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Second body found as more flooding expected in Texas

By Daniel Uria

Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Another body was found at a low-water crossing Wednesday in Texas amid severe flooding throughout the state, authorities said.

The woman's body was discovered at Sandstone and Flag Street in downtown Llano. Llano County officials said the woman's family had been notified about her death, but her identity wouldn't be immediately released to the public.

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Burnet County Sheriff's Office Capt. Chris Jett said the body of a person found Tuesday has yet to be identified and was sent to the Travis County medical examiner for an autopsy.

He added authorities in Kimble County sent dental records for a woman named Charlotte Moye, who's been missing since last week after flooding in the town of Junction.

"Hopefully we will be able to rule out if it is or isn't that person soon," Jett said.

The Lower Colorado River Authority also said Wednesday it believes it may have to open four additional floodgates at Mansfield Dam in the next 24 hours to release water from Lake Travis, which had filled to 132 percent capacity.

Four floodgates have already been opened, with the next four bringing the total to eight, two more than the previous record for the most floodgates that have ever had to be opened at the dam.

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"This is a historic flood," LCRA general manager Phil Wilson said. "All the Highland Lakes are closed and remain closed until further notice. Flood operations at every dam along the Highland Lakes. This continues to be a very serious situation. People need to take every precaution to protect their safety and their property."

More flooding is expected on Wednesday night after the National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch for Travis, Williamson, Hays, Comal and Bexar counties until 7 p.m. as a low-pressure system from the Gulf of Mexico was forecast to bring additional rain to Central Texas.

An additional 1 inch to 2 inches of rain was expected, as well as up to 4 inches in isolated areas, with the heaviest rain expected from Thursday morning to Thursday evening.

Water levels in the Llano River, which caused the RM 2900 bridge in Kingsland to collapse on Tuesday, had begun to drop.

"Right now, the Llano River is at about 12 1/2 feet, down from just shy of 40 feet yesterday," Llano County Emergency Management Coordinator Ron Anderson said Wednesday, according to CNN. "And that has been outstanding news for us. It's going to allow us to begin to get a lot of the recovery work initiated that's going to be ongoing in weeks and couple of months that are ahead of us."

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