United States floods toll rises to 28

Dallas: US authorities reclaimed four more bodies from Texas waters, adding to the growing death toll inflicted by record-setting storms are submerging highways and flooding homes. At least 28 people have been killed nation-wide in the storms, 24 of them in Texas and at least 11 are still missing in that southern state. More than 17.8 centimeters of rain fell overnight from thunderstorms that stalled over Dallas, which is in its wettest month ever recorded, at 40.8 centimetres.

The National Weather Service reports rainfall records have been smashed across Texas from Corpus Christi along the Gulf of Mexico to Gainesville near the Oklahoma border. Even Amarillo in the dusty Texas Panhandle is in its second wettest month on record, said meteorologist Dennis Cain. The downpour has inundated a state that until recently was suffering a severe drought. Swelled rivers and lakes may not recede to normal levels until July. “In a lot of places, we’ve exceeded the wettest year ever,”Cain said. “You’re talking maybe a 150 or 200-year event. It is quite astounding.”