Three people were unaccounted for in Manitou Springs, Colorado, after an inch and a half of rain caused flash floods, the
town’s police chief said Saturday.
One of the missing is a petite blonde woman “seen near the creek hanging in a tree one minute and not seen the next,” Police Chief Joe Ribeiro said. Two other men were also reported missing by a family member and a neighbor.
Ribeiro asked for help locating the missing a day after floods tore through streets of the small city west of Colorado Springs, killing at least one person. It’s one of several areas around the United States where heavy rains have caused fatal floods over the past week.
The National Weather Service say more showers and thunderstorms are expected through the weekend in states ranging from the Pacific Northwest to the deep South. In Colorado, slow-moving, heavy rain could wreak even more havoc by way of flash flooding as it falls on saturated and unstable soils in the area plagued by last year’s devastating Waldo Canyon wildfire.
Friday’s death in Manitou Springs came amid a flash flood and mudslide that swept away cars and washed out parts of a state highway. The man’s body was found beneath “significant amounts of debris” left on Colorado Highway 24, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office said.
Video of the mudslide showed cars sliding swiftly down an incline while others remained stranded in rushing, grey-colored water. Lt. Jeff Kramer with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office said deputies think they have identified the man killed Friday but weren’t ready to release his name.
Flash flood watches and warnings, as well as flood watches and warnings, were in effect for 12 U.S. states from Washington and Oregon to parts of coastal Georgia and South Carolina on Saturday. The most severe threats are in Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee.
In Oklahoma, floodwaters swept away and killed a man who was trying to save his daughter from a stranded vehicle early Friday. The 60-year-old man was washed away by fast-moving floodwater that had rapidly appeared in Oklahoma City overnight, city police Lt. Gamille Hardin said.
His daughter had been stuck in a vehicle surrounded by rapidly rising water, Hardin said.
In South Carolina, Logan Dale Evans was found dead in floodwater on his family property Wednesday night near the town of Central, Pickens County Coroner Kandy Kelley said.
Evans, 23, was found outside his vehicle, which ended up about a mile downstream, said Kelley, who added that Evans is believed to have drowned.
At least two people were reported killed in Missouri this week, including a driver who was caught in rapidly rising water in McDonald County on Thursday, said Gregg Sweeten, the county’s emergency management director. The woman, thought to be in her 60s, had been trying to drive over a bridge when the water overwhelmed her vehicle, Sweeten said.
On Monday, Elijah Lee, 4, died after 6 inches of rain fell on Pulaski County, about 140 miles southwest of St. Louis. The boy was found in a vehicle swept up in floodwater that caught the community along Mitchell Creek off guard, said Sgt. Dan Crain, a Missouri Highway Patrol spokesman.
Courtesy: CNN