This story has been updated.
Overnight thunderstorms and continuous morning storms dropped between 3 and 8 inches of rain across Bexar County and surrounding counties causing widespread power outages and at least five confirmed deaths due to floods.
San Antonio Fire Department reported that five people were found dead on arrival during recovery efforts on the Northeast Side, and that the search continues for two other individuals who remain unaccounted for.
Recovery efforts began at midnight Thursday through 4:45 a.m. with SAFD officials responding to 70 calls for water rescues in different parts of the city, according to a news release. But the Northeast Loop 410, Austin Highway and Perrin Beitel Road proved to be the most severely affected with 15 cars reportedly being swept away into the creek below.
SAFD officials rescued 10 people from this area, four of whom were transported to the hospital with minor injuries and five others were found dead.
While some rain was moving through the downtown area this morning, the heaviest rain will affect the southern portion of Bexar County and northern part of Atascosa County, said Eric Platt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Rain chances remain in the forecast for these regions, with the NWS issuing a flood warning that will remain in effect until 7 p.m. The NWS advises residents to be cautious when walking near riverbanks, especially along Salado Creek at Loop 13.
“We will have some residual flooding around the region just due to the fact that we had some very heavy rainfall overnight and in the early morning hours,” Platt said. “But in general we should see some decrease in rain chances as we get into the afternoon hours.”
Shortly after noon on Thursday, CPS Energy reported nearly 400 active power outages related to the overnight thunderstorms, impacting nearly 7,000 area customers.
“Due to adverse weather that entered our service territory, we have experienced increased outages,” a message in the CPS outage tracker stated. “Our crews are working to restore service quickly and safely to the impacted customers.”
As of 6 p.m. Thursday, the CPS outage map showed 171 active outages.
By noon, rain around the downtown area was starting to dissipate, but Platt and Woodward warned residents to remain aware of residual floods and not take any risks.
“Even though it’s a lot calmer right now, there’s still a lot of roadways that are still flooded,” Woodward said. “So we are trying to remind everybody to ‘Turn around, don’t drown.’ Sometimes people think it’s a little bit safer when the rain stops but no, no one should try to drive across any road where they see there’s water.”
Looking ahead to the weekend, Platt said there is a 20% chance of rain starting Friday, which will likely remain the same over the weekend. Isolated afternoon showers or thunderstorms are also likely across the region this weekend.
SAFD is asking anyone with information on missing-person reports related to the floods to call the San Antonio Police Department at 210-207-4817.
