Parts of Texas Hit by Tornadoes, Eight Inches of Rain

Thunderstorms erupted for the fifth straight day Friday over the southern Plains, triggering tornadoes and submerging parts of Texas under as much as eight inches of rain, weather officials said.

“It is really, really bad,” a police spokeswoman in San Antonio said. “We have cars stalled all over the city.”

The storms that rumbled across Texas spun off a tornado Friday night near Lubbock that damaged several houses and mobile homes, a sheriff’s dispatcher said.

Several other twisters were spotted elsewhere in the state. One tornado was sighted in west Houston, while others touched down in Harris and Matagorda counties. No injuries were reported.

The storms knocked out power to about 4,000 customers of Houston Lighting & Power Co. near Humble and forced the school district in Bandera to postpone the last day of classes.

The heavy rain that fell in parts of Texas also unleashed floods along the Frio, Medina and Sabinal rivers.

Flash flood warnings were posted across much of the southern half of the state. Water was three feet deep across a highway north of Iredell, and many other roads in south and central Texas were impassable.

In San Antonio, a dozen streets were closed at the peak of the storm, police said. At least two people were rescued from cars swept away by the flood, they said.

Floods from the week’s downpours forced about 900 people to evacuate in Oklahoma. The heavy rain ended Friday morning and many residents began returning home.

But police in Pauls Valley set up roadblocks to prevent people from entering town when the Washita River continued to rise. National Guard troops were helping townspeople sandbag the river.

In Comanche, Okla., a woman who could not swim spent two nights perched in a tree with snakes until she was rescued from the flood Friday, officials said.

In Wisconsin, one man remained in critical condition Friday after lightning strikes that injured at least 10 people, including six Air National Guardsmen from Pennsylvania. The Guardsmen were on training maneuvers Thursday at the Volk Field Air National Guard Base at Camp Douglas.