Severe storm system looms over wide swath of US as rain, floods lash Texas

By Alexander Smith and Daniel Arkin, NBC News

A ferocious storm system was hurtling from Texas to the northeast early Thursday, threatening to lash a long arm of the U.S. with buckets of rain and high winds.

Meteorologists warned people in the Ohio Valley, the lower Mississippi Valley and western Gulf Coast to brace for harsh gusts of wind and even tornados — a scary forecast just in time for Halloween, according to Weather.com.

Indianapolis, Memphis, Tenn., and Houston are expected to bear the brunt of the severe storm system, Weather.com reported.

The trouble was already brewing near Austin, Texas, early Thursday, where heavy train triggered flash floods, forcing scores of people from their homes amid evacuation advisories and prompting helicopter rescues, officials said.

Some areas surrounding the city were slammed by as much as 15 inches of rain, according to Austin-Travis County’s Emergency Medical Service (EMS). Meanwhile, emergency crews staged 15 water rescues across Austin and Travis counties, EMS spokesman Warren Hassinger said.

There was no reported deaths and only minor injuries early Thursday, although Hassinger said there were reports from neighboring Hays and Comal Counties of people calling for help who were trapped in vehicles or clinging to trees.

The Texas Department for Public Safety said there were no firm numbers yet for the four worst affected counties of Williamson, Hays, Comel and Travis.

It said there were at least 20 homes affected in Hutto, a town of more than 18,000 in Williamson County.

The worst of the rain is over for the region, with the storm moving from west to east, according to the department.

“It will have hopefully abated by about 2 p.m. this afternoon,” a data collector at the department said.

“But the run-off is what we worry about – there’s always that danger.”