Texas Shudders As Rain Lashes, Threatens Many Regions

<p>Flood-weary Texans were bracing for heavy rain and possible flooding as the remnants of Tropical Storm Bill crept farther inland, moving north across the central part of the state.</p>

Wednesday, June 17th 2015, 8:08 am

By: News 9


Flood-weary Texans were bracing for heavy rain and possible flooding as the remnants of Tropical Storm Bill crept farther inland, moving north across the central part of the state.

The National Hurricane Center downgraded Bill to a tropical depression early Wednesday, with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph as of 5 a.m. EDT. Bill was some 45 miles south of Waco and moving north at about 13 mph, the center said.

Slow weakening was forecast over the next two days.

Still, Bill was expected to produce 4 to 8 inches of rain over eastern Texas and eastern Oklahoma and 3 to 6 inches over western Arkansas and southern Missouri. Isolated areas in Texas and Oklahoma could get up to a foot of rain, the center said.

After last month's historic rains and floods, the forecast was expected to complicate ongoing flood-containment efforts.

The center of the storm was expected to move northward just west of the Interstate 35 corridor, dropping 4 to 5 inches of rain on areas of Central Texas still cleaning up and recovering from Memorial Day weekend floods that left 14 dead and two missing along the Blanco River alone in Blanco and Hays counties.

Gov. Greg Abbott was expected to receive a briefing from state emergency officials Wednesday morning in Austin.

The storm made its way to Sealy, Texas overnight, about an hour west of Houston, submerging many streets, reports CBS News correspondent Omar Villafranca.

It also spurred several rescues.

On the Gulf Coast, Bill lashed the shoreline of Galveston, Texas, spilling over the island's seawall and flooding its roads, Villafranca says.

Bill hit land as a tropical storm with 60 mile per hour wind gusts, whipping palm trees. Cars' headlights poked through the nearly blinding rain.

"Living in Galveston in the past 3 years, haven't seen anything like this," one resident said.

The swells shattered a pier in Port Alto, where rushing floodwaters swept through the beachside community.

Meanwhile, in North Texas, Dallas authorities were monitoring road conditions and Arlington residents were picking up sandbags being offered for free by city officials.

"We're more vulnerable to flooding right now than usual because we just got through the wettest month on record," Texas state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon said.

The Memorial Day weekend storms brought widespread flooding to Oklahoma and Texas, killing more than 30 people overall. At one point last month, 11 inches of rain fell in some parts of the Houston area, resulting in flooding that damaged thousands of homes and other structures and forced motorists to abandon at least 2,500 vehicles across Houston.

Rafael Lemaitre, spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said FEMA has paid nearly $38 million this year in Texas flood insurance claims, with the vast majority associated with last month's deluge.

Personnel from FEMA who were sent to Texas and Oklahoma after those storms were to remain in the region to help prepare for the tropical storm and help clean up in its aftermath, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Tuesday.

Major flooding could occur along the Trinity River as it extends through East Texas, according to the weather service, with one portion northeast of Houston nearly 4 feet above flood stage Tuesday. The Guadalupe River north of Corpus Christi also was swollen as it ran more than 5 feet above flood stage.

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