Texas hit by storms and flash flooding as Midwest begins clean-up operation

Extreme weather that battered parts of the Midwest and caused death and destruction over the weekend turned to Texas overnight and will move into the Lower Mississippi Valley Monday, bringing the risk of storms and flash flooding.

The storms that have inundated southeastern Texas will continue through that state and into Louisiana Monday, where there is a 15% chance of excessive rainfall leading to flash flooding, according to a National Weather Service forecast posted before 4 a.m. ET.

Rescue crews are sifting through wrecked homes in the hope of finding survivors after a devastating weekend.

The weather service said Monday that “the worst of the heavy rain and thunderstorms should be behind us by this evening.” But Tuesday could also bring severe weather to some 5 million people.

There is a slight risk of severe thunderstorms — with “very large hail,” severe wind and possible tornadoes — for eastern Nebraska, northwest Iowa, northwest Missouri, eastern Kansas, southeast Dakota and and southwest Minnesota on Tuesday.

At least five people were confirmed to have died as of Sunday in Oklahoma and Iowa as a result of extreme weather. The victims’ names have not yet been released.

Storms in southeast Texas destroyed at least one home in the city of Trinity, reducing it to a pile of rubble, and damaged several others, NBC affiliate KPRC of Houston reported.

Trinity County Sheriff Woody Wallace said in a Facebook video that the house was demolished by a tornado and that two people were transported to a local hospital for treatment.

“It’s completely gone, cars turned completely upside down, its kind of unheard of in our area, but thankfully everybody got out alive,” he said.

Tens of thousands of customers were without power as of 6 a.m. ET, including 50,000 in Louisiana, 38,000 in Texas and more than 6,000 in Oklahoma, according to PowerOutage.us.

Social media posts showed cars driving through flooded streets in Trinity as heavy rain fell and thunder flashed across the sky. The National Weather Service in Houston said the flash flooding was potentially “life-threatening,” with between 4 and 8 inches of rain falling in some parts of southeast Texas.

The streets were so flooded in Madisonville, Texas, on Sunday that one man was able to use a kayak to get around, in a moment captured by a local resident.

Meanwhile a huge cleanup operation is underway in Oklahoma, where entire towns have been devastated.

“You just can’t believe the destruction,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said during a visit to Sulphur, a town of about 5,000 people south of Oklahoma City, which was hit by a tornado. “It seems like every business downtown has been destroyed.”

At least one person was killed and 30 injured in Sulphur during the storms, he said. Some of the victims were sheltering in a bar. Aerial photography showed the town’s historic downtown district was reduced to rubble. There were at least 100 injured reported by hospitals across Oklahoma.

Stitt signed a declaration of emergency status for 12 counties on Sunday.

The White House confirmed overnight that President Joe Biden had spoken to Stitt and “offered the full support of the federal government following Saturday’s deadly tornadoes in the state.”

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen declared a state of emergency for Douglas, Lancaster and Washington Counties just before 8 p.m. ET Sunday to unlock financial assistance in the wake of severe storms. He posted pictures showing homes devastated by strong winds.