Texas floods kill 2, with more storms to come

Texas floods kill 2, with more storms to come Heavy rainfall in the region is reviving memories of the catastrophic deluge that killed more than 130 people a year ago Mandatory evacuations across the Texas Hill Country are under way as life-threatening flash floods wreck bridges and roads with more heavy rain expected overnight. A wide swathe of Texas is forecast to receive as much as 20cm (eight inches) of additional precipitation through Friday morning to cap off a week of downpours that revived memories of the catastrophic deluge that killed more than 130 people a year ago. Evacuations have been complicated by almost 90 road and highway closures between San Antonio and the border town of Del Rio. Firefighters, state game wardens and police officers have been deployed to rescue residents trapped by the flooding or atop houses surrounded by rushing water. Two people have died. One involved a man in a recreational vehicle that was swept away by floodwaters and the second a woman inundated while driving a car, Governor Greg Abbott said during a Thursday evening media briefing. Meanwhile, Black Hawk helicopters were being used to pluck stranded residents from Uvalde, a hamlet 135km (85 miles) west of San Antonio, Texas National Guard Major General Thomas Suelzer said. The Nueces River that is a dry riverbed in many spots for much of the year is forecast to swell overnight to two times the flow of Niagara Falls, which would be a record volume, Abbott added.