Weekend Rains Leave Roads Impassable & Schools Closed
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NAVARRO COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM) - North Texans awoke Monday to find nearly two-dozen road closures across various counties. Emergency management officials in Navarro County were briefing county commissioners late Monday morning on the damage left by flooding there. Reports are that flooding is more extensive than what came with the rains earlier this spring and summer.
Officials surveyed the damage with the help of a Department of Public Safety helicopter Monday morning.
While some homes and businesses were flooded – the greatest impact now, is to infrastructure. Not only roads, but pipes. A water-main break was reported overnight in the town of Richland.
Officials were working to get drinking water to several thousand people affected there.
Officials say the cleanup and repair process for county and farm-to-market roads, will likely take weeks. "We've got people who are out in the county who are unable to travel. So we're looking at addressing that immediately. [It's] also a public safety concern because of having medical or law enforcement personnel not being able to get to those sites," said Navarro County Emergency Management Director Eric Meyers.
Just east of Interstate-45, in Navarro County, barricades greeted drivers on County Road 80. Officials say the risk of flooding and high water is too dangerous for drivers and not worth the risk for school buses.
After flooding and a levee breach on Sunday, officials announced that all Navarro County school districts, except the Corsicana Independent School District, would be closed on Monday. Classes for Corsicana ISD students won't begin until 10 a.m.
Chopper 11 was up over the flooding aftermath this weekend. Video showed homes and businesses submerged in water. The main corridor between Dallas and Houston, I-45, goes right through the area.
The Monday school closures, delays and road closings should give crews a chance to clean up and repair washed out roads but they say it is too early to know if tomorrow will be better.
The levee breach Sunday only added to the flooding problems that began on Friday. Fortunately, the rain and high water did not negatively impact homes and there were no evacuations necessary.
Meanwhile, Union Pacific is working to upright a train that slid off the tracks early Saturday morning. Two crew-members on board the locomotive were able to swim to safety. Vacuum trucks were brought in Sunday night to remove any fuel that might have spilled when the train fell on its side into the water.
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