MCALLEN, TEXAS >> Drenching rain along the Texas-Mexico border let up Friday, but rescues were still ongoing a day after severe storms trapped residents in their homes, forced drivers to abandon their vehicles on flooded roads and shut down an airport. At least three people died.
Hidalgo County officials said in a statement that they did not immediately have more information about the three deaths except that they involved law enforcement efforts.
Earlier in the day, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that at 10:15 a.m., Border Patrol agents tried to approach a vehicle suspected of taking part in immigrant smuggling that had stopped at a flooded roadway in Edcouch, located in Hidalgo County.
The driver tried to cross the road and plunged into a canal.
Authorities said they recovered the body of one person who drowned, and another was missing.
It was not immediately known if those were part of the three deaths reported by Hidalgo County.
In Harlingen, officials said their city received more than 21 inches of rain this week, with the heaviest rainfall on Thursday causing severe flooding that had authorities rescuing more than 200 residents, with another 200 people still waiting to be rescued.
In Palm Valley, just west of Harlingen, married couple Jionni Ochoa, 46, and Pollyann Ochoa, 33, were still waiting to be rescued Friday, with the water inside their home still up to their knees as of the afternoon.
“The bed is the only thing dry right now, because the sofas are soaked. Everything is soaked,” Jionni Ochoa said.