Heavy rain across Texas, Louisiana coasts to cause 'significant flood risk'

[May 20, 2021]    (Reuters) - The National Weather Service said late on Wednesday that heavy rain across the Gulf coasts of Texas and Louisiana will continue to result in a significant flood risk into this weekend.

Widespread flash flood watches and flood warnings were already in effect over the south-central United States following several days of heavy rainfall, the NWS said, including parts of Arkansas, Mississippi and Oklahoma.

At one point early Wednesday, more than 100,000 customers were without power in Texas, according to the website PowerOutage.us. By evening, that number was at around 17,700 customers.

In Louisiana, at least four people have died this week as a result of the weather, CNN reported, citing the Louisiana Department of Health.

There were also reports of at least four homes and eight cars impacted by the flooding in Saline County, resulting in about 15 people being rescued, the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management said on Wednesday.

In response to severe flooding threats across Texas, Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday ordered the Texas State Operations Center (SOC) to expand its daily operations to 24 hours a day through Friday.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Jan Harvey)

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