El Paso storms drop 4 inches of rain, floods submerge streets
UPDATE: As of Friday morning, TxDOT advised that Transmountain Road had reopened, as had I-10 West at Cotton. However, officials said Paisano at Executive remained closed. For current traffic conditions visit kvia.com/traffic.
ORIGINAL REPORT: EL PASO, Texas -- Thunderstorms dumping heavy rain moved through the El Paso metroplex on Thursday night, triggering flash flooding on city streets that overwhelmed cars and forced closures due to debris.
The National Weather Service issued a Flash Flood Warning for El Paso and Dona Ana counties that was in effect until Midnight, as up to 4 inches of rain fell in some spots.
"There is street flooding across all parts of the city. Stay home or remember to drive to conditions," the Texas Department of Transportation tweeted.
TxDOT said it had closed Transmountain Road in both directions until further notice due to mud, rocks and other debris that had washed onto the roadway.
Authorities also shut down Interstate 10 West at Cotton until further notice due to high water that covered the highway. Due to the flooding, TxDOT said all was being traffic was being forced off at Piedras, Exit 21.
Other closures due to flooding included Paisano at Executive, as well as Doniphan and FM 259.
The flooding followed a particularly strong storm cell that moved over the Fort Bliss area and then to the southwest, producing half-inch hail and wind gusts of up to 50 miles an hour.
The weather conditions likely triggered a brief power outage that impacted about 1,400 El Paso Electric customers in central El Paso, but utility crews quickly restored service. Other smaller, scattered outages occurred throughout the evening in El Paso and Dona Ana counties.
With the roughly three inches of rain that fell Thursday night, El Paso had officially recorded 9.62 inches of rain so far for the year; the weather service said that amount exceeded the typical yearly rainfall total of 8.78 inches.
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