The problems were extensive. People were very lucky.
Too much, too fast
Woman swept away by raging Turtle Creek
12:00 AM CST on Monday, March 20, 2006
By HOLLY HACKER and TONY HARTZEL / The Dallas Morning News
Thunderstorms pounded the Dallas-Fort Worth area Sunday, causing flash flooding in streets, streams and yards. At least one person died Sunday after being swept away in rushing waters.
Photos by DARON DEAN/DMNA Mockingbird Lane driver wasn't the only Dallas motorist who needed police help Sunday. Officers responded to hundreds of rain-related calls.
The National Weather Service in Fort Worth reported that about 7 inches of rain fell Sunday in Arlington, and more than 6 inches fell near downtown Dallas. A late-morning storm moved from Johnson County into Tarrant and Dallas counties, dumping rain at the rate of 1 to 2 inches per hour.
One woman died after being swept away in the swollen Turtle Creek near Wycliff Avenue.
According to witnesses, the woman, who was in a convertible with a friend, stopped on Wycliff Avenue at Turtle Creek Boulevard. The two got out of the car because the creek was rising quickly.
One woman kept slipping as the two tried to get to safety, said Sam Cathey, who witnessed the incident.
"The other woman tried to help, but she couldn't make it because the water was rushing. She lost her footing and went down the embankment," Mr. Cathey said.
At that point, both women drifted down the creek but they were able to grab a tree and hold on for several moments, Mr. Cathey said.
Witnesses and rescuers reached one of the women, but the fast water didn't let them get close enough to the other.
"She slipped off the tree and went screaming all the way to here," he said, while recounting the incident on the Avondale Avenue bridge. "It was horrible."
When Mr. Cathey first saw the women, the water was as high as the top of the car's wheels, but the water came very fast. By the time rescuers arrived, the water was up to the vehicle's windshield.
The second woman was pulled out of the water. She was listed in fair condition at Parkland Memorial Hospital.
Dallas Fire-Rescue found the body of a woman in her mid-20s about 5:45 p.m. Sunday in the 2900 block of Cedar Springs Road. It was less than a mile from where the woman was swept away.
Rescue crews had another unconfirmed report of a body in Turtle Creek, but searches were called off because of darkness Sunday evening. Crews will resume the search Monday morning.
Ordinarily Turtle Creek is calm, Mr. Cathey said, but the banks spread 20 to 30 feet on each side.
Dallas police officers and firefighters responded to hundreds of accidents and calls about high water. They evacuated homes in West Dallas because of rising waters, estimated at up to 5 feet high.
The rain is expected to stop midmorning today, with the sun coming out this afternoon and warming things up into the low 70s.
Though Sunday's official total at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport fell short of the record for March 19, the weekend rain put the Dallas-Fort Worth area well above its normal rainfall levels. Before Sunday, the area had received almost 7 inches of rain in 2006, an inch above normal, said meteorologist Dan Dixon of the weather service.
White Rock area
On Sunday afternoon, Dallas Fire-Rescue sent five swift water rescue boats to save passengers of four vehicles stuck in rushing water on Peavy Road near White Rock Lake. When crews arrived, some of the vehicles had started to drift, said battalion Chief Greg Stoy.
Nearby homeowners on Creekmere Drive and Tipperary Drive were faced with flooded homes.
"The current was so strong, the motorboats couldn't keep up with it," Chief Stoy said.
The crews had to inch themselves forward, moving an anchored emergency line.
Signs on Peavy Road warned drivers of high water. It had receded by 4:30 p.m. but left a blanket of mud and debris on the road.
In less than four hours Sunday afternoon, Dallas police received about 250 calls about people in danger. The department's first shift of employees was held over to help. The department also called in a SWAT unit to assist with the call load. Most of the calls came from the central and northeast parts of town, Cpl. Max Geron said. Police recommended that people stay home.
Dallas Fire-Rescue recorded 200 calls above normal between 7 a.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. Sunday, Lt. Joel Lavender said. In many cases, crews helped drivers whose cars were stalled or trapped by water.
Still, the weekend's traffic and accidents were not as bad as they have been on rainy days in the past, he said.
"Fortunately, it came over the weekend, and there was enough advance warning so individuals could make precautions as far as the weather is concerned," Lt. Lavender said.
Sunday night, the rain started to erode a retaining wall downstream from the White Rock Lake spillway near Garland Road. The overflow started to erode part of the parking lot next to the spillway, Dallas police Sgt. Gil Cerda said.
Barricades were placed near the wall, and engineering officials will assess structural damage this morning, Sgt. Cerda said.
Floodwaters forced police to close part of White Rock Trail on Sunday afternoon, but not before two people in their car were trapped briefly in the high-rising water.
"The water came in real fast and moved the car," Faye Kpandeyenge said.
Mrs. Kpandeyenge, who friends say works at a nearby assisted-living facility, made it out of the vehicle with a few bumps and bruises. "We just swam out," she said.
Flooding made it difficult for other workers at the facility to get to work Sunday afternoon.
"We're trying to figure out how we can go. We're stuck here," said Mavis Franklin, who works at an adjacent Alzheimer's facility. "This is a surprise. I did not expect it to be this bad."
Around the city
The roof on the DFW Gun Range in the Love Field area collapsed under the weight of water. Employees say that about 2 p.m. Sunday, they heard what sounded like thunder when the roof began to fail, causing an exterior brick wall to give way. The wall fell on cars parked outside the building in the 1600 block of Mockingbird Lane.
About 10 people were in the gun range and protected by a wooden structure during the incident. One person, who was outside, suffered a minor cut to the head.
Dallas Love Field reported about 6.9 inches of rain on Sunday through 10 p.m.
High waters approached the front porches of homes on Springbranch Drive and Clearhurst Drive in Lake Highlands.
A Lowe's hardware store at Inwood Road and Forest Lane sold out of small water pumps.
High water forced the closure of the Dallas North Tollway for almost five hours Sunday as the road became impassable around Mockingbird Lane, said North Texas Tollway Authority spokeswoman Donna Huerta.
Safety concerns prompted crews to close the road from Northwest Highway to downtown Dallas from 2:30 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. American Airlines Center officials notified patrons at the NCAA basketball tournament to consider alternate routes home or waiting for traffic to clear.
Maintenance crews have checked all drains on the tollway at Mockingbird, but they will be watching the road closely for any new flooding into this morning, Ms. Huerta said.
Trouble on I-35E
Interstate 35E service roads near Market Center Boulevard became impassible. Some drivers abandoned their vehicles in the water, which covered curbs. Other motorists meandered around them, slowly moving through the flooded area.
By the time a quilt show ended at Market Hall on Sunday afternoon, patrons had to wade to their cars. Many treaded through knee-deep water to find their vehicles stuck in the water.
Medieval Times, the restaurant that features jousting knights on horseback, had to cancel its 5 p.m. show, for which more than 800 people had reserved seats. The restaurant is off I-35E at the Market Center exit. "There was no way for anybody to get into the parking lot," manager Ivan Jasso said.
The portion of Oak Lawn Avenue under Harry Hines was also badly flooded, covering abandoned cars. Firefighters blocked the entrance to that portion of Oak Lawn.
Drivers heading east on Fitzhugh Avenue past Avondale Avenue had to turn around and head back. Once they came over a hill, they quickly saw that Turtle Creek had flooded the roadway and trapped an SUV.
In many neighborhoods, including along the DART blue rail line, yards sprouted small lakes from all the rain.
Suburban storms
Some roads in Rowlett, Garland and Sachse were also closed by water.
In Collin County, Wylie spokesman Mark Witter said officials participated in nine rescues. He said the people rescued were in vehicles in low-lying areas near Lake Ray Hubbard. Most of these were in the southeast part of town, but some were outside the city limits, he said. No one was injured.
Mr. Witter said a shelter would be opened if needed. Both Wylie's and the county's emergency operation center were opened.
Celina police Cpl. Phil Ryan marveled at the amount of rain that fell in Collin County, but he said he knew of no major problems there.
"We have a lot of creeks out here ... luckily they were so low," he said. "I think we're OK."
Rising waters in Arlington forced some evacuations. Forecasters expected the West Fork of the Trinity River in Grand Prairie would rise about one foot above flood stage on Sunday evening. It's the highest crest at that point in more than 56 years.
The weather service also said the Trinity River would crest nearly four feet above flood stage after midnight.
'No normal in Texas'
Only days earlier, firefighters battled wildfires in the Texas Panhandle exacerbated by dry conditions.
"There is no normal in Texas. It's basically extremes," said Ted Ryan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth. "We were in a drought, and now we have rain."
"We do see thunderstorms in the springtime. This is not necessarily unusual," Mr. Ryan said. "It's not going to happen every year, but this does happen in Texas quite often."
The calls that came into Dallas police included the following:
• Dallas County Sheriff's Sgt. Darrell Watson said a single-car accident prompted authorities to close several lanes on westbound Interstate 20, but most reports involved flooding, not accidents.
• About 2:30 a.m. Sunday, a pickup on westbound LBJ Freeway at Hillcrest Road in North Dallas lost traction and landed on its side.
• A couple hours later on the same highway, a car ended up on its roof near Ferguson Road in Garland. Police said no one was hurt.
• Dallas police said they had received at least four reports of vehicles stalled in high water, including one in the 2800 block of Shorecrest Drive near Bachman Lake in Northwest Dallas.
• A large tree fell across several lanes of West Colorado Boulevard in Oak Cliff on Sunday morning, and city workers were out with chainsaws trying to clear the debris.
Staff writers Brandon Formby, Stella M. Chávez, Jon Nielsen, Marissa Alanis and David Renfrow contributed to this report, which contains material from The Associated Press and WFAA-TV (Channel 8)
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E-mail hhacker@dallasnews.com and thartzel@dallasnews.com
