Up listening to the Dallas and Garland scanners until the wee hours of the morning. This one was too close for comfort. Our rain gauge this morning showed we got 3.5" of rain last night. The immediate communities just to our south, east, and north were hit with 3-6" of rain and bad flash floods on at least two dozen highways
all night long, and there were so many high water rescues going on (the car submerged, subject on roof or swept-away-into-creek variety), that the dispatcher couldn't tend to his continual list of 20 or more waiting calls. (And yes, our home-from-college daughter was still out visiting a girlfriend with option of spending the night--and it was too late to call her, so I was obsessively manning the scanner....)
Poor LE--I couldn't believe it, but some people in cars just didn't seem to understand what was happening in the dark and confusion until too late. One woman in a car sailed past the parked police or ambulance on the highway that was there to block traffic, and was swept right into the creek. I listened through that rescue. More than one emergency vehicle got trapped in high water just trying to keep others out of it.
These are not just random roads--these are on so many major, major highways, ones with concrete lane barriers and no option of u-turn...Loop 12, Pres George Bush, I-20- and I-30... I'm watching on TV right now a helicopter view--there are miles and miles of
cars 4-6 lanes wide with people just walking around or standing around waiting for the water to recede from an exit or underpass. Not going anywhere soon! A Hwy I was on just a few days ago flooded and closed. Exit I routinely used off a thoroughfare in our previous neighborhood was flooded with multiple cars trapped. But the dispatcher last night couldn't even deal with all the stranded or blocked vehicles at flooded overpasses; the repeated priority all night long was the water rescues--people floating in cars or stranded in flooding apartments needing evacuation to higher ground. So eerie to hear the scanner talking about all these familiar streets and intersections underwater! I've never heard or seen this in 30+ years of living down here. And more rain coming today...
