Monsoon Storm Flash Flooding in US Cities Leads to Loss of Lives, Property.
Heat waves and sharp changes in weather conditions is creating dangerous life-threating flooding in the streets for millions of Americans.
The US media is reporting flash flooding alert as torrential rains leading to a ‘monsoon storm system’ hammers the drought-stricken US south West region.
CBS News reports that at least 13 million people between Arizona and Louisiana are on alert for flooding at the start of the work week.
Monsoon is a term used to refer to heavy but short-term rains which occur in a seasonally changing pattern.
Accounts of people swept by the flood waters, skaters overrun with their skating gears, and even home owners who had to evacuate from their homes carrying children out, diners running out of “knee-deep water in partially submerged restaurants” while many others drove their vehicles through the floods likely in search of safer zones.
Read part of the report;
The U.S. Park Police received reports of multiple hikers being swept off their feet by floodwaters in the region. A cellphone video showed an unidentified person clinging to a log as the floodwaters rushed past a group of hikers in Utah.
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In New Mexico, more than 100 park-goers were trapped for several hours at a visitor’s center in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, before eventually being escorted out.
Firefighters are leaning on the rain to help combat wildfires brought on by a historic drought this summer. But those dry conditions have hardened the soil, creating a cement-like foundation for floodwaters to rise.
A few people were trapped in their cars on Interstate 30 in downtown Dallas as the water quickly rose around them. The water soaked and submerged a few cars and even stopped traffic.
Dallas saw more than 6.5 inches of rain in 24 hours, The Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore said Monday on “CBS Mornings.” In just one hour, the city had 3 inches of rain, the most rain Dallas has seen in a one-hour period since at least 1953, he said.
The heavy rain follows weeks of dry weather.
“The tables have turned big time,” Cantore said. “As a matter of fact, this is probably the wettest August on record for Dallas.”
As crews work to clear the roads, more flooding is expected from northeast Texas to Mississippi.
“We’ll watch this flood threat continue through today, through tomorrow and into tomorrow night,” Cantore said.
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