PIEDMONT, Mo. — Torrential rains chased hundreds of people from their flooded homes and deluged roads in the nation’s midsection Tuesday, killing at least two people in Missouri and sweeping a teen down a drainage pipe near Dallas.
The storm system also grounded hundreds of flights. One control tower at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport was briefly evacuated when a funnel cloud was spotted.
The National Weather Service posted flood and flash-flood warnings from Texas to Ohio, with tornado watches in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas.
Emergency officials in Mesquite, Texas, searched for a 14-year-old boy apparently swept away by floodwater as he and a friend played in a creek. The friend was able to swim to safety and said he saw the boy get sucked into a drainage pipe, according to a Fire Department news release.
Heavy rain began falling Monday and just kept coming. Forecasters said some parts of Missouri could get 10 inches of rain or more before the storms stop today.
Gov. Matt Blunt activated the Missouri National Guard as high water closed hundreds of roads. An estimated 200 houses and businesses were flooded in Piedmont, a town of 2,000 residents. McKenzie Creek rose well above its banks before receding, said Eric Fuchs, Wayne County Emergency Management director.
Up to 30 homes were evacuated in Winona, and some residents of Cape Girardeau were trapped in their homes, the State Emergency Management Agency said.
