Tag Archives: Texas Flooding

Nine Soldiers identified in Fort Hood, Texas flooding tragedy

Undated photograph of the U.S. Army post at Fort Hood, Texas

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Nine U.S. soldiers are now known to have died when a troop carrier overturned this week during a training exercise at the U.S. Army base of Food Hood in Texas, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said on Saturday.

“Based on initial reports it was a troop carrier that overturned in a stream,” Carter told a news conference on the sidelines of a security conference in Singapore in reference to Thursday’s incident.

“An investigation is under way. As always, we’ll get to the bottom of this incident and others that occurred this week.”

Also on Thursday, a pilot from the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron was killed when his F/A-18 fighter crashed in Smyrna, Tennessee.

Marine Captain Jeff Kuss of Durango, Colorado, had taken off to start a practice ahead of a weekend air show when he went down about 2 miles (3.2 km) from the runway.

In Colorado the same day, a pilot with the Air Force’s Thunderbirds squadron was unhurt when his F-16 jet crashed in a field 5 miles (8 km) south of Peterson Air Force Base.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Tom Hogue)

At least 12 have died in Texas flooding, Prisons evacuated

Texas Game Warden Jeff Gillenwaters and Chris Zimmer, deputy director for Fort Hood's Directorate of Emergency Services, discuss search and recovery efforts for four missing soldiers in Fort Hood

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – At least 12 people, including five Army soldiers, have died in Texas due to torrential rain in the past week which has also damaged hundreds of homes and led the state to evacuate three prison facilities, officials said on Friday.

The U.S. Army and local rescue teams were using boats, helicopters and sniffer dogs to search for four soldiers who went missing when their military vehicle overturned in a flood-swollen creek on Thursday at Fort Hood in central Texas.

Five other soldiers in the vehicle were killed while three more who survived were expected to be released from a hospital as early as Friday, a military official told a news conference.

“This tragedy extends well beyond Fort Hood and the outpouring of support from around the country is sincerely appreciated,” Major General John Uberti told reporters.

The vehicle overturned at a low-water crossing and military officials have not said why the convoy was training near a swollen waterway. The sprawling army post covering an area about 15 times larger than Manhattan was closing down flood-hit roads when the accident took place.

There was likely one more flood-related death in the state, San Antonio police said on Friday, after recovering the body of a man caught in metal bars at a river drainage site in the city.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice began evacuating on Friday about 1,700 inmates at its Ramsey Unit in Rosharon, about 30 miles (50 km) south of Houston, due to flooding along the Brazos River.

It evacuated about 2,600 inmates from two other facilities earlier this week due to flooding on the same river. Many of the inmates were sent to other units with available beds, it said.

The National Weather Service has placed large parts of Texas and Louisiana on a flash flood watch, including Houston and New Orleans.

Heavy rains are forecast to hit Houston and eastern Texas through the weekend, likely causing more flooding, it said. Some areas could see as much as 7 inches (18 cm).

“Due to already saturated soils, even fairly brief, intense rainfall rates can easily cause roadway and low-land flooding over urban areas,” it said.

More than 150 flights have been canceled at airports in Dallas and Houston as of 1:00 p.m. (1800 GMT) on Friday due to the weather, according to tracking service FlightAware.com.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Additional reporting by Jim Forsyth in San Antonio; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and James Dalgleish)

Evacuations in Texas after worst flooding in 100 years

Mobile home park flooded following heavy rains in Richmond, Texas

By Jim Forsyth

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) – Mandatory evacuations were ordered on Tuesday along the swollen Brazos River in Texas ahead of what could be the worst flooding in more than 100 years after at least six people died.

Forecasters predicted more rain as the Brazos rose to levels not seen in 103 years after heavy rainfall late last week and was expected to crest at about 53 feet on Tuesday, according to emergency officials in Fort Bend County, located southwest of Houston.

Jeff Braun, director of the Fort Bend County emergency management office, said many parts of the county would experience water levels “not seen in our lifetime.”

Dozens of people have been rescued from cars and homes in the past 24 hours, according to the agency’s website.

“The water level is going to stay at the same level for 24 to 36 hours before there will be a slow decrease,” Braun said. “If you flood, you’re going to have the water there for a while.”

The storm system dumped up to 22 inches (56 cm) of rain in just a few hours, killed at least six people last week, according to local authorities.

SECURITY TO STOP LOOTING

In Simonton, Texas, in Fort Bend County, officials provided transportation to help residents leave their homes as well as security to prevent looting.

The American Red Cross opened additional shelters in the Houston area.

Several rivers in southeast and eastern Texas were in “major flood stage.” While relatively rare, forecasters have seen a number of such events in Texas over the past year, said National Weather Service meteorologist Patrick Burke.

A swath of Texas including San Antonio, Austin and Houston has been hardest hit, although other areas in the state have also been affected by flooding, including Dallas-Fort Worth, Burke said.

More than 20 inches of rain have fallen over some parts of southeast Texas during the last month, 8 to 10 inches above normal, Burke said.

An area between the Texas cities of College Station and Houston received 17 inches in one extreme situation late last week, he said.

More rain is forecast this week, which could lead to additional flooding, the weather service said. Moderate and heavy rain will hit western and central Texas, then move east, drenching San Antonio, Austin and Houston on Wednesday and Thursday, Burke said.

“This will certainly prolong the problems they’re having there,” Burke said.

(Additional reporting and writing by Suzannah Gonzales; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jeffrey Benkoe)

More storms for hard hit Houston, 5 dead

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Scores of schools were closed and cleanup was underway in Houston on Tuesday, a day after record rains hits the fourth most populous U.S. city, causing floods that left five dead and led to more than 1,000 water rescues.

The National Weather Service has put a flash flood watch in effect for large parts of the Houston area and into southwestern Louisiana on Tuesday. As much as 18 inches (45 cm) fell in some areas of Harris County, which contains Houston, and the weather service said heaviest daily rain records were set on Monday at the two main airports in the city.

More storms have been forecast for already saturated parts of Texas on Tuesday. About 9,000 customers were without power in the Houston area on Tuesday morning, a sharp decrease from more than 100,000 a day earlier, CenterPoint Energy said.

Flood waters that blocked roads to downtown and other main areas of the city have largely receded, with officials saying most people should be able to make it back to work.

“The city is back to normal operations but be careful driving in. Now we plan to help people recover from the flooding waters,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a tweet.

As of 8 a.m. CDT (1300 GMT), there were more than 100 flight cancellations on Tuesday at Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport, according to tracking service FlightAware.com. More than 1,000 flights were canceled at major Texas airports on Monday due to the storms.

Rains in other parts of the state were expected to cause rivers to crest later in the week, bringing floods to downstream areas, the weather service said.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz and Erwin Seba Editing by W Simon)