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2 adults, 4 children killed in Texas flooding

Waters rose within minutes in muddy residential cul-de-sac

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The owners of Oxbow Bakery, along with friends and valued customers, combed through the stores inventory of antiques trying to salvage what they could of items damaged by flash flood Friday, April 29, 2016.
The owners of Oxbow Bakery, along with friends and valued customers, combed through the stores inventory of antiques trying to salvage what they could of items damaged by flash flood Friday, April 29, 2016. (Pennylynn Webb/The Herald-Press via AP) Photo Gallery

FORT WORTH, Texas — Lisa Asberry Davis said Saturday that she and her three children waded to safety in water up to their chins after torrential rains swamped an East Texas cul-de-sac during the night, forcing some residents onto rooftops.

Firefighters lifted them out of the water at a rescue point but Davis’ cousin and the woman’s four great-grandchildren who lived down the street in Palestine, Texas, didn’t make it.

The bodies of Davis’ cousin Lenda Asberry, 64, and her great-grandchildren, Jamonicka Johnson, 6; Von Anthony Johnson Jr., 7; Devonte Asberry, 8; and Venetia Asberry, 9, were found in the receding water. The bodies of two of the children were in a front yard, near the street. Asberry and the two other children were found behind the neighborhood, Palestine police spokesman Nate Smith said.

A sixth body found later Saturday, was identified as Giovani Olivas, 30, of Palestine, who was swept under the flood waters.

Merta White was waiting for rescue from the roof of her house when she saw a bump in the water, the Palestine Herald-Press reported.”I thought it was a mailbox, but then I realized what it really was, and I started screaming,” she said of seeing the body.

In less than an hour, more than 7 inches of rain had accumulated at the city’s water treatment plant.

“The water got up here extraordinarily quickly. The individuals tried to get out; however, the water was already on the roof of the home,” said Palestine Police Capt. James Muniz.

Officials used a dump truck to rescue a man from a residential roof, Muniz said. One neighbor told authorities that he lost sight of the family who died as he waded through water.

“The water came down the hill,” Muniz said. “The street was full of mud, so the water just came up. With the enormous amount of rain we had, we had people tell us that within minutes, the water was waist-deep.”

The Red Cross set up a shelter in Palestine, about 100 miles southeast of Dallas and home to about 18,000 residents. Between 20 and 30 people were displaced, said Red Cross spokeswoman Anita Foster.

One 30-year-old man remained missing in rural Anderson County, Smith said.

Palestine Mayor Bob Herrington signed an emergency declaration Saturday, saying that he had not seen so much water rise so fast in the 59 years he’d lived there.

About 35 homes sustained major damage, businesses in low-lying areas were flooded, and a railroad track was washed out, Smith said.

Davis said Asberry had relocated to Palestine from Dallas several years ago.

“She was just looking for a nice place to raise her kids,” she said.

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