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07/08/2010 02:22 PM

Tropical depression hits coast, Central Texas gets rain

By: News 8 Austin Staff, AP

The second tropical depression of the Atlantic hurricane season formed over the western Gulf of Mexico and made landfall near the Texas-Mexico border at 1 p.m. Thursday.

Locally, the depression caused rainfall in Central Texas late Wednesday night and through the day Thursday. The grounds are still saturated from last week, so if there are brief, heavy rains it could cause some flash flooding.

News 8’s Chie Saito sent this video of water rushing through Killeen streets from her camera phone. “The water is rushing so fast you see a garbage can being carried down,” she wrote in an email.

There is a 60 percent chance of more rain on Friday, and a Flash Flood Watch is in effect through Friday. More rain is expected Saturday, but the weather should clear up by Sunday.

The storm is also threatening cities struggling with floods along the Rio Grande. The area is under a flash flood watch through Friday. A tropical storm warning was in effect for the Texas coast south of Baffin Bay and for Mexico north of the San Fernando River. (Article continues after video.)

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Laredo police went door to door to help evacuate low-lying areas as the rain-swollen Rio Grande reached nearly 30 feet above flood stage. Lt. Ricardo Ramirez said the evacuation of about 30 homes started at 1 a.m. Thursday.

The Laredo Civic Center was open as a shelter. Ramirez did not have numbers on how many people spent the night, and no injuries have been reported.

Two of Laredo's four bridges to Mexico remained closed, and authorities severely limited traffic on a third bridge that carries a huge portion of daily imports from Mexico as the Rio Grande continues to rise.

Laredo City Manager Carlos Villarreal said Thursday they are monitoring the water and are hopeful the World Trade International Bridge can stay open despite the swelling Rio Grande. But much depends on the incoming tropical storm-driven rains.

Tropical depression hits coast, Central Texas gets rain
The bridge carries roughly 8,000 18-wheelers a day into the United States; closing it would cripple the nation's busiest inland port, which handles about half the land traffic between the U.S. and Mexico.

Gov. Rick Perry has activated Texas National Guard troops in Laredo and in San Antonio, plus rescue swimmers.

The Austin Fire Department is also sending a six-person boat team to provide support with the possible flooding. The crew's not sure how long they'll be needed. The crew was in Laredo for six days last week in response to Hurricane Alex.

To the southeast, Mexican officials evacuated nearly 18,000 people from houses in Ciudad Anahuac for fear that water would overflow the Venustiano Carranza dam and threaten lives.

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