Thursday and Friday, abandoned cars were all over the flooded roads in South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. This happened after more than six months of rain—almost a year’s worth in some places—killed four people and required dozens of water escapes near the US-Mexico border.
Since Wednesday, strong thunderstorms and heavy rain have dumped more than a foot of rain on the area. This has caused rare flash flood rescues and flooding that started Thursday afternoon.
It’s another example of how heavy rain is happening more often in a world that is warming because rising temperatures push weather to the extremes. Last year, there were a record number of flash floods in the United States.
Heavy storms hit South Texas for about 48 hours. The worst of them hit Hidalgo, Willacy, and Cameron counties, which are all near the Mexican border at the very southern tip of the state.
The National Weather Service warned of life-threatening flash flooding in Hidalgo and Cameron counties on Thursday night and early Friday morning. Four flash flood emergencies, which are the most dangerous flash flood warnings, were sent out.
Carlos Sanchez, the head of public affairs for Hidalgo County, told CNN that at least three people died there on Friday. A statement from the county said that it “involved law enforcement efforts,” but no other information was released right away. It said that the county also declared a local disaster to help with the cleanup.
According to the Associated Press and officials in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, an 83-year-old man drowned in Reynosa. The state’s Civil Protection Coordination says that over 690 people were saved after heavy rains caused floods.
The Emergency Management Coordinator for Willacy County, Frank Torres, said that police were still trying to free people who were stuck in their homes on Friday, six hours after 12 to 15 inches of rain hit the area.
Tores told CNN on Friday, “Last night, we were in boats going through some streets in downtown Sebastian in water that was up to our waists.” “From what I understand, it’s still pretty deep.” Some people have even called to say it’s worse now than it was last night.
He said that while no deaths have been linked to this week’s storm, some people have been hurt in car accidents. Torres has lived in Willacy County all his life and said that he hasn’t seen this much rain since Hurricane Beulah hit in September 1967.
There was a local state of disaster in the city of Alamo in Hidalgo County because it was “hit hard by the recent storms,” Mayor J.R. Garza said at a news conference Friday.
“Our teams have worked nonstop.” We’re not the only ones going through this. “Cities all over the valley are having the same problems, and we’re all working together to solve them,” Garza said.
According to Police Chief Saul Solis, about 100 people were rescued by Alamo firefighters and police because of floods. He also said that about two hundred homes were affected.
At one point, Alamo Fire Chief RC Flores told CNN affiliate KRGV that an emergency vehicle couldn’t get to a pregnant woman having contractions near a Walmart to help her, but a fire truck finally made it through the floodwaters.
According to the National Weather Service, water rescues were also done in nearby Cameron County. People were told to get to higher ground as the life-threatening flash floods hit.
Harlingen, a city in Cameron County, got almost a year’s worth of rain in less than 48 hours, which caused a lot of floods.
“A lot of our streets flooded, some homes got wet, and there are still people who haven’t made it home,” Harlingen District 5 Commissioner Rene Perez wrote on Facebook Friday morning.
“Cars are still stuck all over the city, and we know this storm has caused a lot of trouble for people,” Perez said.
The National Weather Service says that from Wednesday to early Friday, between 18 and 21 inches of rain poured down on parts of the city. Most of it fell on Thursday. Every year, Harlingen gets about 24 inches of rain.
From Wednesday afternoon to Friday morning, it rained more than a foot in other parts of the Rio Grande Valley as well.
In that time, 13 inches of rain fell in Port Isabel, Texas, which is the same amount that falls in a year. The flood in Port Isabel happened once every 100 years, and the one in Harlingen happened almost once every 500 years.
As the rain fell hard on Thursday, some clouds got really bad and sent damaging winds through the air. In nearby Hidalgo County on Thursday afternoon, at least one thunderstorm also caused a short tornado.
Some parts of Interstate 2 in Hidalgo County were underwater early Friday morning, and there were abandoned cars all along the road.
The biggest city in the county, McAllen, Texas, got more than 8 inches of rain.
A spokesperson for the South Texas Health System hospital in McAllen said that problems with the stormwater drain caused small flooding on the first floor of the building on Thursday afternoon.
A video going around social media showed a strong stream of water breaking through a hospital wall and running through a hallway up to the ankles.
In a short time, the hospital sent walk-in and emergency patients to other nearby hospitals and stopped visiting hours, the hospital said in an Instagram post Thursday evening. People could go back to the hospital on Friday, but some areas of the first floor might not be fully accessible due to the damage.
Late Friday morning, the rain stopped in South Texas, which was already flooded, and moved north into eastern Texas and Louisiana.
Even though it’s stopped raining, there is still a chance of flooding. In the next few days, rivers that are already very high could overflow their banks as floodwaters slowly begin to drain away.
The weather service said, “Stay away or be swept away.” “The banks of rivers and culverts can become unstable and dangerous.”
The weather service also said that people shouldn’t go onto wet roads. It said, “Most flood deaths happen in vehicles.”
This story was written with help from CNN’s Martin Goillandeau, Kia Fatahi, David Williams, Amanda Jackson, Ritu Prasad, Taylor Romine, and Verónica Calderón.
