At least 3 dead as rain, flooding hit central U.S.

FORT WORTH, Texas — At least three people have died in fast-moving floodwaters in Texas as freezing rain and flooding pummeled the state and other parts of the central U.S. on Friday, with forecasters warning that the chilling weather would worsen over the holiday weekend.

Forecasters issued flash-flood watches and warnings from northern Texas up to St. Louis, with up to 4 inches of rain reported in some places as the storm system makes a slow trek to the northeast. Freezing rain and strong winds also caused at least two fatal traffic accidents in western Kansas on Thursday.

“There’s a pretty substantial shield of rain extending from parts of Texas across a lot of Oklahoma and into the midMississippi Valley,” said John Hart, a meteorologist with the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla.

In North Texas, where more than 4 inches of rain fell overnight in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, three people died after being washed away in the deep, rapid floodwaters. At least one other person is missing.

Firefighters in Garland, Texas, found a 29-year-old man dead inside a submerged Hyundai Elantra, fire department spokesman Merrill Balanciere said.

Crews found the body of a 33-year-old woman just after 8 a.m. downstream from her vehicle just west of Fort Worth. Her car was washed off the road in waters flowing 10 to 12 feet above the banks of Rock Creek, Johnson County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Tim Jones said. A third body was recovered Friday in Johnson County, Jones said.