Residents In The Dallas Area Are Caught Off Guard By Flash Flooding As Rescue Crews Respond To Hundreds Of Calls For Assistance
As torrential rains swept through parts of northeastern Texas on Monday, sending water rushing through streets and homes, rescue crews fanned out across the region to respond to hundreds of calls for assistance from stunned residents forced to flee their homes due to the sudden downpour.
According to the National Weather Service Forth Worth, the Dallas-Forth Worth area experienced record rainfall between Sunday afternoon and Monday afternoon because of heavy rain and flash flooding, according to the National Weather Service Forth Worth.
During the 24-hour period that began Sunday, more than nine inches of rain fell at the Dallas Forth Worth Airport, marking the highest rainfall in the area for that period of time since 1932, according to the agency responsible for the airport.
Residents In The Dallas Area Are Caught Off Guard By Flash Flooding As Rescue Crews Respond To Hundreds Of Calls For Assistance
As the storms shift eastward toward Louisiana and Mississippi on Tuesday, the major flood threat in the area will start to subside as well. As of Tuesday afternoon, there remains a slight risk of excessive rainfall in parts of eastern and southeastern Texas.
According to CNN affiliate KTVT, Allen Thompson, owner of a business in the Dallas suburb of Balch Springs, told CNN affiliate KTVT that the flooding was unlike anything he had ever experienced in his lifetime.
Thompson, who has been living in the city for 13 years, said, “This is by far the worst flooding that I have ever experienced here along Hickory Creek, which runs through the city.”
On Monday morning, as soon as he walked into his heavy equipment rental business, the floor was covered with three inches of water.
Within an hour, he told KTVT, the water level had risen to about a foot as a result of the flooding. As a result of the damage, he says he will have to close up shop for about a week to assess and clean up the mess.
A tweet from the Fort Worth Fire Department stated that they received 500 calls for service and performed 174 high water rescues and investigations.
It was reported in a tweet that Dallas Fire Rescue responded to 195 high water incidents and rescued 21 people and 10 dogs, according to the agency.
Just two days before the flooding in Dallas, Brittany Taylor had moved into her new apartment in the city.
The majority of her belongings were still packed in cardboard boxes, which were soaked in the water while the rest were still in plastic bags.
In her words, “the last thing I expected was to wake up in the morning to find that my brand new apartment was flooded.”
“There were just gallons of water gushing through the front door of the apartment, and my refrigerator started floating away.”
On Monday, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins declared a state of disaster in the county, asking the federal and state governments to assist in responding to the damage caused by the storms.
As well as announcing the death of an unnamed woman, Jenkins also announced that her vehicle was swept away by flood waters.
As a result of the flooding, her car was “presumably” swept off the road and was found when the water receded, according to Chief Russell Wilson of the Mesquite Fire Department.
In the past few months, the region that has been under extreme drought has been soaked by the relentless downpour that accompanied it.
Approximately a quarter of the state of Texas is under the highest drought designation, including the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
On Tuesday, approximately 9 million people across the Southern region are under flood watches as the same storm system that battered parts of the Southwest over the weekend continues to threaten parts of the region.
In the face of rising waters, drivers have been forced to abandon their cars
Several residents were taken by surprise by the overwhelming level of water that rushed into homes and onto highways as it rushed into homes.
As flooding filled the streets of several cities on Monday, several local authorities urged residents not to drive into high waters.
In a tweet issued Monday afternoon, the Dallas Police Department said that numerous roads were closed due to flooding, adding that water was “still standing on some roads, along with debris and abandoned cars.”.
In downtown Dallas, Cassondra Anna Mae Stewart was driving home at 3 in the morning when she noticed that Interstate 30 was starting to become swamped with water as she was driving home, she told CNN.
It is clear from the videos she took of the scene that the water was rippling past car wheels as the rain continued to fall across the road.
As a result, she was able to get off the highway by backing up on a ramp. In spite of the fact that most streets in the area are also flooded, I took an alternate route home.
Hundreds of traffic accidents were reported during the flooding, according to the Dallas police department, as a result of the flooding.
There was also a lot of disruption at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, as hundreds of flights to and from the airport were canceled, and about half of its departing flights were delayed, according to the tracking website FlightAware.
The heavy influx of water caused several sanitary sewers in the city of Dallas to overflow due to the heavy influx of water, the city said in a news release on Monday, noting that the city’s water system was not affected.
According to Dallas Water Utilities Department assistant director Zachary Peoples, none of the overflows of diluted wastewater have adversely affected the City’s water supply.
A number of people in the affected areas have been advised to use boiled or distilled water as a precaution.
In the wake of this week’s flooding, the precipitation has been accompanied by a “flash drought” that has brought an exceptionally dry year to many parts of Texas, including the areas impacted by this week’s floods.
During the first half of the year, there has been a deficit of rainfall of 8-10 inches in many parts of the state, based on data from the Drought Monitor.
However, these shortfalls will be largely eliminated in Dallas due to the flooding, while other areas will still experience them as a result of the flooding, the agency said.
Dallas received more than 7 inches of rain in less than 24 hours between Sunday and Monday, which is the equivalent of an entire summer’s worth of rain.
Over the past few decades, there has been a significant increase in the frequency and intensity of rainfall over land with every degree of global warming since the 1980s.
In recent years, most of the precipitation has been brought on by a number of “intense, one-day events,” which scientists say will become more common in the future as a result of the climate crisis, along with sudden shifts from severe drought to heavy rainfall.