North Texas Floods Kill Six
Posted:23 June, 2009 by
In the early hours of June 18, 2007 flash floods ravaged the North Texas area. Gainesville, a small city just 60 miles north of Dallas, and surrounding communities found flood waters up to 8-feet high in some areas. Residents and their pets escaped to rooftops waiting for rescue workers to arrive.
As of June 19, six people are confirmed dead. The number of missing is unclear, but ranges from two to four. Among the dead are a 4-year-old girl, a 74-year-old man, and a Sherman woman whose car stalled in the water. A 5-year-old girl and 2-year-old girl and their grandmother are also dead.
The National Weather Service said that at times the rain came down at an inch every 15 minutes.
So far, estimates of damage reach to $28 million in Gainesville alone, where the food waters hit the downtown district hard. The floods damaged about 500 single-family homes and another 100 trailer homes. One hundred and twenty five nursing home residents were also evacuated by dump trucks.
Flood waters also poured into Frank Buck Zoo’s, located in Gainesville.
Cooke County Judge Mike Freeman declared his county a disaster area. Texas Governor Rick Perry took an aerial helicopter ride of the flooded area on June 19. He declared Cookie, Grayson, Lampasas, and Tarrant counties disaster areas, making them eligible for emergency assistance.
The Texas National Guard, rescue volunteers, and cadaver dogs are in the area, continuing to search for the missing. While 450 people were displaced Monday, only an estimated 75 continue to stay in temporary shelters. The majority of the flood plain hit rental homes and mobile home parks.
Towns across Southern Oklahoma also saw the rain. Two homes were evacuated, several experienced flood damage, and several county roads were temporarily closed. In the small town of Ada, three people escaped with minor injuries after waters forced their truck off a bridge.
Passenger train service between Fort Worth and Oklahoma City was also canceled on June 19. Amtrak hired buses to take passengers for the day.
While waters have started to subside, the National Weather Service expects rain on and off for North Texas and Southern Oklahoma over the next couple weeks.
Texas leads the nation in flood-related deaths and damage each year. In 1998, flash floods killed 32 people in South-Central Texas and caused $1.5 billion in damages. In 2002, floods from Hurricane Allison killed 22 people in the Houston area and caused an estimated $5 billion in damages.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) notes 41 catastrophic storms and floods and 215 major storms and floods in Texas from 1853 to September
2002.
The first recorded flood was in the Concho River Basin in San Angelo, Texas. The city was nearly destroyed by the waters in June 1853.
More resources
www.usgs.gov
