Texas flooding kills 2 as state contends with historic rains

Torrential rains killed two people in Texas as floodwaters swept them away in their vehicles while the state braced for “record-shattering” rainfall over the next 24 hours, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Thursday afternoon.

Emergency responders have conducted 230 rescues, including one of a man and his dog who were plucked from his truck using a helicopter and a rescue swimmer, Abbott said.

Texas has deployed 2,350 emergency responders and 1,400 pieces of equipment, including Black Hawk helicopters and swiftwater rescue boats, as officials seek to avoid the human toll of one year ago when floodwaters swept through the same Texas Hill Country region, killing at least 135 people including 27 campers and counselors, mostly children, at a summer camp.

“We’re facing record-shattering rainfall that leads to very dangerous flooding. We want to do everything we possibly can to protect our lives,” Abbott, flanked by emergency response officials, told reporters after receiving a briefing.

The National Weather Service reported 10 to 20 inches of rain had fallen across parts of the Hill Country over the previous two days. The region includes Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp for girls on the Guadalupe River, the site of last year’s disaster.

Abbott identified the latest victims as a man swept away in his recreational vehicle and a woman whose vehicle was overtaken by floodwaters.

He urged people to stay off the roads until the storms subside, expected late on Friday. Some 125 roadway sections across the state have been affected, and 87 of those were closed including a bridge that was struck by a barge, he said.

Uvalde and Johnson City were among the areas of greatest concern.

The Nueces River near Uvalde was forecast to exceed its 1996 record crest, while the Frio and Pedernales rivers were expected to reach among their highest levels on record.

Other weather-related news

Potential tropical system near Florida: The National Hurricane Center on Thursday continued to track a system approaching Florida with potential to become the season’s next tropical depression or storm.

In its 8 p.m. Eastern tropical outlook, the NHC said that an area of low pressure is expected to form during the weekend over the northeastern Gulf.

“Some gradual development of this system is possible while it moves slowly northeastward over the northeastern Gulf and near the coast of the southeastern United States early next week,” forecasters said.

The NHC, which began tracking the system on Wednesday, continues to give it a 20% chance to develop in the next seven days.

The National Weather Service in Melbourne says the a trough will form over the weekend across the Florida peninsula with a surface high pushing south of Central Florida bringing west to southwest wind and more moisture brought in from the Gulf.

“Locally, regardless of tropical development or not, moisture will increase across east central Florida thanks to the surface low, with strengthening south to southwest winds advecting moisture northward towards the area,” the NWS stated in its forecaster’s discussion. “Rain and storm chances have continued to trend upward, generally ranging between 40-70% through this weekend and into the middle of next week.”

The NHC also continued tracking a tropical wave in the eastern tropical Atlantic southeast of the Cape Verde Islands with disorganized showers and thunderstorms.

“Some slow development is possible during the next day or two while the system moves generally west-northwestward at about 10 mph,” forecasters said. “By this weekend, the system is forecast to move into a less conducive environment, and further development is not expected.”

The NHC gave it just a 10% chance to develop in the next two to seven days.

The 2026 hurricane season so far has had just one named system, the short-lived Tropical Storm Arthur that developed in the Gulf and brought floods to Texas and Louisiana in June.

The next names on the hurricane season list are Bertha and Cristobal.

The season officially began June 1 and runs through Nov. 30. The height of hurricane season runs from mid-August into October.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expects this season to be below normal with the official forecast released in late May calling for eight-14 named storms, of which three to six would become hurricanes. Of those, one to three would become major hurricanes reaching Category 3 status or above.

An average season has 14 named storms, seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes.

Top US weather satellite is offline: GOES-19, the main satellite used to keep track of weather across much of the United States and the Atlantic Ocean, is now offline, according to a statement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal agency responsible for U.S. weather satellites.

“Engineers report GOES-19 is in Safehold,” the statement, which was released late Wednesday, said. “They are working to recover the satellite and will share a recovery timeline when available.”

The satellite encountered a mechanical issue the same day and was turned off to troubleshoot the problem and protect the satellite from a wider system failure, reported hurricane expert Michael Lowry of WPLG-TV in Miami.

According to the National Weather Service, “weather satellites are absolutely essential to modern forecasting. In many ways, they’re the backbone of the global weather-observing system, providing the only continuous view of much of the planet’s atmosphere and oceans.”

In addition, the weather service says that satellites “are among the single most important sources of data for modern numerical weather prediction, especially over the oceans where conventional observations are sparse.”

The last satellite image we received from GOES-19 was from 4:10 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Lowry said.

He added that while NOAA does have satellite redundancy capabilities and can revert to its legacy (older) GOES-16 satellite to cover the Atlantic, getting this satellite in place and turned on would presumably take some time.

“We rely heavily on GOES-19 for a multitude of critical satellite-derived products to investigate developing storms and to track and estimate the intensity of hurricanes. The satellite data are also critical input to forecast models, and without GOES-19 data we should expect model forecast skill to temporarily drop,” Lowry said.

The Orlando Sentinel and USA Today contributed to this report.

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.