Relentless downpours overwhelmed San Antonio early Thursday, leading to devastating floodwaters that claimed the lives of four individuals while emergency crews scrambled to save dozens more, officials reported.
According to the Associated Press, authorities continued searching for two missing persons as water rescue operations intensified before sunrise, according to the San Antonio Police Department.
Police Chief William McManus confirmed that two women and two men had died, though their ages were not immediately available. All fatalities occurred in the northeast sector of the city, where floodwaters engulfed 13 vehicles.
San Antonio Fire Department spokesman Woody Woodward explained the chaotic scene:
“It’s hard to determine at this point exactly how they got swept away,” Woodward said. “But it is an area where there was high water that was moving rapidly and there were several people that were caught in that water that had climbed up into trees and we did do a couple of rescues out of trees and some rescues out of vehicles.”
Since midnight, emergency personnel had conducted 65 water rescues across the region.
The flooding followed slow-moving showers and thunderstorms that lingered over the city in the early hours of Thursday, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Eric Platt. Some areas recorded over 7 inches (17 centimeters) of rainfall.
By midmorning, waters had begun to recede, but Platt warned that lingering rainfall could still pose a threat, especially on already saturated ground.
