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Five soldiers were killed, three others injured and four were missing after a US Army truck was swept from a low-water crossing and overturned in a swollen creek at Fort Hood, Texas on Thursday.
It was the third tragic incident of the day for the US military, after a Blue Angels fighter pilot was killed in a crash in Tennessee and the pilot of an Air Force jet participating in a Colorado graduation ceremony's flyover was slightly injured after he ejected before the craft crashed in a field.
The Texas soldiers involved are from the Army’s famed 1st Cavalry Division, which is based at Fort Hood.
The accident happened around 11:30 a.m. in an area near Cold Springs and Owl Creek, Fort Hood said in a statement.
The bodies of the three deceased soldiers were recovered from the water downstream.
A Fort Hood spokesman confirmed late Thursday that two more soldiers from the capsized truck were found dead.
Three other soldiers were rescued from the swift water and were listed in stable condition at Coryell Memorial Healthcare System in Gatesville, Texas.
They had been riding in a Light Medium Tactical Vehicle at the time of the incident.
Army aircraft, canine search teams, swift-water rescue watercraft and heavy trucks were being used in the search for the six missing soldiers.
Current Flood Alerts | WeatherDB
The five soldiers who were killed have not yet been identified, pending notification of next of kin.
"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the soldiers their families and the Fort Hood community," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement late Thursday.
"The brave men and women stationed at Fort Hood put their life on the line every day, be it through rescue operations or on the battlefield. Texas will forever remain grateful for their sacrifices," Abbott said.
Fort Hood spokesman John Miller said the low-water crossing of the creek was flooded by two days of intermittent heavy rains when the swift water swept the truck from the road.
Fort Hood has seen 2½ to 3 inches of rain since Wednesday afternoon according to radar estimates, said National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Talley in Fort Worth. The clouds had parted and the sun was shining on the nation's largest Army post by Wednesday afternoon, Haug said.
But parts of Texas still recovering from heavy rainfall were watching a new batch of storms that could dump up to 10 inches of rain from Thursday through Saturday and worsen flooding caused by rivers and other waterways that already have risen to record levels.
A storm system that moved through the Houston-area Wednesday night and Thursday morning dumped nearly 8 inches of rain in some of the city's northern suburbs, causing flooding in some neighborhoods. In Fort Bend County, southwest of Houston, about 1,400 homes have been affected by the Brazos River, swollen by heavy rainfall from last week.
The river reached 54.8 feet in Fort Bend County — 4 feet higher than the record set in 1994 — with water spilling into neighborhoods that hadn't previously flooded. Officials say levels in the Brazos have not dropped much and additional rainfall could make the flooding worse.
"With the rain that's predicted, that's not going to help things as that water has no place to go," said Lt. Lowell Neinast, with the police department in Richmond, where more than 700 people have been evacuated due to the Brazos River.
Depending on how much rain falls, the Brazos River could even rise to up to 56 feet, said Fort Bend County Judge Robert Hebert.
This week's storms are the latest in a string of torrential rains since May 2015 that have put swaths of the state underwater. Some areas now overwhelmed by water had run dry two years ago due to drought conditions.
Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/06/0...-floodwaters-near-fort-hood.html?intcmp=hpbt1
It was the third tragic incident of the day for the US military, after a Blue Angels fighter pilot was killed in a crash in Tennessee and the pilot of an Air Force jet participating in a Colorado graduation ceremony's flyover was slightly injured after he ejected before the craft crashed in a field.
The Texas soldiers involved are from the Army’s famed 1st Cavalry Division, which is based at Fort Hood.
The accident happened around 11:30 a.m. in an area near Cold Springs and Owl Creek, Fort Hood said in a statement.
The bodies of the three deceased soldiers were recovered from the water downstream.
A Fort Hood spokesman confirmed late Thursday that two more soldiers from the capsized truck were found dead.
Three other soldiers were rescued from the swift water and were listed in stable condition at Coryell Memorial Healthcare System in Gatesville, Texas.
They had been riding in a Light Medium Tactical Vehicle at the time of the incident.
Army aircraft, canine search teams, swift-water rescue watercraft and heavy trucks were being used in the search for the six missing soldiers.
Current Flood Alerts | WeatherDB
The five soldiers who were killed have not yet been identified, pending notification of next of kin.
"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the soldiers their families and the Fort Hood community," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement late Thursday.
"The brave men and women stationed at Fort Hood put their life on the line every day, be it through rescue operations or on the battlefield. Texas will forever remain grateful for their sacrifices," Abbott said.
Fort Hood spokesman John Miller said the low-water crossing of the creek was flooded by two days of intermittent heavy rains when the swift water swept the truck from the road.
Fort Hood has seen 2½ to 3 inches of rain since Wednesday afternoon according to radar estimates, said National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Talley in Fort Worth. The clouds had parted and the sun was shining on the nation's largest Army post by Wednesday afternoon, Haug said.
But parts of Texas still recovering from heavy rainfall were watching a new batch of storms that could dump up to 10 inches of rain from Thursday through Saturday and worsen flooding caused by rivers and other waterways that already have risen to record levels.
A storm system that moved through the Houston-area Wednesday night and Thursday morning dumped nearly 8 inches of rain in some of the city's northern suburbs, causing flooding in some neighborhoods. In Fort Bend County, southwest of Houston, about 1,400 homes have been affected by the Brazos River, swollen by heavy rainfall from last week.
The river reached 54.8 feet in Fort Bend County — 4 feet higher than the record set in 1994 — with water spilling into neighborhoods that hadn't previously flooded. Officials say levels in the Brazos have not dropped much and additional rainfall could make the flooding worse.
"With the rain that's predicted, that's not going to help things as that water has no place to go," said Lt. Lowell Neinast, with the police department in Richmond, where more than 700 people have been evacuated due to the Brazos River.
Depending on how much rain falls, the Brazos River could even rise to up to 56 feet, said Fort Bend County Judge Robert Hebert.
This week's storms are the latest in a string of torrential rains since May 2015 that have put swaths of the state underwater. Some areas now overwhelmed by water had run dry two years ago due to drought conditions.
Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/06/0...-floodwaters-near-fort-hood.html?intcmp=hpbt1
