Floods Texas

Residents of low-lying areas along the Trinity River in southeastern Texas braced for the worst as a record 85,000 cubic feet of water per second was released from Lake Livingston to protect the dam there. The river's crest was expected to reach the dam today, and further releases from the reservoir could cause the worst flooding in 80 years.

"So many little miracles" is how American Red Cross volunteer Simona Kreitzman described her 10 days in Del Rio, Texas, where Tropical Storm Charley wreaked havoc last month. Kreitzman, who runs One Stop Videos Brokers in Canoga Park, has volunteered three weeks each year with the Red Cross since 1989. She returned from Texas on Sunday.

Homeowners and campers headed for higher ground as heavy rain doused southwestern Texas and water rose in the Rio Grande and Lake Amistad. Rain and cold also threatened a major agricultural area of western Texas, the South Plains around Lubbock, where cotton farmers grow a quarter of the nation's crop. Not since 1971 have temperatures dipped into the 40s this early in the season, and that year's crop was a disaster. Around El Paso, rainfall has damaged chili crops.

The Brazos and Trinity rivers continued to rise Tuesday, swamping homes and roads and forcing evacuations. At Liberty, about 50 miles northeast of Houston, the Trinity was at 29.02 feet Tuesday, five feet above flood stage. Emergency officials said there was water in at least 100 homes, and about 50 people were staying at a Red Cross shelter. Residents along the Trinity were threatened by additional releases from Lake Livingston Dam, about 50 miles to the north.

A tornado pulverized a path across Stillwater, Okla., leaving a 4-year-old boy dead as it smashed cars, blew away roofs and drove wooden planks from shredded rafters 2 and 3 feet deep into yards. Along with the tornadoes, torrential rain, hail and floods struck the nation's midsection, while Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana kept fighting roiling floodwaters, the National Weather Service reported Wednesday.

The Houston Ship Channel, one of America's busiest waterways, was shut down after two more pipelines, adjacent to those that had already burst, ruptured, spilling crude oil into the San Jacinto River. Meanwhile, the toll from the week's South Texas floods rose to at least 17 when a 63-year-old woman was found drowned in the home she had refused to leave in Montgomery County, north of Houston.

I really enjoyed reading Scott Ostler's wry and witty commentary on the events at Wimbledon. He is always clever and makes for good reading but this tid-bit, " . . . the Duchess of Windsor stuck her head out of the Royal Box twice," takes the case for macabre humor. Of course, he might have been referring to the Duchess of Kent, but the idea of using a corpse (and hers, of all people) to brighten up things amid all that bad weather is a very amusing and original idea. RICHARD R.

Rain deluged the Texas Hill Country again Monday, washing away cattle fences and hampering the search for three children carried off by flood waters. At least 14 people have died in Texas storms since the weekend. National Guardsmen had hoped to search by helicopter for a missing 6-year-old boy, and Gov. George W. Bush had scheduled a flight to survey damage in San Antonio. Both flights were canceled because of severe weather.

Drenching storms swept through Texas, spawning a tornado that killed one person and floods that killed four others, including three in San Antonio. The three San Antonio drowning victims--a man and two women--were washed away in cars stranded on flooded roads on the city's north side. All three bodies were recovered. However, a woman believed to have been in one of the cars remained missing. In Pflugerville, northeast of Austin, the body of an 8-year-old girl was recovered.

Showers and scattered thunderstorms cut a path from the Northeast to the Gulf Coast on Friday, and rising floodwaters continued to chase rain-weary Texans from their homes. "Everything is starting to flood," said Sheriff's Department spokesman Tom Twardowsky in Harris County. "There's nowhere else for (the water) to go. It's just going to get worse."