Central Texas Flooding Kills Two, Prompts Large State Rescue Effort

At least two people died in flooding across central Texas after nearly 30 inches of rain fell over three days. A 74-year-old man was swept away while driving near Uvalde. John Mark Steward, 65, died in Kerr County when floodwaters carried his mobile home down Goat Creek on the Guadalupe River.

Jennie Steward, his wife, said she was visiting family when a neighbor reported him missing. She last spoke with him Wednesday by phone to mark their third anniversary. “It’s really hard that I wasn’t there with him,” she said.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott posted video Thursday of a helicopter rescue in Uvalde the previous day. A rescuer was lowered to a flooded property and airlifted a young girl, her family and two dogs to safety. The Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed the operation.

Abbott said 2,350 state emergency responders and 1,400 vehicles had been sent to the region. Forecasters warned residents in west-central Texas of life-threatening floods and urged them to move to higher ground. By Friday, water had receded in some of the hardest-hit areas, though heavy rain caused rising levels elsewhere, according to Fox 4.

The same region recorded more than 130 flash-flood deaths last summer.