4 die in Texas flooding

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By The Associated Press | Wednesday, October 18, 2006 12:06 AM CDT | () comments

HOUSTON (AP) — The unrelenting rain that flooded southeast Texas, killing four motorists and sweeping two children down a drainage ditch, moved through Tennessee on Tuesday and headed for the East Coast.

Rain and wind up to 90 mph ripped through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the Tennessee-North Carolina line, where a 6-year-old boy was injured when a tree fell on his family’s camper, park spokeswoman Nancy Gray said.

Several roads in the area were closed for debris cleanup, and campers were advised to leave until today, Gray said.

Tennessee’s heaviest rainfall was in the Chattanooga area, where about 1.5 inches of rain fell, well short of the 10 inches that swamped parts of Houston on Monday, said National Weather Service forecaster Shawn O’Neill in Morristown, Tenn.

The storm had put a damper on the Arkansas State Fair on Monday as it dumped more than 6 inches of rain in parts of the state, prompting flash flood watches. But it was Texas that was hardest hit.

In Houston, the flooding and storm damage closed numerous roads and some public school systems.

At least four people died in the storm. A Houston woman and her teenage daughter died in their submerged sport utility vehicle in an underpass where 8 to 12 feet of water accumulated near Interstate 45. A 56-year-old man from Needville was found dead in his car southwest of Houston. And a 54-year-old woman died when a pickup went out of control on a slick farm road and hit her head-on, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Water exerts such strong pressure on submerged vehicles, said Sgt. P.E. Ogden III with the Houston Police Department, that “Arnold Schwarzenegger couldn’t get out.”

In the Brazos Valley, several children were swept away as they played in swift-moving waters. None was harmed.

Authorities found a 14-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl walking on a Madison County road about 1½ miles downstream from where they had been playing in a drainage creek, the Bryan-College Station Eagle reported. “They were a little scared and cold, but they were fine,” Sheriff Dan Douget said.