24 Oct 15
A freight train overturned on waterlogged tracks Saturday morning in North Texas as heavy rains pounded the region for a third straight day — with remnants of Hurricane Patricia threatening to keep the Texas heartland under a flash flood watch. Plus: Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed on Thursday and Friday at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. The airport got 3.24 inches of rain on Friday alone — a daily record. Pray for the residents of Texas and throughout the areas that this catastrophic hurricane is hitting!
Freight Train Derails in Flooded Texas as Residents Brace for Patricia
A freight train overturned on waterlogged tracks Saturday morning in North Texas as heavy rains pounded the region for a third straight day — with remnants of Hurricane Patricia threatening to keep the Texas heartland under a flash flood watch.
One person, a man walking his dog in San Antonio, was missing as a result of the floods, authorities said.
Two crew members were rescued after the Union Pacific train derailed around 3:30 a.m. local time in Navarro County, officials told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth. Union Pacific spokesman Jeff DeGraff told the station that one locomotive and several rail cars were partially submerged, but no one was injured.
Both crew members "swam to high ground" and were pulled out by a high-water rescue team, DeGraff added.
The 64-car train was en route from Midlothian to Houston when it got caught in floodwaters, which have closed major highways throughout North Texas.
Related: Hurricane Patricia to Intensify Heavy Rains in Texas, 10M Under Flood Watch
The train remained on its side on Saturday, about 4 miles north of Corsicana, as authorities waited for the water to recede before attempting to right it and remove it from the tracks. Interstate 45 in Corsicana was closed for several hours Friday night.
Eric Myers, emergency management coordinator for Navarro County, told NBC News the tankers contained cement. He said that the county had received 20 to 21 inches of rainfall in the past 24 hours, and said authorities had performed 72 swift water rescues.
Elsewhere in Texas, heavy rainfall was causing power outages and flight delays. In San Antonio, emergency responders were searching for a man who was swept away Saturday around 3 a.m. CT, The Associated Press reported. The man fell into a flooded drainage ditch while trying to pull his dog back.
The dog was retrieved, but firefighters had to suspend the search for his owner due to the weather.
Strong thunderstorms dropped more than 7 inches of rain across Dallas-Fort Worth, the local NBC station reported, with flash flood watches and warnings in effect in many places until Sunday.
The remnants of Patricia — which made landfall Friday evening in southwestern Mexico as a Category 5 storm — are expected to reach Texas by Saturday night and exacerbate the flooding, forecasters said.
"It should start to move out Sunday night, but East Texas is going to still be in the rain Sunday night, even Monday," Jon Rowe, senior meteorologist for The Weather Channel, told NBC News. "There will be some lingering rain showers even by Tuesday."
The heaviest of the rain should be done by Sunday night, he added, "but they're going to have flooding problems in South and East Texas at least through tomorrow." SOURCE
Hurricane Patricia May "Drown Texas"
Tropical storm Patricia: Risk of floods and landslides
Hurricane Patricia has weakened to a tropical storm but still poses a risk of floods and landslides, the US National Hurricane Centre said.
Patricia peaked as the strongest storm recorded in the Americas but lost power as it moved inland across Mexico.
Mexico's president, Enrique Pena Nieto, said Patricia had so far caused less damage than feared.
But it is still forecast to dump heavy rain on several Mexican states throughout Saturday.
The storm touched down in western Mexico on Friday, bringing destructive winds and rain, but heavy damage appears to have been avoided.
The NHC said winds had decreased to 80 km/h (50 mph) as Patricia rapidly weakened over land, making it a tropical storm, and the centre forecasts that it will dissipate by Saturday night.
While still over the ocean, Patricia had winds of 325 km/h (200 mph) at its peak, which made it the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Western hemisphere.
Thousands of residents and tourists on Mexico's Pacific coast were evacuated and moved inland.
Patricia is now moving north-northeastward inland over northern Mexico.
The states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, Michoacan, and Guerrero are in particular danger from the high rainfall expected on Saturday, the centre says.
Total rainfall of 20-30cm (8 to 12 inches) - with isolated maximum amounts of 50cm (20 inches) - is "likely to produce life-threatening flash floods and mudslides," it added.
"The first reports confirm that the damage has been smaller than that corresponding to a hurricane of this magnitude," Mr Pena Nieto said in a televised address.
Mexican federal police said only "minor landslides and fallen trees" had so far been reported in Colima.
But the government has warned that ash from the Colima volcano, which has become increasingly active this year, could combine with heavy rainfall to trigger huge mudflows.
Some 400,000 people live in vulnerable areas, according to Mexico's National Disaster Fund.SOURCE
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