BRENHAM, Texas (AP) — At least one person was dead and three others were missing after severe thunderstorms caused flooding and dropped at least one tornado in Texas in a storm system that closed roads and schools, prompted evacuations, damaged homes and forced dozens of students to spend the night on campus, officials said Friday as they braced for possibly more rain over the Memorial Day weekend.
“It’s not going to take very much rain to get us in those flood stages again,” said Washington County Judge John Brieden.
Brieden said that in Washington County, between Austin and Houston, one person drowned and another person was missing after their vehicle was swept away. An Austin-area official has said two other people were missing from a vehicle there.
Brieden, who didn’t release details on the circumstances of the drowning, said officials had not yet determined whether a second person who died in Washington County had died from drowning or a heart attack.
Mobile homes washed away in the flooding and multiple houses had water inside, he said. Brieden said there have been more than 50 water rescues from houses and vehicles since the rains started Thursday morning.
“We had one guy that got out of his vehicle and managed to hang on to a tree while the vehicle washed away,” Brieden said, adding the man was in the tree for a couple of hours before being rescued by a boat crew.
He said some people in homes had to evacuate through windows to be rescued.
The county seat, Brenham, received 16.62 inches of rain on Thursday, breaking the city’s daily rainfall record, said National Weather Service meteorologist Wendy Long.
Brieden said about 40 children spent the night at a Brenham elementary school after buses were unable to get them home. He said that in some areas, buses couldn’t get down flooded roads. A couple of buses had to be rescued as one broke down and another was trapped when waters rose nearby.
Bastrop County Judge Paul Pape said Friday that about 100 homes in the county near Austin were damaged. He said more than 100 county roads were barricaded and some had washed out, and about 50 homes were evacuated overnight.
The National Weather Service said an EF-1 tornado Thursday struck Bryan, about 100 miles northwest of Houston. City officials said 153 homes were damaged.
