3 dead, 3 injured, 6 missing after flood sweeps Army truck

By JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press

Three soldiers were killed and six were missing after an Army truck was washed from a low-water crossing and overturned Thursday in a rain-swollen creek at Fort Hood, the Texas Army post said.

The accident happened about 11:30 a.m. Thursday in an area near Cold Springs and Owl Creek, Fort Hood said in a statement.

Three soldiers were rescued from the swift water and were in stable condition Thursday afternoon at Coryell Memorial Healthcare System in Gatesville.

Army aircraft, canine search teams, swift-water rescue watercraft and heavy trucks were being used in the search for the six missing soldiers. The Army did not release the names of the dead because it was still notifying relatives.

Fort Hood spokesman John Miller said the low-water crossing of the creek was flooded by two days of intermittent heavy rains when the swift water swept the truck, called a Light Medium Tactical Vehicle, from the road.

Parts of Texas have been inundated with rain in the last week. More storms were on the way that could dump up to 10 inches of rain from Thursday through Saturday and worsen flooding caused by rivers and other waterways that already have risen to record levels.

About half of Texas is under flood watches or warnings, including Fort Bend County, southwest of Houston, where about 1,400 homes have been affected by the Brazos River, swollen by heavy rainfall from last week.

A storm system that moved through the Houston-area Wednesday night and Thursday morning dumped nearly 8 inches of rain in some of the city’s northern suburbs, causing flooding in some neighborhoods.

The river reached 54.8 feet in Fort Bend County – 4 feet higher than the record set in 1994 – with water spilling into neighborhoods that hadn’t previously flooded. Officials say levels in the Brazos have not dropped much and additional rainfall could make the flooding worse.

“With the rain that’s predicted, that’s not going to help things as that water has no place to go,” said Lt. Lowell Neinast, with the police department in Richmond, where more than 700 people have been evacuated due to the Brazos River.

Depending on how much rain falls, the Brazos River could even rise to up to 56 feet, said Fort Bend County Judge Robert Hebert.

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Associated Press writer Terry Wallace in Dallas contributed to this report.