At least 11 people have been found dead and several more remain missing after heavy rains this week caused flooding on highways throughout San Antonio, Texas, authorities said Friday.
The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office and the San Antonio Fire Department confirmed to CBS News on Friday afternoon that the death toll had risen to 11. The fire department told CBS News that several people remain unaccounted for, but was unable to provide an exact number. Bexar County includes the San Antonio metropolitan area.
Earlier Friday, the fire department said its crews were focusing their search on Salado Creek and Leon Creek, and that it had requested assistance from Texas A&M Task Force 1, a federal search and rescue team that operates under the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Heavy rains overnight Wednesday led to water rescue calls just after 5 a.m. Thursday in northeastern San Antonio, near the city’s Perrin Beitel neighborhood.
The identities of the victims have yet to be released, but one of the victims was identified as a 77-year-old woman, according to CBS affiliate KENS-TV.
The fire department believes that those rescued or located were initially in their cars sitting in traffic, but by the time emergency crews arrived, they had ended up in trees due to water flooding their vehicles.
The fire department said Thursday that it had responded to at least 70 water rescues. At least 10 people were rescued, four of whom were taken to hospitals with minor injuries.
“This rescue/recovery effort will be an ongoing, and extremely thorough process for days to come,” the fire department said in an email Friday.
One woman, Angel Richards, told KENS 5 that her husband, Stevie, was on his way to work when he called to say he was caught in the floodwaters.
“It’s hard because I was on the phone when this happened, and then not to have a lot of communication, to see my car, it’s devastating to me,” Richards told KENS 5. “No one can say to me, ‘Hey, this is what’s going on.'”
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