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Dozens dead, missing after severe weather system devastates Midwest

"It's just very heartbreaking, that we have this loss of life," San Marcos, Texas spokesperson Kristi Wyatt said Wednesday.

By Andrew V. Pestano and Doug G. Ware
A vehicle is seen left stranded on Allen Parkway in Houston, Texas, Wednesday, May 27, 2015. A weather system has dumped record rainfall throughout Texas causing major flooding throughout the area. Photo by Aaron M. Sprecher/UPI
1 of 5 | A vehicle is seen left stranded on Allen Parkway in Houston, Texas, Wednesday, May 27, 2015. A weather system has dumped record rainfall throughout Texas causing major flooding throughout the area. Photo by Aaron M. Sprecher/UPI | License Photo

HOUSTON, May 27 (UPI) -- Nearly two dozen people have been killed and several more are missing in Texas and Oklahoma due to severe weather that caused historic flooding in the Midwest and devastated parts of Houston.

So far, at least 15 people have reportedly been killed in Texas and rescue efforts are ongoing as more heavy rains were predicted there through Sunday, forecasters said. Residents were asked to stay away from about 200 homes as the Brazos River, near Dallas, threatened to breach its banks.

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More than 11 inches of rain fell in a 24-hour period in East Texas, forecasters said, and at least six have died in Houston. Mayor Annise Parker said earlier that more than 4,000 properties had been severely damaged.

"The defining feature of Houston is the small rivers that run through the city," she said. "Many of them went over their banks and began to flood neighborhoods."

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"The river is coming up fast and flowing at dangerous volumes," Parker County Judge Mark Riley said during a news conference.

"It's just very heartbreaking, that we have this loss of life," San Marcos, Texas spokesperson Kristi Wyatt said. "Some of those people were in a home together, celebrating the holidays, and they were swept away in the storm water ... It's just a terrible situation."

Several people were also hurt Wednesday when a tornado struck a gas-drilling rig near the Central Texas town of Canadian. At least three workers were injured, news media reported.

Officials in Collin County have installed two drainage pipes with hopes they will bring down the water level, CBS Dallas reported.

"That is a good plan for short term to take all the water out back to the normal level," resident Bobby Patel said.

The first death reported in Houston was Nahid Konsol, a Krogrer grocery store employee, who was on her way to work early Tuesday morning when her truck became submerged as she drove through an underpass.

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Pastors at a nearby church saw her and called 911, but she was found dead when a parishioner eventually braved the flood waters and swam to the truck.

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Several others have also turned up dead amid the floodwaters, officials said, and several more remain missing. KTRK-TV reported that a missing 73-year-old woman was one who was found dead Wednesday.

Sixty-six-year-old oil and gas executive Dennis Callahan, who pushed his flooded car out of the water when he was close to his Houston home, died of a heart attack as he was helping to push a woman's car out of the water.

"That's what kills me is he was literally a block away from his home," his son, Michael Callahan, told ABC 13 Eyewitness News.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced plans to issue a Declaration of Disaster for Harris County, where Houston is located, after he took an aerial tour Wednesday surveying the damage. Harris County Judge Ed Emmett welcomed that decision.

"That should put us over the limit where not only public buildings and entities can get help, but individuals who are not insured or those who are under-insured can suddenly get this federal help," Emmett said. "This is about helping those people who have lost a lot in this storm. Even though it was a one-day event, it was a very serious event for those that were hit."

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Search and rescue teams are facing escalating dangers, themselves, as their efforts try to keep the death toll as low as possible.

Nearly 250 flights to the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston areas had been canceled by 5:30 p.m. local time Wednesday -- and the National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings in North Texas and large regions of Oklahoma, CNN reported late Wednesday.

"We've seen flooding before, but not nearly to this extreme," 40-year Houston resident Gage Mueller said. "It rains and it rains and it rains, and there's really nowhere for the water to go ... It's ridiculous."

Officials have not yet estimated a damage total in the state of Texas -- partly because the severe weather is not over yet, and partly because the damage is so widespread.

Six people have died in Oklahoma since the storms and flooding began last week, including a firefighter who was performing a water rescue. But the weather-related catastrophes are not limited to Texas and Oklahoma.

The same storm system created a six-second tornado that killed more than a dozen people in Mexico, including three children. It also damaged and destroyed hundreds of homes in Ciudad Acuña, in the Coahuila state.

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Forecasters said the tornado reached speeds of up to 186 mph. Most people who died were walking about on the streets of the city when it suddenly struck.

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