Dramatic flood rescues in Texas, Oklahoma
Record-setting rain drenched the Dallas area overnight, forcing dozens of rescues. There were at least two high-water rescue in Sacshe, a Dallas suburb.
A Sachse police officer whose patrol car was stuck in floodwaters was rescued with the help of a helicopter from the Texas Department of Public Safety. The rescue was made after attempts to reach the officer by hovercraft failed because the water currents were too fast.
Earlier, CBSDFW.com reports that a woman was trapped in her car in Sachse after it became halfway submerged in high water on Miles Road, just south of the George Bush Turnpike.
The woman was able to climb from the vehicle onto the roof, but was stranded.
Members of Wylie Fire Rescue went to the area in a hovercraft. The first-responders gave the woman a life jacket and then helped her off of the roof of the car and into the boat.
It didn't appear that the woman was injured.
Dallas Fire Rescue said early Friday that crews have responded to about 260 calls that include vehicles trapped in high water and accidents related to the weather since midnight Thursday.
The Weather Channel's David Malakoff reports that one rescue team from the Dallas Fire Department pulled at least five people from their vehicles. One driver was swept away by the quick-moving water but was able to get out of the vehicle and to a nearby convenience store.
Meanwhile, in Austin, emergency personnel rescued the occupants of a houseboat that was adrift in Lake Travis in Austin. Austin-Travis County EMS said the 21 occupants of the boat rescued Friday were not injured.
Responders said the houseboat broke free from Sandy Creek Marina earlier in the day. The area has been blighted by days of relentless rains. Emergency personnel used three boats to attach the houseboat to the dock at the marina.
Meanwhile, in Oklahoma, the Highway Patrol said troopers rescued a man who was swept off a bridge by floodwaters, then jailed him on a public intoxication complaint.
The patrol says the unnamed man was swept away about 8:30 p.m. Thursday while walking across a closed portion of U.S. Highway 70 at the Muddy Boggy Bridge in Choctaw County. Troopers Kevin Antwine and Nathan Mullins put a boat in the water and found the man clinging to a tree about 200 yards south of the highway.
The patrol says that once he was transported back to shore, the man was arrested by Choctaw County sheriff's deputies on a complaint of public intoxication.