted, has no motels, reports the San Antonio Express-News.
A woman who authorities say drove a minivan around road barricades south of Austin and became stuck in floodwaters with two children was charged with child endangerment.
Laura Delarosa, 30, of Dripping Springs, was arrested Saturday after rescue workers got her and the children — a 9-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy — to safety.
The National Weather Service confirmed a small tornado in Guadalupe County near Seguin on Saturday about 5:25 a.m. Four businesses and at least one house were damaged, Guadalupe County Sheriff's Cpl. John Batey said Saturday.
In the first three weeks of this month, 15 inches of rain has fallen in Corpus Christi, reports CBS News meteorologist George Cullen. "Normally, from Jan. 1 to the end of July, the area gets about 16 inches total and that's for seven months!" Cullen said, "so this has been one of their wettest months ever recorded."