Saturday night flooding in San Antonio turned deadly, according to officials at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.
First responders from the Lackland Fire Department responded to a severe flash flood incident on Hall Street involving a trapped vehicle. One person was declared dead at the scene, while other details have yet to be released.
A flash flood watch is in effect for the I-35 corridor, including San Antonio and Austin, and the Hill Country, and Edwards Plateau for several days, beginning at 9 p.m. Monday night.
Flood prone conditions are expected through Thursday night for the watch area, where 2 to 6 inches of rain could fall. Some isolated spots could see up to 10 inches.
Chris Morris, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Office in New Braunfels, said a couple of factors are coming together to create a big rainmaker.
“We’ve got a very tropical air mass moving into the area,” he said. “At the same time, we have an upper-level disturbance that has sort of stalled out, kind of over the Big Bend area, and into kind of South-Central Texas.”
While the heaviest rains are expected to stay well to the west of the I-35 corridor, Morris said everyone in the entire watch area should keep a close eye on the weather this week.
He said roads could become flooded and be dangerous, especially after dark.
“Some of our bigger floods do happen during the overnight hours,” Morris said. “It makes flooding extremely difficult to see, so if anyone is going to be out on the roads during that time frame and they come up to flooded roads, please turn around, don’t drown.”
The weather service reports most drownings involve motorists trying to drive on a flooded road.
This latest round of rains and flooding also spell more relief for the area’s seven-year drought. The U.S. Drought Monitor reports nearly the entire northern third of Bexar County has emerged from drought conditions and conditions have greatly eased elsewhere in the county.
Saturday’s rain and flooding were largely concentrated on the Far West Side of San Antonio. Most spots received around 1.5 inches, while other areas recorded 2 or 3 inches.
This story first appeared at Texas Public Radio.
