SAN ANTONIO – At least three people were still missing early Friday after flooding caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine swept vehicles from Texas roads and overpowered swimmers in the Guadalupe River.
With at least four people killed in the flooding, officials planned to resume their search after daylight Friday for a missing swimmer and two motorists.
Authorities on Thursday recovered the body of Derek Joel-Nelson Clemens, 23, of Baldwin, Mich., from the Guadalupe River in New Braunfels. Floodwaters Wednesday had swept him and friend Nikos Paraskevopoulos, 28, of Alexandria, La., as they swam. Clemens’ friend was still missing when the search was suspended for the night Thursday, and search officials hold dim hopes of finding him alive.
Two Texas motorists also are missing, officials said. Calvin Gibson, 57, was swept away near San Antonio when he tried to drive over a flooded creek, Bexar County spokeswoman Laura Jesse said. Authorities also continued to search in Austin for a woman whose sport utility vehicle was swept off the road by swollen Bull Creek.
Hermine caused relatively few problems when it made landfall as a tropical storm Monday night, and as the remnants moved north into Texas and Oklahoma, the flooding caught some people off guard. The sudden flooding in Texas on Wednesday led to more than 100 high-water rescues.
A 49-year-old man drowned after driving his pickup truck into a flooded crossing near Alvarado, and another person died in a vehicle submerged by water from a swollen creek near Austin, the National Weather Service said.
In eastern Oklahoma, a 19-year-old man drowned after his vehicle was swept off the road early Thursday. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said it’s unclear whether Jackie Warford was thrown from his vehicle or crawled out to try to swim to safety, but he became tangled in brush.
