Residents brace for more flooding as Texas river crests

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Residents of some rural southeast Texas counties braced for more flooding today along a river that is expected to crest at a record level just two years after it had run dry in places because of drought.

National Weather Service meteorologists predicted that the Brazos River would crest at 53.5 feet by midday Tuesday in Fort Bend County, three feet above the previous record and topping a 1994 flood that caused extensive damage.

During four days of torrential rain, six people have died in floods along the Brazos, which runs from New Mexico to the Gulf of Mexico. A Brazos River Authority map shows all 11 of the reservoirs fed by the Brazos at 95 to 100 percent capacity.

A man whose body was recovered late Sunday from a retention pond in the Austin area near the Circuit of the Americas auto racing track appeared to be one of two people reported missing earlier, said Travis County sheriff's spokeswoman Lisa Block.

There have been reports of others missing in Travis County, and crews will resume searching Tuesday, but Block said there's no confirmation yet of additional missing people.

Four of the six dead were recovered in Washington County, located between Austin and Houston, said County Judge John Brieden. Lake Somerville, one of the Brazos reservoirs, was "gushing uncontrollably" over the spillway, threatening people downriver. Two of the bodies were found Saturday in different parts of the county, Brieden said.