Texas Flooding
Most of Del Rio was under water today as remnants of Tropical Storm Charley inundated the region along the U.S.-Mexico border, and 16 people were reported dead with 20 or more missing.
"It's really bad right now," said Patty Mancha, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Border Patrol in Del Rio. "We're actually stranded in Del Rio. There's no way to get out."
Law enforcement agencies closed nearly every major highway leading into Del Rio, a city of 34,000 people about 145 miles west of San Antonio.
"All the rivers are out of their banks," said Chris Steinbruck, a police dispatcher in Uvalde, about 70 miles east of Del Rio. "This is disastrous. It's just unbelievable."
Del Rio police officer John Wilson said 20 to 30 people were unaccounted for today. "We're still recovering bodies and all the low crossings, the creeks, have flooded," he said.
Neighborhoods around the flooded creeks were under water, Wilson said. Two or three blocks of homes were washed away, he said, along with "a whole bunch of mobile homes."
Tropical Storm Charley rolled ashore from the Gulf of Mexico late Friday and early Saturday. It quickly weakened into a tropical depression but the remnants of the system have sat nearly stationary over Del Rio, pouring water on a region that had been suffering drought conditions.
The National Weather Service said Del Rio got a record 11.87 inches of rain on Sunday, pushing its total so far this month to 14.59 inches. The city's previous record for the entire month of August was only 6.10 inches.
There were unofficial reports of up to 16 inches of rain in parts of the Del Rio area on Sunday, and of as much as 8 inches this morning.
The weather service lost contact with its Rio Grande flood gauge at Del Rio early today. The river floods at 8 feet and was already up to 15.5 feet by 4 a.m., said meteorologist Cristy Mitchell.
Ms. Mancha reported two flooding deaths in Del Rio today. And Mexico's news agency Notimex reported nine people died in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, when they were washed away while trying to cross an arroyo holding a rope.
Elsewhere in Texas, four people, including two young children, were killed and six others were injured Sunday when a pickup truck was swept into a creek in Real County about 100 miles northwest of San Antonio.
"Three of the bodies were found inside the truck. They never made it out," said state Trooper Jacob Sanchez. Another was found later about a quarter-mile away.
The pickup had been loaded with 18 people, but seven got out before the driver tried to go through a low-water crossing covered with four feet of water, authorities said. The driver was missing.
At Garner State Park, located along the Frio River in Uvalde County, a 65-year-old man died Sunday of a heart attack while being evacuated. Occupants of about 100 of the park's campsites had to be moved to higher groud, said park superintendent Jim Wilson.
Mitchell said forecasters had expected the storm to drift westward into Mexico on Sunday, but it confounded those expectations, stalling between Uvalde and Del Rio and reversing its course.
About 400 refugees sought shelter at the Guadalupe Catholic Church, which serves the flooded San Felipe neighborhood, police said.
"We had evacuated a lot of people before the flood waters got too high," Castillo said. "We have a lot of people in shelters. I don't know how many."