New Round of Flooding Hits Texas

DALLAS – A new round of flooding swamped parts of Texas, leading officials in one county to declare a fresh disaster area in the hard-hit Plains.

Smith County officials made a disaster declaration Sunday night, asking for state and federal aid. They say flooding has caused about $200,000 worth of damage to their eastern Texas county.

At least 17 deaths, most in Texas, have been blamed on storms and flooding that have plagued the southern Plains since early June.

"We still have areas that are dangerous," county Commissioner Bill McGinnis told KLTV of Tyler. "We have barricaded those off."

The search for a 26-year-old man missing since his raft capsized on a rain-swollen river near Fort Worth resumed Monday morning, said Kent Worley, spokesman for the Fort Worth Fire Department.

In central Texas, some homes in low-lying areas were flooded. No injuries were reported, but some major roads into the town were closed.

Rivers in Kansas and Oklahoma have been receding from record flood crests, revealing millions of dollars in damage to thousands of homes and businesses, in addition to the 1,000 or so damaged in central and northern Texas.

In Miami, Oklahoma, one of the hardest-hit areas, City Manager Mike Spurgeon said federal officials told him 647 structures had been affected by flooding, including 236 considered destroyed.