KERRVILLE, Texas – While floodwaters have receded in some of the hardest-hit areas of the Texas Hill Country on Thursday, the heaviest rain led to rising waters Friday in other parts of Texas.
Flash Flood Emergencies
Happening now:
Flash Flood Emergencies were issued for the towns of Sonora and Ozona, southwest of San Angelo. Forecasters warned of life-threatening flooding in the west-central Texas towns and urged people to move to higher ground.
“Between 3.5 and 7 inches of rain have fallen,” the National Weather Service office in San Angelo said in its warning. “Additional rainfall amounts of 1 to 3 inches are possible in the warned area. Flash flooding is already occurring.”
Photos from the Ozona area showed at least 2 feet of water covering FM Road 2083 on Friday morning.
Crockett County officials said that Eureka Draw was out of it banks and had flooded part of Interstate 10 about 10 miles west of Ozona.
Photos posted by Sutton County Emergency Management showed damaging flooding in Sonora, including submerged vehicles, water-covered roads and waterlogged buildings. One photos showed a large piece of what appeared to be large tanks lodged against a bridge.
Forecasters expect the worst of the rain to wind down by Friday evening and a drying trend to return to inland Texas this weekend.
Kerr County and Uvalde County Flooding
What’s new:
Close to 30 inches of rain has fallen in parts of south central Texas over the past three days.
Thankfully, as of Friday morning, that rain is now slowing and the floodwaters from the Guadalupe River and elsewhere have been receding, giving the region a much-needed break.
FOX 4 Meteorologist Josh Johns, who was reporting from Kerrville in Kerr County, said the river appeared to be about 12 to 15 feet lower than it was at this point on Thursday.
The water was flowing fast enough to fill up an Olympic-sized swimming pool in about 2 seconds on Thursday morning. On Friday morning, would take about 20 seconds, he said.
“So that kind of gives you an idea of how much less volume is flowing down the river. Still, you can hear the roar from it. You can see the waves from it as the rapids continue to move downstream from the Guadalupe River,” he said.
During a news conference on Friday afternoon, Kerr County officials said they are now assessing the damage throughout the county. At least six bridges have been damaged, and some others are still inaccessible.
There was one bridge in Uvalde County that collapsed overnight. The Texas Department of Public Safety said the FM 481 bridge failed due to flooding.
People are still urged to avoid the area and never drive around barricades.
Texas Flooding Deaths
What we know:
The death count still stands at two – a 65-year-old man who died when his RV was swept away in Kerr County and a 74-year-old man who died when his car was swept off a flooded roadway in Uvalde County.
Family members identified the victim in Kerr County as John Mark Steward.
Steward’s wife, Jennie, was away on a business trip to North Texas when the flooding hit. “My heart is broken, I am devastated. My husband, Mark, was found and went to be with Jesus. Thank you for all the search and rescue people,” she wrote on social media.
“He couldn’t make it over from that house to this one because the stream was extremely strong and high,” Mike Eifert, Steward’s neighbor, told FOX 4’s Alex Boyer. “After that, he got in contact again, and he told me that the house was falling apart.”
Kerr County officials said they have identified the owners of all vehicles and RVs that were swept down the river. At this point, they are all accounted for and there are no other reports of missing people.
The Uvalde Police Department said the victim in their area was a man whose vehicle was swept off U.S. Highway 83. Police said his family resides out of the state and ignored warnings not to proceed up the roadway.
While there were fewer lives lost during this year’s devastating flood, there were still hundreds of rescues. Texas Game Wardens and other first responders used boats and helicopters to help families trapped due to the high water.
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