8:10 a.m. CDT
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has declared an emergency throughout its Kansas City District because of high river levels and a rainy forecast in northwest Missouri.
The Level III emergency allows sponsors of levees to obtain technical assistance for damage to qualifying levees caused by the high water.
Judd Kneuvean, emergency management director for the Kansas City District, says the corps has delivered 43,000 sandbags for use in the Blue River Basin. The corps also sent 1,000 sandbags to Manhattan, Kansas.
Kneuvean told The St. Joseph News-Press (http://bit.ly/1GYEdRt ) that rivers throughout the district are “prime” for flooding after weeks of intermittent rains. He says part of the problem is water backing up into streams and rivers because of high waters in the Missouri River.
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07:30 a.m. CDT
A 60-year-old eastern Missouri man has died after his car was swept off a road by high water.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol says John P. Lyons, of Sullivan, died Tuesday evening on a road near Meramec State Park in Washington County, about 60 miles southwest of St. Louis.
The patrol says Lyons tried to drive through a flooded roadway when water forced his car off the road and the vehicle overturned. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch through Friday evening for a large swatch of eastern Missouri, including St. Louis and Washington counties. Severe thunderstorms are possible, with between 4 and 7 inches of rain forecast, adding to already high water levels in the region.
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3:30 a.m. CDT
The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood warning for seven counties in southeastern Texas as a tropical depression makes its way inland.
At 2:50 a.m. Wednesday, the service reported areas in southeastern Texas that will experience flooding include Sealy, Hempstead, Prairie View, East Bernard, Wallis, Pine Island, Simonton, San Felipe, Pattison, Egypt and Monaville.
Earlier, Tropical Storm Bill lost strength and was downgraded to a tropical depression, but is still expected to bring heavy rainfall to much of rain-weary Texas.
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1:15 a.m. CDT
Flood-weary Texans are bracing for heavy rain and possible flooding as the remnants of Tropical Storm Bill creep further inland.
The center of the storm was expected to move northward just west of the Interstate 35 corridor, dropping 4 to 5 inches of rain on areas still cleaning up and recovering from Memorial Day weekend floods that left 14 dead and two missing along the Blanco River alone in Blanco and Hays counties.
A flash flood warning was in effect until 2:45 a.m. for parts of five counties in south-central Texas.
Gov. Greg Abbott was to receive a briefing from state emergency officials Wednesday morning in Austin.
Meanwhile, in North Texas, where forecasts called for up to 12 inches of rain, Arlington residents were picking up sandbags being offered for free by city officials, and Dallas authorities were monitoring roadways for high water.
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12:55 a.m. CDT
Tropical Storm Bill has lost strength and been downgraded to a depression as it dumps rain on Central Texas.
Just before 1 a.m. Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center said the center of the depression was located about 40 miles east of Austin.
Bill was moving northward at 13 mph and was expected to continue in that direction later Wednesday with a turn to the northeast on Thursday.
The center says maximum sustained winds have decreased to about 35 mph.
The system was expected to weaken further over the next 48 hours, though it was still likely to bring 4 to 8 inches of rain to eastern Texas and Oklahoma. Western Arkansas and southern Missouri could see 3 to 6 inches.
The tropical storm warning along the Texas Gulf Coast has been canceled.
