Texas flooding prompts dozens of rescues as torrential rain slams region

With torrential rain triggering dangerous flash flooding in central Texas, authorities have rescued dozens of people from rising floodwaters.

Texas Game Wardens were seen in a video wading through waist-deep water to rescue a family, including a young child, as water quickly rose around their home.

More than 70 people have been saved so far from floodwaters, Gov. Greg Abbott told reporters Thursday. People have been rescued from homes, submerged vehicles and vehicles that were swept off roadways, according to the Texas Game Wardens.

At least one person has died in the flooding, Abbott said. The governor urged people to stay away from floodwaters, which he said will continue to rise, and to seek high ground if they encounter a dangerous situation.

"We have helicopters flying over, we have drones flying over, we're looking at every square inch of the entire area for anybody who may be stranded anywhere, and there will be help coming very rapidly to whoever may be displaced wherever they are," Abbott said.

In Uvalde, police told people living close to the Leona River to move to higher ground because it overflowed and there was a threat of a 20-foot wall of water rushing into the city.

Flooding inundates communities in Texas

More than a foot of rain has fallen since Monday, some of it coming down as fast as 3 inches an hour, washing over roads and covering cars.

"It was bad," Ryan Whaley of Boerne, outside of San Antonio, said while standing next to floodwaters rushing down a street. "All this was under water, and that's when the game wardens came in, they put their boats in, and they were going down the river, and all that stuff. It just rose really, really fast."

People told CBS News the Medina River is usually ankle-deep, but the river has risen amid the rainfall with creeks and springs feeding into it.

In one area, high water carried a group of deer down a flooded creek.

"I don't want to mince words about how serious this situation is," Chris Shadrock, director of communications and civic engagement for Boerne, said in a video posted to social media. "We are seeing flood conditions that we have not seen since 2015."

The region could end up with half a year's worth of rain in just days.

The same storm system spun up a tornado near San Antonio, causing power transformers to spark near a busy highway.

Powerful winds reached up to 100 mph, damaging businesses and ripping the roof off an apartment building.