Texas welcomes sunshine after days of floods that killed 25

[June 01, 2015]  By Lisa Maria Garza and Jim Forsyth
 
 DALLAS/SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Sunshine and drier weather were forecast for most of flood-weary Texas after days of heavy rain, giving swollen rivers a chance to recede and relief workers and residents time to assess the damage and start a massive clean-up, officials said on Sunday.

Severe flooding has killed at least 25 people and prompted U.S. President Barack Obama to declare a disaster in the state, which endured record rainfall in May.

Flooding this week turned streets into rivers, ripped homes off foundations, swept away thousands of vehicles and trapped people in their cars and houses.

"We should dry out and have nice weather for the first time in about a month," said National Weather Service forecaster Rich Thompson.

Rivers and lakes in the Houston, Dallas and Austin areas were hovering at dangerously high levels, and first responders were still fielding emergency calls.

An 8-year-old girl drowned in Dallas County on Saturday when her family's vehicle hit an embankment from a highway and plummeted into flood waters, Raul Reyna, spokesman for the county sheriff said, pushing the death toll from flooding to 25. Two adults and three children were rescued in the incident and were in stable condition.

Flooding intensified in Dallas on Sunday as water flowed over a spillway of one of its largest lakes, rushing into the rain-swollen Trinity River.

Some two dozen roads were closed in one of the busiest commercial areas in northwest Dallas, as were some interstate entrance ramps. The Office of Emergency Management warned of rising water and street flooding.

Two kayakers were rescued on Sunday from the Trinity, which has crested at 43 feet. The bodies of two women were removed from the Blanco River in Hays County outside Austin on Saturday.

Warmer, drier conditions could allow the Trinity, the Blanco and other rain-swollen rivers gradually to recede over the next week, Thompson said.

In the Houston area, the cost to clear debris from neighborhoods, bayous and other areas will reach about $15 million, and more than 1,400 homes have sustained flood damage to some extent, Harris County emergency management spokesman Francisco Sanchez said.

Estimates also show more than $25 million in damage to critical infrastructure and utilities, with more than $4 million to public buildings, Sanchez said.

Southeast of San Antonio, more than 160 homes near the city of Victoria have been flooded or threatened by rising waters, though there have been no injuries, the county sheriff's office said.

(Reporting by Lisa Maria Garza and Marice Richter in Dallas and Jim Forsyth in San Antonio; Writing and additional reporting by Eric M. Johnson; Editing by Diane Craft and Chris Michaud)

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