Texas, Oklahoma Flooding Turns Deadly

Over the weekend, portions of Oklahoma and Texas were ravaged by storms and heavy rainfall, reportedly prompting thousands to evacuate. And on Monday, the situation is still dire — flash flooding in Texas and Oklahoma turned deadly, leaving three people killed and at least a dozen people from one Texas county missing, and it's not entirely over just yet.

The flooding isn't even the full extent of the natural disasters faced by some in the region, either. There have also been tornadoes, including one which struck the Mexican city of Ciudad Acuna along the border with Texas Monday morning. According to The Guardian, it left more than 10 people dead.

Some of the images coming out of the afflicted regions have been shocking, with cars and houses floating away amid record-setting flooding of the Blanco River. As detailed by CNN, emergency coordinator and fire marshal Ken Bell of San Marcos (one of the Hays County cities most damaged by the floods) told them that the 12 missing people were from families that had come home for the long Memorial Day weekend, some of them likely children. Suffice to say, it's a pretty nightmarish situation, and it may not be done just yet — the National Weather Service (NWS) is warning that more storms are possible on Memorial Day.

Two bridges were also reportedly washed away in the flood, meaning there are some debris issues — the Comal river was closed early Monday while crews attempted to clean up the mess. For some perspective on just how staggering the flooding ended up being, the Blanco River's water level surged to over 40 feet on Sunday morning. This broke the previous record, a water level of just over 33 feet, which was set back in 1929, according to KVUE.

As detailed by USA Today, Hays County emergency management coordinator Kharley Smith gave a very cautionary assessment of how things looked in Wimberley, another hard-hit town in the area.

It looks pretty bad out there. We do have whole streets with maybe one or two houses left on them, and the rest are just slabs.

Luckily, there is some aid being administered — the Red Cross is getting involved. As detailed by KVUE, American Red Cross chief regional executive for South and Central Texas Marty McKellips lauded the efforts of Red Cross volunteers, and asked for the public's support.

When families across Texas need shelter, disaster relief and comfort, Red Cross volunteers are there to help them. Now more than ever, we need people in the community to step up and help their neighbors in need by becoming a Red Cross disaster volunteer and to provide relief for our current volunteers.