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Japan struggles to restore water to flood-hit towns

Local residents try to clear mud and debris at a flood affected area in Mabi town in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, July 13, 2018. REUTERS/Issei Kato

By Kiyoshi Takenaka and Mari Saito

KURASHIKI, Japan (Reuters) – Municipal workers in western Japan struggled on Friday to restore water supplies a week after floods caused by a record downpour killed more than 200 people in the worst such disaster in 36 years.

Communities that grappled with rising floodwaters last week now find themselves battling scorching summer temperatures well above 30 degrees Celsius (86°F), as foul-smelling garbage piles up in mud-splattered streets.

“We need the water supply back,” said Hiroshi Oka, 40, a resident helping to clean up the Mabi district in one of the hardest-hit areas, the city of Kurashiki, where more than 200,000 households have gone without water for a week.

“What we are getting is a thin stream of water, and we can’t flush toilets or wash our hands,” he added, standing over a 20-liter (4.4-gallon) plastic tank that was only partly filled after almost four hours of waiting.

Water has been restored to some parts of the district, a city official told Reuters, but he did not know when normal operations would resume, as engineers were trying to locate pipeline ruptures.

More than 70,000 military, police and firefighters have fanned out to tackle the aftermath of the floods. There have been 204 deaths, the government said, with dozens missing.

Large piles of tatami straw mats, chairs and bookcases could be seen all over Mabi. The smell of leaked gasoline, mixed with a sour smell of mud and debris, filled the air.

The weather has fueled concerns that residents, many still in temporary evacuation centers, may suffer heat stroke or illness as hygiene levels deteriorate.

Shizuo Yoshimoto, a doctor making the rounds at evacuation centers, said an urgent challenge was to bring necessary drugs to patients with diabetes and high blood pressure who were forced from their homes or whose clinics are closed.

“There are quite a few cases where patients are unable to get a hold of drugs,” he said. “So one issue is how to maintain treatment for those with chronic illness. Another is acute illness, as heatstroke is on the rise.”

A submerged car is seen in a flooded area in Mabi town in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, July 13, 2018. REUTERS/Issei Kato

Public broadcaster NHK has spread advice on coping with high temperatures and maintain hygiene, such as a video tutorial on how to make a diaper from a towel and plastic shopping bag.

More than 70,000 military, police and firefighters have fanned out to help with the rescue operation.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, the government spokesman, urged people in flood-hit areas to guard against thunderstorms.

“People still need to be aware of the possibility of further landslides,” he told reporters.

Severe weather has increasingly battered Japan in recent years, including similar floods last year that killed dozens of people, raising questions about the impact of global warming.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who canceled a scheduled overseas trip to deal with the rescue effort, visited Kurashiki on Thursday, and said he aimed to visit other flood-damaged areas on Friday and over the weekend.

(Additional reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Writing by Tim Kelly and Elaine Lies; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Japan faces ‘frequent’ disasters as flood toll reaches 200

Rescue workers search for missing people at a landslide site caused by heavy rain in Kumano Town, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan July 11, 2018. REUTERS/Issei Kato

By Kiyoshi Takenaka and Issei Kato

KURASHIKI, Japan (Reuters) – Japan risks more severe weather and must find ways to alleviate disasters, a government spokesman said on Thursday, as intense heat and water shortages raised fear of disease among survivors of last week’s floods and landslides.

Torrential rain in western Japan caused the country’s worst weather disaster in 36 years, killing 200 people, many in communities that have existed for decades on mountain slopes and flood plains largely untroubled by storms.

Rescue workers and Japan Self-Defense Forces soldiers search for missing people at a landslide site caused by heavy rain in Kumano Town, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan July 11, 2018. REUTERS/Issei Kato

But severe weather has been battering the country more regularly in recent years, raising questions about the impact of global warming. Dozens of people were killed in a similar disaster last year.

“It’s an undeniable fact that this sort of disaster due to torrential, unprecedented rain is becoming more frequent in recent years,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference in Tokyo.

Saving lives was the government’s biggest duty, he said.

“We recognize that there’s a need to look into steps we can take to reduce the damage from disasters like this even a little bit,” he said.

He did not elaborate on what steps the government could take.

More than 200,000 households had no water a week after disaster struck and many thousands of people were homeless.

With temperatures ranging from 31 to 34 Celsius (86 to 93 Fahrenheit) and high humidity, life in school gymnasiums and other evacuation centers, where families spread out on mats on the floors, began to take a toll.

Television footage showed one elderly woman trying to sleep by kneeling across a folding chair, arms over her eyes to keep out the light.

With few portable fans in evacuation centers, many survivors waved paper fans to keep cool.

Tight water supplies meant that people were not getting enough fluids, authorities said.

“Without water, we can’t really clean anything up. We can’t wash anything,” one man told NHK television.

Local residents try to clear debris at a flood affected area in Mabi town in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, Japan, July 12, 2018. REUTERS/Issei Kato

The government has sent out water trucks but supplies remain limited.

In the hard-hit Mabi district of Kurashiki city in Okayama prefecture, piles of water-damaged refrigerators, washing machines and furniture lined the streets as residents used hoses to wash mud out of their homes.

Unable to join in the strenuous work Hisako Takeuchi, 73, and her husband, spent the past five nights at an elementary school that had been turned into a make-shift evacuation center.

“We only have each other and no relatives nearby. We aren’t able to move large things and we desperately need volunteer helpers,” said Takeuchi.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on a visit to Kurashiki on Thursday, promised to provide help as soon as possible. He is set to visit two other hard-hit areas on Friday and the weekend.

More than 70,000 military, police and firefighters toiled through the debris in a search for bodies.

Teams used diggers and chainsaws to clear landslides and cut away wreckage of buildings and trees. Many areas were buried deep in mud that smelled like sewage and had hardened in the heat.

(Additional reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Writing by Elaine Lies; Editing by Darren Schuettler, Robert Birsel)

Japan PM visits flood disaster zone, promises help as new warnings issued

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe meets local residents staying at an evacuation center in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo July 11, 2018. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS

By Kiyoshi Takenaka and Issei Kato

KUMANO, Japan (Reuters) – Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited flood-stricken parts of Japan on Wednesday as the death toll from the worst weather disaster in 36 years reached 176 and health concerns rose amid scorching heat and the threat of new floods.

Torrential rain caused floods and triggered landslides in western Japan last week, bringing death and destruction to neighborhoods built decades ago near steep mountain slopes.

At least 176 people were killed, the government said, with dozens missing in Japan’s worst weather disaster since 1982.

Rescue workers and Japan Self-Defense Force soldiers search for missing people at a landslide site caused by a heavy rain in Kumano Town, Hiroshima Prefecture, western Japan, July 11, 2018. REUTERS/Issei Kato

In Kumano, a mountainside community in Hiroshima prefecture that was hit by a landslide last week, Ken Kirioka anxiously watched rescuers toiling through mud, sand and smashed houses to find the missing, including his 76-year-old father, Katsuharu.

“He is old and has a heart condition. I prepared myself for the worst when I heard about the landslide on Friday night,” he said, pointing at a pile of mud and rubble where he said his father was buried.

“He is an old-fashioned father who is hard-headed and does not talk much,” Kirioka said, adding he would stay until his father was found. “It would be too bad for him if a family member were not around”.

Rescuers working under a scorching sun combed through heaps of wood and thickly caked mud in a search for bodies, helped by sniffer dogs. In some cases only the foundation of homes remained as they cut through debris with chain saws.

With temperatures of 33 degrees Celsius (91 degrees Fahrenheit) or higher in the devastated areas in Okayama and Hiroshima prefectures, attention turned to preventing heat-stroke among rescue workers and in evacuation centers where thousands of people have sought shelter.

People sat on thin mats on a gymnasium floor in one center, plastic bags of belongings piled around them and bedding folded off to the side. Portable fans turned slowly as children cried.

A family member of missing people watches search and rescue operations at a landslide site caused by a heavy rain in Kumano Town, Hiroshima Prefecture, western Japan, July 11, 2018. REUTERS/Issei Kato

ABE PLEDGES SUPPORT

Abe, who canceled an overseas trip to deal with the disaster, was criticized after a photograph posted on Twitter showed Abe and his defense minister at a party with lawmakers just as the rains intensified.

After observing the damage from a helicopter flying over Okayama, one of the hardest-hit areas, Abe visited a crowded evacuation center. He crouched down on the floor to speak with people, many of them elderly, and asked about their health. He clasped one man’s hands as they spoke.

Later he told reporters the government would do everything it could to help the survivors.

“We’ll cut through all the bureaucracy to secure the goods people need for their lives, to improve life in the evacuation centers – such as air conditioners as the hot days continue – and then secure temporary housing and the other things people need to rebuild their lives,” he said.

Abe is up for re-election as party leader in September and has seen his popularity ratings edge back up after taking a hit over a cronyism scandal earlier this year.

His government pledged an initial $4 billion toward recovery on Tuesday, and a later special budget if needed.

Officials turned to social media to warn of the additional danger of food-borne illnesses, urging people to wash their hands and take other measures against food poisoning.

Evacuation orders were issued for 25 households in the city of Fukuyama after cracks were found in a reservoir.

Water accumulating behind piles of debris blocking rivers also posed a danger after a swollen river rushed into a Fukuyama residential area on Monday, prompting more evacuation orders.

The intensifying heat was expected to trigger thunderstorms on Wednesday, with authorities warning new landslides could be set off on mountainsides saturated with water.

Japanese media on Wednesday focused on the timing of evacuation orders issued in the hard-hit Mabi district of Kurashiki city just minutes before a levee broke and water poured into the residential area.

A number of the dead in Mabi were found in their homes, suggesting they did not have enough time to flee, media reports said.

(Additional reporting by Ritsuko Ando and Hideyuki Sano; Writing by Elaine Lies; Editing by Paul Tait and Darren Schuettler)

Hundreds of thousands evacuated in Japan as ‘historic’ rain falls; four dead

Rescue workers are seen next to houses damaged by a landslide following heavy rain in Kitakyushu, southwestern Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo July 6, 2018. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTE

By Elaine Lies

TOKYO (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands of people across a wide swathe of western and central Japan were evacuated from their homes on Friday as torrential rain flooded rivers and set off landslides, killing at least four people.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued its strongest possible warning about the “historic” rainfall and said more was set to batter already saturated areas through Sunday, raising the danger of more landslides and major damage.

One part of the main island of Honshu had been hit with twice the total amount of rain for a normal July by Friday morning, and the rain was relentless through the day.

At least four people were killed, one when he was sucked into a drainage pipe and another, an elderly woman, died after being blown over by powerful wind.

A local resident watches Togetsu Bridge and swollen Katsura River, caused by a heavy rain, in Kyoto, western Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo July 6, 2018. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS

Several people were missing, including a man whose car was swept away as he delivered milk and a boy who was swept into a ditch, NHK national television said.

“The situation is extremely dangerous,” wrote a Twitter user in Kochi, a city on the smallest main island of Shikoku, where the rain was especially intense.

Several dozen people were injured, four seriously, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said. Several people were buried in a landslide and rescuers rushed to dig them out.

About 210,000 people were ordered from their homes due to the danger of further landslides and flooding, nearly half of them in a wide area surrounding Japan’s ancient capital of Kyoto, and nearly 2 million more were advised to leave, as of Friday afternoon, the Agency added.

Trains across western and central Japan were halted, including several sections of the Shinkansen bullet train.

The danger was particularly high in a part of the southwesternmost main island of Kyushu, where dozens of people were killed by torrential rain and floods a year ago.

The rain appeared to have been touched off by warm, humid air flowing up from the Pacific Ocean and intensifying the activity of a seasonal rain front.

Remnants of a now-dissipated typhoon that brushed Japan this week also contributed, officials said.

Japan’s weather woes are far from over. Typhoon Maria, forming deep in the Pacific, is set to strengthen, possibly into an intense Category 4 storm, and may directly target the southwestern islands of Okinawa early next week.

(Additional reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Michael Perry)

Heavy rains force evacuation of thousands in Japan; one killed

A kimono-clad woman using a smartphone takes photos of swollen Kamo River, caused by a heavy rain, from Shijo Bridge in Kyoto, western Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo July 5, 2018. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan on Thursday ordered the evacuation of thousands of residents from the outskirts of its ancient capital of Kyoto after “historic” rains battered its western region, killing a man, with yet more rain forecast.

About 160,000 people were advised to evacuate across the region as weather officials warned that rain levels they described as “historic” could continue until Sunday.

“Severe caution is needed,” an official of Japan’s Meteorological Agency (JMA) told a news conference, warning of the potential for landslides and high winds.

A 59-year-old construction worker died in the western prefecture of Hyogo after being sucked into a drainage pipe, and two more were injured as they rushed to his rescue, NHK national television said.

Evacuation orders went out in some outlying parts of Kyoto, with the Kyodo news agency saying about 16,000 people were affected. Television broadcast images of the swollen waters of the Kamo River in the city center.

The heavy rains were brought by a rush of humid air from the south and the remnants of a typhoon this week.

By Thursday afternoon, rainfall of about 457 mm (18 inches) had been recorded in some parts of the smallest main island of Shikoku over the last two days, with up to 400 mm (16 inches) more predicted in some areas in the next 24 hours.

Typhoon Prapiroon churned up the Sea of Japan this week before weakening into a tropical depression. Another storm, Typhoon Maria, has formed in the Pacific and is set to strengthen, possibly targeting the southwestern islands of Okinawa early next week.

(Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Thai navy divers widen cave passage in search for missing boys

Soldiers and rescue workers work in Tham Luang cave complex, as an ongoing search for members of an under-16 soccer team and their coach continues, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, July 1, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

By Panu Wongcha-um

CHIANG RAI, Thailand (Reuters) – Rescuers in Thailand scrabbled to clear a constricted passageway for divers deep inside a flooded cave complex on Monday as the search for 12 boys and their soccer coach entered a ninth day.

The divers from a Thai navy SEAL unit were within 500 meters of a chamber containing an elevated rock mound, nicknamed “Pattaya Beach” by cavers, which could have provided the boys with a refuge when rains flooded the cave, blocking the way out.

Progress has been slow as divers need to widen parts of a narrow 100 meter stretch that they were unable to pass through without their air cylinders becoming jammed.

“This is today’s aim is to widen this hole,” Chiang Rai governor Narongsak Osatanakorn told reporters on Monday.

“As of now we have not yet reached Pattaya Beach,” he said.

The boys, aged between 11 and 16, and their 25-year-old coach disappeared on June 23 during an outing to the Tham Luang cave, which runs for 10 kilometers (6 miles) beneath the mountains in northern Chiang Rai province.

Aside from belongings left at the mouth of the cave and handprints on the walls, no trace of them has been found since.

National news bulletins have been dominated by updates from the mammoth search involving more than 1,000 personnel, including rescue teams from the United States, Britain, Japan and elsewhere.

Doctors say the boys could survive for days without food, but much would depend on whether they found water clean enough to drink.

Students pray in Mae Sai Prasitsart school as an ongoing search for members of an under-16 soccer team and their coach who went missing in a flooded cave continues, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, July 2, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

The heavy seasonal rains hampered the search operation, with divers groping their way along the cave walls, barely able to see in the muddy water, but the pumps had helped to bring down water levels in recent days.

Narongsak said that an operations center has been set up in the third chamber, about 1.7 kilometers (a mile) from entrance to the cave.

“Yesterday we carried in 200 air cylinders. Today we aim to have 600 air cylinders in the cave, so the team can operate and stay in the cave without coming out,” he said.

Once more personnel are in place, a search will also be made of the right turn at the T-junction, he added.

As part of the rescue effort, search parties have been lowered down shafts on the mountainside, but it was unclear what progress they had made, or exactly where they were in relation to the “Pattaya Beach” chamber.

At Mae Sai Prasitsart school, where six of the missing boys studied, special prayers were held for the junior soccer team during the morning assembly on Monday.

A student shows a photo of her classmate Prachak Sutham, 13, who is a member of an under-16 soccer team that went missing with their coach at a flooded cave, in Mae Sai Prasitsart school in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, July 2, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

“I hope all the spirits that we cannot see please help us by releasing the 13 people who are our friends and our brothers,” teacher Takkapong Thammarangsi said as he led the prayers.

Pansa Namyi, 15, said he shared a love of sports with his friend who was among the missing.

“I want to tell him that I am waiting,” Pansa said.

(Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Chayut Setboonsarng in BANGKOK; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Darren Schuettler)

Unable to find lost boys, Thai police drop survival packages into cave

Soldiers unload aids near the Tham Luang cave complex, as a search for members of an under-16 soccer team and their coach continues, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, June 29, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

By Chayut Setboonsarng

CHIANG RAI, Thailand (Reuters) – As a search in Thailand for 12 boys and their soccer coach missing inside a flooded cave entered a sixth day on Friday, police dropped survival packages through a shaft drilled in the mountainside not knowing if anyone was there.

The fate of the boys, aged between 11 and 16, and their 25-year old coach has gripped the country since they went missing on Saturday after they decided to explore the 10-km (6 mile) long Tham Luang cave complex in Chiang Rai province, despite warnings that the maze of passages and chambers is prone to flooding.

Bicycles and soccer shoes belonging to the boys were found near the entrance, and rescue workers think muddy handprints inside the cave could have been left by the group.

But the search has yielded no other trace.

International rescue teams, including one sent by the United States Pacific Command, are helping the Thai military and police in a search that has been hampered by heavy rain.

Soldiers walk with a dog near the Tham Luang cave complex, as a search for members of an under-16 soccer team and their coach continues, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, June 29, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

Police have been scouring mountain slopes above the cave in search of other ways in as divers tried to find their way through the flooded passages.

Twenty packages filled with water, food, medicine, flashlights and a note for the missing team were dropped down a fissure in the cave, police said.

Unsure of the boys’ location, they hoped the boxes would reach them.

“If the children find this box we want them to float the box out of the cave,” police Colonel Kraiboon Sotsong told reporters.

“The note says: ‘If received, then reply and show on the map where you are. Everybody will quickly help’.”

There has been an outpouring of support for the missing 13.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha visited the site on Friday to urge on the rescuers and assure relatives keeping vigil that every effort was being made.

“Whatever can be done, do it, the government will back it,” said Prayuth. “I’ve come to give everyone encouragement.”

A group of school children has posted a video on Facebook featuring a song they wrote for the missing boys.

“Heavens please have mercy … Please let them be safe, I pray to Mae Nang Non, please have mercy,” the children sang, pleading to a deity, known as Mae Nang Non, who is believed to protect the Tham Luang cave.

Thailand is predominantly Buddhist and while it is hurtling toward modernity, animist beliefs and superstitions exert a strong influence over many people.

Several hashtags have appeared on Twitter in support of the 13 including “don’t give up”, “stay strong” and “13 Hope”.

International soccer clubs, including the British teams Liverpool and Chelsea, have also expressed concern for the boys.

“Our hearts are in Tham Luang. We’re praying for the boys and every rescue officer to return home safely. YNWA,” wrote Liverpool, referring to its “You’ll Never Walk Alone” anthem.

(Additional reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre, Panarat Thepgumpanat, Pracha Hariraksapitak and Patpicha Tanakasempipat; Writing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Robert Birsel)

U.S. forces, British divers join search for boys missing in Thai cave

Rescue workers work near the Tham Luang caves during a search for members of an under-16 soccer team and their coach, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, June 27, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

By Chayut Setboonsarng

CHIANG RAI (Reuters) – U.S. forces and British divers have arrived in Thailand to help in the search for 12 schoolboys and their soccer coach believed trapped by floodwaters in a cave, as rescuers prepared to drill a shaft into the cave on the fifth day of the search.

Major Buncha Duriyapan, commander of the 37th Military District in Chiang Rai, said workers would drill down from the top of the Tham Luang cave complex in northern Chiang Rai province to create an alternative entrance for rescue workers.

British diver Richard William Stanton arrives to the Tham Luang caves during a search for the members of an under-16 soccer team and their coach, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, June 27, 2018. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

“We will drill down from one of the chimneys,” Buncha told reporters on Thursday.

“The expert divers went straight from the plane into the cave to make an assessment,” he said, referring to the three British divers who landed in Thailand on Wednesday.

Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said 30 members of the United States Pacific Command (USPACOM) have joined the search operation.

“The United States Pacific Command (USPACOM) has sent 30 staff with equipment to help penetrate the cave walls,” Prawit told reporters.

Search efforts, which have included Thailand’s elite navy SEAL unit, have been hampered by heavy rain and flooding inside the cave where the boys, aged between 11 and 16, and their 25-year-old assistant coach went missing on Saturday.

Rescue workers on Thursday scoured the top of the mountain looking for alternative entrances to the cave, according to a Reuters reporter at the scene.

Thai National Deputy Police Chief Wirachai Songmetta said police officers would explore a one kms path to the right of the cave on Thursday.

So far, rescue teams have been focusing on a seven kms (four mile) long route to the left of the cave’s entrance which they believe the boys and their coach took.

Authorities say they’re optimistic the boys are still alive, but the toll of five days of no news was visible on the faces of the boys’ relatives.

Family members, red-eyed from crying, said prayers on Thursday near the cave, led by a saffron-robed Buddhist monk.

“Observe your breath in this place of love. Love between mother, father and child,” the monk told anxious relatives.

“Do not worry and wait for good news.”

(Additional reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Michael Perry)

Texas Gulf gets more rain, threatens region with flooding

Residents make phone calls from high ground after heavy downpours unleashed flash floods in Mercedes, Texas, U.S., June 20, 2018. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

(Reuters) – Heavy showers drenched the Texas Gulf Coast on Thursday and flood waters continued to rise after residents fled their homes and crews conducted numerous water rescues in towns still recovering from Hurricane Harvey.

Flash flood warnings and watches were in effect for communities along the Gulf of Mexico coast and inland, where as much as 5 inches (13 cm) of rain was forecast, the National Weather Service said. More than a foot of rain has already fallen in parts of the region this week.

“If you are in the warned area move to higher ground immediately. Residents living along streams and creeks should take immediate precautions to protect life and property,” the weather service said early on Thursday.

The warning came after a deluge of rain flooded streets and expressways on Wednesday, forcing residents to wade through shoulder-deep waters to flee their homes and vehicles. Crews conducted dozens of water rescues in towns like Weslaco, Mercedes and McAllen near the Mexico border.

“It took everyone by surprise. No one was expecting this much rain. The only thing is that pretty much everywhere it’s already flooded and the roads are closed, so where would you go?,” Weslaco resident Kandy Marroquin told a local NBC affiliate.

Shelters were opened across the Rio Grande Valley where entire neighborhoods were flooded, local media reported.

“They’ve been coming with law enforcement officers, buses, all sorts of trucks bringing people in. At one point we had close to 100 people,” Steven Parker, the pastor at First Baptist Church in Weslaco told NBC affiliate KVEO-TV in Brownsville. “People have been trickling in all day. We’re here as long we’re needed.”

McAllen was already in the news this week for images of migrant children held in cages at a Border Patrol Processing Center in the city.

Flash flood watches were also in effect on Thursday for the area around Corpus Christi, where sewage water contributed to the flooding on Wednesday, local media reported.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Heavy rains due to drench Texas Gulf Coast, Midwest

6-20-18 National Weather Service precipitation map

(Reuters) – Heavy downpours were expected to drench the Gulf Coast of Texas and the U.S. Midwest on Wednesday and could cause flooding especially along already swollen rivers and in low-lying areas, forecasters warned.

Up to 5 inches (13 cm) of rain was forecast for parts of the Texas coast along the Gulf of Mexico and in the Middle Mississippi Valley states of South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas throughout the day and into Thursday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.

“Be prepared for water over roads due to rapid rises on creeks and streams or even water flowing from farm fields,” the NWS in Des Moines, Iowa, said in an advisory.

Authorities closed roadways early Wednesday in several communities along the Des Moines and Mississippi rivers in the Midwest where intense rains have already fallen over the last few days, according to the NWS.

Showers and thunderstorms were also expected for Rockford, Illinois, where five inches of rain fell in less than four hours on Monday night. Emergency crews rescued people from numerous submerged vehicles.

In Corpus Christi, Texas, where more than 2 inches of rain was forecast after more than a foot of rain has fallen, crews conducted several high-water rescues on Tuesday while police closed roadways, local media reported.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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