“None of the overflows of diluted wastewater have affected the City’s water supply,” Dallas Water Utilities Department assistant director Zachary Peoples said. The heavy influx of water caused the sanitary sewers to overflow at several places throughout Dallas, the city said in a release Monday, noting that the city water system has not been impacted. Traffic through the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport was also hard hit, with hundreds of flights to and from the airport canceled and about half of its departing flights delayed, according to tracking website FlightAware. Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News/Associated Press Stalled cars sit abandoned on the flooded Interstate 635 Service Road in Mesquite, Texas, on Monday. Hundreds of traffic accidents were reported during the flooding, according to Dallas police. “I took an alternate route home … although most streets are flooded down there as well.” “I was able to back up on a ramp to get off the highway,” she said. Videos she took of the scene show water rippling past car wheels as rain continues to fall across the road. when she noticed Interstate 30 has started to become cover by water, she told CNN. In downtown Dallas, Cassondra Anna Mae Stewart was driving home at 3 a.m. The Dallas Police Department alerted residents to numerous road closures in a tweet Monday afternoon, adding that water was “still standing on some roads, along with debris and abandoned cars.” Several local authorities urged residents not to drive into high waters Monday as flooding filled the streets.

The overwhelming water level took many residents by surprise as it rushed into homes and onto highways. The same storm system battered parts of the Southwest over the weekend and continues to threaten parts of the region, as approximately 9 million people across the South are under flood watches Tuesday.ĭrivers forced to abandon cars in rising waters More than a quarter of Texas is under the highest drought designation, including the Dallas-Forth Worth area.

The relentless downpour soaked a region that has been under extreme drought in recent months. Greg Abbott signed a disaster declaration Tuesday for counties struck by the flooding, calling the impact to the region “an extraordinary challenge.” Her car was “presumably” swept off the road and was found when the water receded, according to Mesquite Fire Department Chief Russell Wilson. Jenkins also announced that an unnamed woman was killed when flood waters swept away her vehicle.

My refrigerator started floating away.”ĭallas County Judge Clay Jenkins declared a state of disaster in the county on Monday and requested federal and state assistance in responding to the damage, he said in a tweet. “There was just water gushing through the front door of the apartment. “The last thing I expected was to wake to my brand new apartment flooded,” she said. Much of her belongings were still packed into cardboard boxes, which were soaked by the water. Dallas Fire Rescue responded to 195 high water incidents and rescued 21 people and 10 dogs, the agency said in a tweet.īrittany Taylor moved into her Dallas apartment just two days before the flooding. The Fort Worth Fire Department received 500 calls for service and performed 174 high water rescues and investigations, the department tweeted. He said he will have to close up shop for about a week to assess and clean up the damage. Within an hour, he told KTVT, the water had risen to about a foot. When he walked into his heavy equipment rental business on Monday morning, 3 inches of water quickly covered the floor. “I’ve been here 13 years, and this is by far the worst it’s ever flooded,” Thompson said of Hickory Creek, which runs through the city. Parts of eastern and southeastern Texas were still under a slight risk for excessive rainfall Tuesday.īusiness owner Allen Thompson told CNN affiliate KTVT that the flooding was unlike anything he had ever seen in his time living in the Dallas suburb of Balch Springs. The major flood threat began to subside in the area on Tuesday as the storms shift eastward toward Louisiana and Mississippi. The previous record was set in 1915 at 10.33 inches. The downpour made this month the wettest August on record in Dallas, reaching 10.38 inches as of Tuesday evening, according to the National Weather Service. LM Otero/APĭozens of high-water rescues are underway as the drought-parched Dallas area gets a summer's worth of rain in a day Mon Lun pulls a strap to his water-stalled car Monday before towing it out of receding flood waters in Dallas.

Flash flood