DALLAS (TIP): Flood waters submerged Texas highways and threatened more homes Friday when a squall line stalled over Dallas overnight Thursday, dropping record-setting rainfall and triggering a Flash Flood Emergency in North Texas.
The most recent rain added to the damage inflicted by thunderstorms that have killed at least 23 people statewide, including two overnight in North Texas, and left 13 missing.
The rain seeped into homes and stranded hundreds of drivers across the Metroplex, many of whom lingered along Dallas’ Loop 12 for six hours Friday morning after being gridlocked by high water and abandoned vehicles.
Overnight, Dallas Fire-Rescue crews responded to more than 270 calls that included trapped vehicles and crashes, authorities said.
Mesquite Fire Department Capt. Kelly Turner said a man’s body was found early Friday morning after his truck had been swept into a culvert and submerged.
The Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the flood victim as 47-year-old John Jeffrey Usfrey.
In Dallas, police said Friday afternoon the body of a man was found near California Crossing and Northwest Highway as flood waters receded. Police did not release the man’s identity, but did say he was not found in a vehicle.
Recent storms are being blamed for killing seven people in Oklahoma and at least 23 in Texas, where 13 remain missing or unaccounted for.
Rainfall Sets New Record
Thursday’s storm, which dropped nearly five inches of rain overnight at Dallas Love Field and more than two inches elsewhere around the Metroplex, helped set a record for the wettest May in Dallas-Fort Worth history.
The previous record for May rainfall was set in 1982 at 13.66 inches and was eclipsed at midnight when 13.87 inches had been recorded for the month. By 8 a.m., the total rose to 16.07 inches; 8.62 inches received in the last week alone.
According to The National Weather Service in Fort Worth, those 16 inches of rainfall amount to more than 35 trillion gallons of rain.