The death toll rose to six in Texas on Saturday as more bodies were recovered after another band of strong storms and heavy rain spawned three tornadoes and dangerous flooding in the waterlogged state.
It was the second day of turbulent weather in Texas, where on Friday at least four people died in flood waters in central Texas.
The storms and suspected tornadoes — which forecasters say were caused by an upper-level disturbance from Mexico — socked an already-sodden swath of Texas that was still drying out from the remnants of Hurricane Patricia.
Photo: AP
In the Houston area, some locations had received nearly 30cm of rain since Friday, though it had mostly stopped by Saturday afternoon. The water flooded streets and freeway frontage roads and caused bayous to spill over their banks.
The Houston Fire Department said it had responded to more than 130 water rescues on Saturday, and some public light-rail and bus transportation was suspended.
Houston officials said they had received 44 reports of structural flooding, including homes and businesses, and the fire department helped remove residents from flooded homes near a bayou in the northeastern part of the city.
Houston police discovered two bodies from what is believed to be weather-related deaths, one in a flooded ditch and another in a wooded area where there had been high water, according to city spokesman Michael Walter.
As the storms moved east on Saturday, US National Weather Service meteorologist Patrick Blood said a tornado went through Brazoria County near Alvin at about 5am, damaging about 25 mobile homes in the community that is 48km south of Houston.
County spokeswoman Sharon Trower said two people in a mobile home suffered minor injuries, as well as three others in a house in a community nearby.
Thirty minutes later, a tornado hit the Houston suburb of Friendswood, where about 30 homes had minor damage and the roof of one home was ripped off.
The National Weather Service rated the tornado as an “EF-2” when it first touched down, which can spawn winds of up to 241kph.
David McCullough, 70, who lived in the most severely damaged home, said he and his wife were out of town when the storm hit and he got the call from a neighbor.
“I feel like it’s a blessing that we weren’t here,” McCullough said as friends and family members helped them try to salvage personal items, pictures and documents from their home of 32 years.
“It’s just stuff and it can be replaced. Had we been here, it could have been very bad,” he said.
Between 10 and 30 homes were damaged by a tornado in a subdivision in eastern Harris County at about 7am on Saturday, Blood said.
Austin, San Antonio and surrounding areas were first confronted with flooding on Friday. Four people died when they were swept away by flood waters.
Two bodies were recovered in the Austin and San Antonio areas on Friday. Two more bodies were recovered on Saturday in the Austin area.
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