Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is urging people in flooded areas of the state to heed warnings when they’re told to evacuate and to not drive through high water or around barricades.
Abbott gave a briefing Friday after taking an aerial tour of flooded Fort Bend and Brazoria counties, south of Houston. He says he’s seen and heard too many stories of people being trapped in rising waters.
The governor says the accident at Fort Hood demonstrates that even trained soldiers can be swept away. Five soldiers were killed Thursday when their truck overturned in a flooded creek. Four remain missing.
Abbott says the Fort Hood deaths show that everyone needs to understand the power of rising water and the danger it can pose.
An apartment complex has been evacuated after ground saturated by days of rain collapsed and undermined retaining walls along a lake southwest of Fort Worth.
Images provided by KDFW-TV in Dallas show the ground slid away from a corner of the complex Friday morning, leaving the foundation exposed and a steep drop extending toward Lake Granbury.
Fire officials say no injuries have been reported but authorities are determining whether other nearby structures may be threatened, too.
The lake is part of the Brazos River, which extends through much of Texas and has been the source of extensive flooding in the state.
The river near Granbury on Friday was more than 4 feet above flood stage, close to a record crest of nearly 36 feet.
A third Texas prison near the Brazos River in southeast Texas is being evacuated because of flooding.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice on Friday began moving about 1,700 inmates from the Ramsey Unit in Rosharon, about 30 miles south of Houston. They’re being placed on buses for transfer to other prisons in East Texas that have room.
Some 2,600 inmates at two nearby prisons in Brazoria County, the Terrell and Stringfellow Units, were moved out Sunday.
Agency spokesman Jason Clark says additional food and water has been delivered to the prisons receiving the displaced inmates.
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