Strong storms unloaded on North Texas on Tuesday and early Wednesday morning, swelling creeks and tributaries and causing some delays for people traveling to work or school.
Lisa Dupree-Akerblom saw her commute time balloon Wednesday morning. Normally, it takes 35 to 40 minutes for her to commute from her home in Hickory Creek to her workplace in a Westlake office park.
"[Interstate] 35E was bad, and [State Highway] 377 wasn't great, but when I hit [State Highway] 114, it took me almost two hours to get to work," she said. "They had one stoplight out and it was crawling, one car at a time, all the way to Solana."
Dupree-Akerblom planned on leaving work at 4 p.m. Wednesday to avoid a repeat on the way home.
"I'm not doing this to myself again," she said.
Flooding occurred where residents had not seen high water in two years. Texas is in a historic drought, and much of North Texas remains in a moderate drought, according to climatologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Climatologists expect the drought to persist, but some of North Texas has seen relief in recent weeks. Officially, 3.49 inches fell at the Denton Airport by the time the rainfall eased midday Wednesday.
The Denton Fire Department was dispatched to South Bonnie Brae Street after a Denton school district bus stalled in high water between Roselawn Drive and Vintage Boulevard. Firefighters outfitted the three students on the bus with life jackets as a precautionary measure, but all were able to walk to higher ground and stayed in an emergency vehicle until a second bus arrived.
The students arrived at Borman Elementary School shortly after classes started, according to district spokeswoman Sharon Cox, and the bus was removed from the high waters about three hours later.
Rain began Tuesday evening, with less than an inch falling by midnight at Denton Airport.
Overnight, thunderstorms brought heavy rainfall, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Amber Elliott.
The storms brought the first significant runoff in months, with the U.S. Geological Survey reporting high stream flow conditions throughout North Texas midday Wednesday.
On Wednesday morning, the National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings for Collin, Dallas and Tarrant counties, primarily because of the amount of rain falling in urban areas and the risk of flooding streets, Elliott said. By afternoon, those warnings were lifted.
Denton closed two streets near the University of North Texas for localized flooding. The county closed a number of roads for high water, most near Clear, Denton and Hickory creeks and their tributaries. The low-water crossing at Oliver Creek Road, near Drop, washed out, according to the Denton County Sheriff's Office.
Meteorologists also monitored creeks Wednesday.
"A lot of creeks and rivers are reaching their flood stages," Elliott said.
Denton Creek, near Justin, remained flooded through much of Wednesday.
Additional rain was expected overnight Wednesday into today, Elliott said, as the upper-level low pressure system that triggered the overnight storms moves to the northeast.
Rain will wrap around the other side of that system, but should be light and pose less of a flooding threat into this morning.
"That's assuming everything drains," Elliott said.
Reports from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers showed area lakes were still a few feet below conservation level Wednesday, with Grapevine Lake down about 2 feet, Ray Roberts about 3 feet and Lewisville Lake about 4 feet.
Staff writers Donna Fielder and Britney Tabor contributed to this report.
PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com .
