Sun, Jul 05, 2009
Fort Worth firefighters Chris Cassell, left, and Ralph Diamond search the banks of the West Fork of the Trinity River, seeking a 26-year-old man missing since Friday when his raft capsized.
Tom Pennington / Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Nation

Easing floods reveal damage

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.08.2007
The latest developments
• The sky was clear over much of Texas Saturday after three weeks of drenching rain, as search teams combed the swollen Trinity River in Fort Worth for a missing rafter.
• The death toll from storms that have battered Texas since last month climbed to 15 with the recovery of two other flood victims elsewhere in the state.
• Rivers in Oklahoma and Kansas have been receding, revealing millions of dollars in damage to thousands of homes and businesses, besides the 1,000 or so damaged in Texas.
• Authorities found the body of a man believed to be the flood's first fatality in Kansas.
• On Saturday, President Bush issued a federal disaster declaration for Oklahoma, freeing federal funds to aid two counties ravaged by the flooding.
• Along the Oklahoma-Texas state line, Lake Texoma reached the top of a 640-foot-high concrete spillway Saturday, with waves lapping over the top, the Army Corps of Engineers said. The corps has been pumping an estimated 27,000 cubic feet of water per second into the Red River to help control the lake's level.
• The lake, with a normal level of 619 feet, is expected to crest about 6 inches higher than the spillway Monday.
• In Texas, forecasters said severe storms appeared to be tapering off. Although more storms were forecast for the coming week in north Texas and along the coast, the heavier rainfall is predicted to be more localized.
• The Brazos River in Texas was carrying everything from cars to refrigerators to trees, and the current was so strong it was pushing 20 miles out into the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, officials said.