Showers slow down, but flood threat remains through Sunday evening
The rain eased up Saturday in North Texas, but flooding remains a hazard through 6 p.m. Sunday, when a flash-flood watch is set to expire.
Dallas/Fort Worth Airport recorded 0.99 inch of rain Saturday, bringing the yearly total to just under 58 inches, said meteorologist Steve Fano with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth. The next chance for heavier rain is before daybreak Sunday, he said Saturday night.
“It’s probably not going to be as heavy as [Thursday or Friday],” he said. “But we could still see another half-inch to an inch before it’s all over.”
The rain event, which began on Thanksgiving morning, has dumped more than 7 inches of rain and helped make 2015 the rainiest year on record in DFW. A river flood warning is in effect through Monday for several rivers in and around Tarrant County, including the Trinity River and its west fork.
Lake Worth and Eagle Mountain Lake are closed to boating, and the flooding has caused overlowing of sewer water near Lake Arlington in Fort Worth and Arlington, according to the city of Fort Worth.
On Saturday, The Vineyards Campground & Cabins in Grapevine was closing again, four days after reopening after a sixth-month shutdown from spring floods.
Randy Sell, lake parks and events manager, said the decision was made to ask “everybody to leave by Monday” as a safety precaution.
As of Saturday afternoon, he said the lowest site of the campground was about 8 feet under water.
Nine high school football playoff games have been moved to Monday due to the weather.
Many are West Texas teams, but three area teams are affected: Denton Ryan, Burleson Centennial and Everman.
A slow-moving wintry storm system blamed for more than a dozen deaths began moving eastward out of Texas on Saturday but kept coating some states to the north in ice, making driving dangerous.
The band of storms that has been moving through parts of the Plains and the Midwest since Thursday has been blamed for at least 14 deaths, including eight in Texas and six in Kansas. A 70-year-old woman whose car was swept away by flash flooding Friday in Fort Worth remained missing Saturday.
Although the icy conditions were expected to persist in parts of Oklahoma and Kansas through the end of Saturday, temperatures on Sunday were expected to be above freezing in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, allowing the region to thaw out, the National Weather Service said.
After “a major refreeze” Saturday night, “we’re expecting a much better day” Sunday “and Monday is expected to be beautiful,” said Texas Department of Transportation spokesman Paul Braun in Amarillo.
Woman still missing
High water is delaying the Fort Worth Fire Department’s search for a missing 70-year-old motorist who was swept off the road into Deer Creek in south Tarrant County about 1 a.m. Friday.
“Until the water slows down, we can’t get into it or under it,” department spokesman Kyle Clay said Saturday.
While trying to save the woman, a sheriff’s deputy was also swept away, but firefighters found her clinging to a tree about two hours later.
The downpour has also caused wastewater overflows in the 5600 block of Kaltenbrun Street, near Lake Arlington, and the 1400 block of Elva Warren Street, along Sycamore Creek in southeast Fort Worth.
Fort Worth’s drinking water was not affected by the overflows, the city news release says.
The city notified the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the city of Arlington about the Kaltenbrun Street overflow.
The city says people using private wells within half-a-mile of the spill sites should only use water that has been distilled or boiled for all personal uses, and they may need to have their well water tested and disinfected. The release also says people who purchase water from a public water supply can contact their water supply distributor to determine if it’s safe to use.
After the rain leaves the area Sunday evening, it should be dry in DFW through at least Friday, Fano said. Another system could bring more rain next weekend, although that’s a bit far out for the computer models to show with certainty.
Temperatures will range from the mid- to upper 50s during the day to the 30s at night, though Fano doesn’t expect them to reach freezing.
Staff writers Mark David Smith and Marty Sabota and editor Patrick M. Walker contributed to this report, which includes material from The Associated Press.
This story was originally published November 28, 2015 at 10:49 AM with the headline "Showers slow down, but flood threat remains through Sunday evening."