More rain hits Texas; officials brace for flooding

AUSTIN, Texas -- Another round of heavy rain drenched parts of eastern Texas on Friday, flooding roads and stranding at least one driver on top of his truck, authorities said.

Volunteers with the New Summerfield Fire Department were able to rescue the man after his pickup stalled on a flooded road in Cherokee County, dispatcher Mike Carter said.

The deluge also forced road closures in Rusk, Smith, Leon, Panola and Van Zandt counties, officials said. Flooding washed out a bridge in Anderson County, a dispatcher said.

With rivers and lakes filled already filled to the brim, emergency officials braced for more of the flooding that has severely damaged or destroyed 1,000 homes and killed 13 people.

State emergency management chief Jack Colley said all of Texas' major river basins are at flood stage, the first time that has happened since 1957. Major flooding was forecast on the Guadalupe River in Victoria and Calhoun counties, where it was expected to crest near Bloomington at just over 27 feet early Saturday. Flood stage is 20 feet.

"Mostly this time of year we're fighting wildfires ... The problem with this is, the water won't go away," he said Thursday.

Other areas of concern include the Brazos, Sabine and Trinity rivers and Nueces River near Corpus Christi, Colley said.

Floodwaters slowly subsided Thursday in parts of Oklahoma and Kansas. Search teams going door to door found a man dead late Thursday in a motel room in Coffeyville, Kan., city clerk Cindy Price said. Authorities said he had apparently ignored warnings to leave the southeast Kansas town, where a flash flood triggered a 42,000-gallon crude oil spill into the Verdigris River.

About 20 counties in southeast Kansas were declared federal disasters after torrential weekend rains pushed rivers well past flood stage. The Kansas Adjutant General's Department says more than 3,000 homes in five counties -- Montgomery, Miami, Wilson, Elk and Neosho -- were destroyed or suffered major damage.

Montgomery County Health Director Ruth Bardwell also encouraged Coffeyville residents to get tetanus shots but "the state is scrounging for vaccines."

"With two disasters in two months, it has been a real strain to provide needed vaccinations," Bardwell said referring to the tornado that demolished the central Kansas town of Greensburg on May 4.

To the south, storms that began May 23 continued pounding Texas. The National Weather Service said 1 to 3 inches of rain could fall Friday, with heavier amounts in isolated areas.

Michael Gittinger, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said a series of low-pressure systems that have hovered over Texas for three weeks, combined with moist bands of air from the Gulf of Mexico, have fueled the near-record rainfall. The system is forecast to move northward through Arkansas and toward the East Coast.

The affected area covers 49 counties and 48,000 square miles from northern Texas to the Rio Grande Valley, a section roughly the size of the state of Mississippi.

Four people have been reported missing, including a 6-year-old boy swept into the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday as strong currents ripped him from his father's arms at the mouth of the Brazos River in Freeport.

In Missouri, the body of a 16-year-old girl was found Wednesday night in a submerged SUV after she apparently tried to cross a flooded creek.

So far, the heaviest flood damage has been in Miami, Okla., where the Neosho River crested at about 29 feet, its highest stage since 1951. The river was not expected to be back within its banks until late Sunday.

About 600 homes and businesses were believed damaged, City Manager Mike Spurgeon said. More than 30 roads in the area were still closed Thursday.

Displaced residents watched and waited, eager to begin salvaging soggy belongings. Dorena Jackson walked near her neighborhood in Miami, Okla., trying to get a glimpse of the home that she waded out of two days ago.

"I don't even have a change of clothes," Jackson said. "I lost everything as far as I know."

President Bush has already issued federal disaster declarations for numerous counties in Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma, clearing the way for housing assistance and low-interest loans, and more declarations are expected.

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Associated Press writers Grant Slater in Dallas and Justin Juozapavicius in Miami, Okla., contributed to this report.