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Jun 11, 2009 9:25 pm US/Central
As Floodwaters Recede, Cleanup Begins
FORT WORTH (CBS 11 News/AP) ―
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Uprooted trees in Flower Mound.
hcorey (UGC)/CBS
Floodwaters began receding Thursday night, but not before covering neighborhood streets in Dallas, Mesquite, Garland and some areas in Tarrant County.
As of 10:00 p.m. Thursday, a total of 180,000 North Texans were still without power.
People are beginning to pick up the pieces from the strong winds that blew through with the storms. Numerous trees were snapped or blown over, roofs were damaged and fences were blown down. Fortunately there have been no reports of injuries.
In Dallas, officials dealt with
evacuations after the failure of a water pumping station.
The storms began whipping the DFW area with winds up to 70 mph Wednesday night and continued the next day.
Emergency crews performed 48 high-water rescues just in the City of Dallas. Crews in other cities staged rescues as well. Sean Gage got stuck on Highway 80 in Mesquite. He waited on top of his stranded car until crews could throw him a rope. "Come down this hill, I seen everybody stop." Gage said. "And I'm like, 'We are not getting through this thing.'"
Mesquite city officials say they received 18 reports of flooded houses and one report of a flooded business. Several Mesquite roads remained closed Thursday afternoon. City spokesman Greg Sowell said the roads were expected to reopen Thursday evening after the floodwaters receded.
Flower Mound resident Rob Nelson posted
video on his website that shows the power of Wednesday's storm as it blew through the area.
Electric linemen were being brought in from Oklahoma and Houston to help restore power to the tens of thousands of North Texans left in the dark. About 2,600 repair crew members from Oncor, contractors and neighboring
electric utilities were working to restore service when safe, Molina
said, but lightning and heavy rain continually interrupted those
efforts.
About 50 flights were canceled Thursday morning at DFW International Airport and more delays and cancellations were expected throughout the day. Ground workers were brought in from outside because of lightning in the area, said airport spokesman David Magana.
Travelers trying to fly out of Dallas Love Field, where Southwest Airlines is based, were also enduring delays and cancellations. Some 30 to 40 Southwest flights have been delayed so far, according to spokeswoman Brandy King.
Vivid lightning was suspected in at least one fire that destroyed a large two-story house in the town of Heath on Lake Ray Hubbard near Dallas.
Dallas city rain gauges showed eight inches of rain in parts of South Dallas by midday.
Winds swept the area overnight, causing widespread damage. The worst appeared to be in the northern suburbs of Dallas and Fort Worth, where trees, fences and chimneys toppled.
At least 14
families in Euless were forced to relocate after strong storms caused severe roof damage to two separate apartment complexes. A spokesperson with the Red Cross said that eight units from one complex, and six from the other, are now uninhabitable.
Traffic lights throughout the region were dim for Thursday morning rush hour, leading to bumper-to-bumper traffic on highways and residential streets. Drive-thru employees had to turn away customers since some coffee shops and fast food outlets were without power.
Methodist Medical Center in Dallas lost its power for a short time Thursday morning. Everything has since been restored to normal, and officials said that patient care was never in jeopardy. Likewise,
Baylor Medical Center in Dallas had to use pumps to remove water from the facility's basement. Hospital operations were never interrupted.
Power outages at the University of North Texas Dallas campus have forced the school to cancel morning and afternoon classes for Thursday. Students taking evening classes are advised to check the school's website about further cancellations.
A Girl Scouts day camp event in Haltom City was evacuated Thursday morning as a precaution. Spokeswoman Kathleen Copeland cited the area's "history of flooding" for the basis behind the emergency evacuation. The children were taken to the organization's 'rainy day' location at RiverWalk Fellowship in Fort Worth.
Michelle Levitsky, of Frisco, just north of Dallas, says the winds bewildered her farm animals. "When the storm hit, they started running around, running into each other. The goats were being knocked over and tumbling. The chickens -- we had their wings clipped -- they were in the air, just being picked up by the wind," she said. All animals survived.
In Springtown, high winds ripped some trees out of the ground as 200 children rode out the storm at a local church's vacation bible school event. Six-inch tree limbs were reported down in the area.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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