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| A carving of St. Francis of Assisi stands amid debris next to a destroyed home on River Road in Wimberley, Texas, Monday, May 25, 2015. Around a dozen people were reported missing in flash flooding from a line of storms that stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes. (Jerry Lara/The San Antonio Express-News via AP) |
Houston officials have confirmed another fatality from flash
flooding.
A city statement says the latest fatality from flooding late
Monday and early Tuesday is an Asian man whose body was found in Braes Bayou.
They say he's likely a man who was lost during an attempted water rescue early
Tuesday that led to the rescue boat capsizing. An elderly couple, ages 85 and
87, are still missing.
A total of four people have been killed in flooding in
Houston.
Authorities say all streams in Harris County except one have
returned to their banks.
The Harris County Flood Control District says waters were
receding across the county except for the West Fork of the San Jacinto River in
Humble. The district said that river will remain above its banks into the
weekend.
The county is home to Houston. It was inundated by rain from
storms during the Memorial Day weekend, causing flooding that affected almost
every part of the city.
A man bicycling in Houston came across a casket that was
apparently swept from a nearby cemetery into a roadway.
Authorities suspect floodwaters in southwestern Houston
early Tuesday apparently carried the casket containing a woman's body from
nearby Riceville Cemetery down Keegans Bayou onto South Braeswood Boulevard.
That's where Walter Rubio found it.
Rubio told KTRK-TV ( http://abc13.co/1FVOIEM ) in Houston
that he "got a little scared," so he went to find police.
Police spokeswoman Jodi Silva says officers opened the
casket and found a body inside.
Authorities are still trying to establish the identity of
the woman but suspect she died eight years ago.
Riceville Cemetery was founded in the 1850s and had its last
burial in 2011.
Houston Mayor Annise Parker says three people who were on a
boat are missing.
Parker said at a news conference Tuesday that the three
people were with a group of six — including two firefighters — helping with
rescue efforts in Houston overnight.
Parker said that the boat capsized for reasons that weren't
immediately clear, and all six people fell into the water.
The firefighters and a third person were pulled to safety
but the other three remain missing.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz says Texas is "hurting" with so
much damage spread across the state.
The Republican presidential candidate says the continuing
efforts by emergency crews to help victims and neighbors' offers of assistance
are a testament to the spirit of Texas.
Cruz also said at a news conference in Houston on Tuesday
that he will work with the state congressional delegation to seek federal
assistance for cleanup efforts.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says first responders to the flooding
situations across much of the state saved countless lives.
Abbott says the disaster declarations in the state stretch
from "literally the Red River to the Rio Grande."
The Republican added that Texas will "continue to have
rising waters" and warned residents to be careful.
Nine people have died in Texas due to severe weather.
Houston Mayor Annise Parker says there may be as many as
4,000 properties with "significant damage."
She also says two bodies were found in vehicles and a third
was found in a bayou, and three people are missing.
source: abcnews
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