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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
March 19, 2024

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Latest on flooding: Oklahoma roads, bridges still flooded

The Columbian
Published:

12 p.m. (CDT)

An Oklahoma emergency official says the state is still trying to get a sense of how many residents were displaced or left homeless by recent storms and flooding.

Keli Cain, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, said Thursday that several bridges that service main roads remain flooded in Marshall County, along Oklahoma’s border with Texas, and that some residents are effectively cut off. Atoka and LeFlore counties are also still dealing with the storm fallout.

Cain says some people who had to evacuate their homes in the past few days haven’t been able to return and that the flood threat persists due to swollen waterways.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation says nearly 30 roads in at least 18 mostly rural counties remain closed due to flooding or damage.

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11:50 a.m. (CDT)

Authorities in Central Texas say more rain could hamper their efforts to search for eight people who went missing during the storms and flooding of recent days.

Hays County emergency management coordinator Kharley Smith says more rain is expected Thursday night, and it could shift debris fields and complicate efforts to find entangled victims.

A weekend flash-flood along the Blanco River killed at least four people in the area, including a young boy whose body hasn’t been positively identified.

The recent storms have caused extensive flooding in Texas and Oklahoma and have been blamed for a total of 21 deaths. In addition to the eight missing in Central Texas, searchers are looking for two people who went missing in the Houston area.

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11:35 a.m. (CDT)

The National Weather Service says hail, tornadoes and thunderstorms are possible across the southern Plains and that flooding remains the greatest threat for areas that have received record rainfall.

Steve Goss, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, says much of the area from western Kansas to West Texas should prepare for thunderstorms later Thursday that will be intense and slow moving. He says the storms could dump up to 3 inches of rain on some areas.

Much of Texas and Oklahoma have received record rainfall this month.

Weather service officials in areas of Texas already hit by heavy rains say the threat of thunderstorms will persist throughout the weekend, and that there is a 50 percent chance of them in the Houston, San Antonio and Austin areas.

10:40 a.m. (CDT)

The National Weather Service says hail, tornadoes and thunderstorms are possible across the southern Plains and that flooding remains the greatest threat for areas that have received record rainfall.

Meteorologist Steve Goss, of the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, says much of the area from western Kansas to West Texas should prepare for thunderstorms later Thursday. He says the storms will be intense and slow moving.

Much of Texas and Oklahoma have already received record rainfall this month and forecasters say more rain would likely cause more flooding.

Goss says the storms Thursday are expected to move into the region around noon and could dump up to 3 inches of rain on some areas.

9:35 a.m. (CDT)

Authorities are asking those who live in about 300 homes in the small southeastern Texas city of Wharton to leave due to the risk of flooding.

Wharton emergency management coordinator Steve Johnson says the Colorado River should crest in the city at about 45.5 feet on Friday night or early Saturday.

Paula Favors, a spokeswoman for the city about 60 miles southwest of Houston, says the river was at about 38 feet Thursday morning, a foot below the flood level. She says it spills into low-lying areas at about 43 feet.

Residents of the most at-risk homes haven’t been ordered to leave, but they are being asked to do so.

Mayor Domingo Montalvo Jr. says more than 60 percent of Wharton’s roughly 9,000 residents live in a flood plain.

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9:05 a.m. (CDT)

Arkansas transportation officials have indefinitely closed a section of highway near its border with Texas due to flooding along the Red River.

The Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department shut down the section of State Highway 41 early Thursday. Officials say it will remain closed until the water recedes and engineers can assess the damage.

Senior Meteorologist Jason Hansford with the National Weather Service in Shreveport, Louisiana, says up to an inch of rain could fall in southwest Arkansas on Thursday. He says the area has received 5 to 10 inches of rain this month, which is above average.

Up to 2 more inches are possible this weekend and the weather service warns that additional flooding is possible along the Red River.

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7:35 a.m. (CDT)

The Brazos River is almost cresting in North Texas following days of relentless rains, but officials say no homes have flooded in the closest rural community.

Parker County Emergency Management spokesman Joel Kertok says officials are monitoring the situation Thursday in Horseshoe Bend and will know more as the day progresses.

He says the river, which has a flood level of 21 feet, is close to cresting Thursday at 23.46 feet. It will crest at 23.6 feet.

Residents were asked to evacuate about 250 homes on Wednesday, and Kertok says he believes most people decided to leave. He says residents in the area west of Fort Worth were told to stay away for at least two or three days.

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7:10 a.m. (CDT)

The National Weather Service is warning of new flooding across much of Oklahoma, where creeks, rivers and lakes remain swollen from spring showers.

Meteorologist Michael Scotten, in Norman, says two bouts of bad weather should hit the state Thursday. Morning rainfall will likely dwindle before noon, but a system moving in after 2 p.m. could spawn thunderstorms, hail and tornadoes.

Some parts of the state could see as much as 3 inches of rain. The greatest threat for severe weather Thursday afternoon is in western Oklahoma, where tennis ball sized hail and tornadoes are possible.

The service has issued a flood advisory for central Oklahoma and a flash flood watch for most of the state. Oklahoma City is in its wettest month ever recorded with 19.5 inches of rain.

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6 a.m. (CDT)

While the barrage of deadly thunderstorms that hit Texas this week has tapered off, many cities remain in danger, and officials are warning about possible flooding from rain-swollen rivers.

In suburban Houston, subdivisions along the San Jacinto River are expected to flood.

In Wharton, located southwest of Houston, residents in 300 homes on the west side of the city have been asked to evacuate due to the predicted rise of the Colorado River. And in the North Texas town of Horseshoe Bend, about 250 residents were asked to evacuate their homes, as the Brazos River swelled toward its flood stage Thursday.

The death toll from the storms and flooding has climbed to 21 — 17 in Texas and four in Oklahoma. Houston alone had seven storm-related deaths.

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