Flash Flood — Scurry, Texas

1999-06-11 to 1999-06-12 · near Countywide, Scurry, Texas

Event narrative

A major flood and flash flood event occurred on the Friday night, June 11 and into Saturday afternoon, June 12. Four separate thunderstorm cells/complexes moved over Scurry County between 9pm and 2:15 am CDT Friday night with the first initial flooding report at 9:30pm west of Snyder on Highway 180. Rain totals of 5-7 inches were common across northern Scurry County, and heavy rains from the night of the 10th contributed to the flooding as well. At about 1:45 am, the Department of Public Safety reported water starting to flow over U.S. 84 between Snyder and Dermott. One more bout of heavy rain crossed over this area for the next half hour, then the storms moved off to the east.Department of Transportation personnel were waving at people attempting to keep them from entering the flood waters, but the drivers were not heeding this warning. A 48-year-old woman from Dallas, TX and her parents were in her sedan driving to the northwest on U.S. Highway 84 between Snyder and Dermott. At 2:47 am they entered the flooded waters 8.1 miles northwest of Snyder. The rushing waters were 2-3 feet deep running across the highway from Northeast to southwest. The car was pushed from the left lane into the center median that separates the northbound and southbound traffic of this four lane highway. The car disappeared into the waters in the median. The parents of the woman were rescued by a man in a following vehicle, but the woman could not be saved. Waters continued to rise for a short while later. Flooding on the highway receded about 5am. This highway was closed from Roscoe to Post until 11:15 am.Later in the morning more showers developed in Scurry County that caused additional minor flooding and thunderstorms developed in the afternoon in Dawson and Borden Counties that moved across the southern parts of Scurry County as well. Flash flooding was popping up for an extended period of time in several sections of the county.Deep Creek was above flood stage in the city of Snyder, cresting at 15.5 feet on Saturday morning, 4.5 feet above flood stage. One business and one house were flooded by rising waters. The running water also broke apart some asphalt on 26th St., and some bridges in town were flooded.

Wider weather episode

The events of this day ranged from a couple of small events in the western and southwestern parts of the region to one huge event in the northeastern sections (mostly in Scurry County). A storm that developed on the Texas South Plains became a supercell in Lynn County, TX (see Lubbock section of this publication) after crossing a surface boundary that stretched from Big Spring to west of Tahoka. This monstrous storm turned right and headed into northwestern Borden County and eventually into Scurry County. As it entered Borden County it collided with smaller thunderstorm cells resulting in less organization over all. The structure still held together enough to cause large hail near the updraft and damaging winds on the rear-flank downdraft.Other cells formed on flanks of this storm and on the original boundary allowing parts of Scurry County to get pounded several times overnight leading to Flash Flooding and River Flooding. Benefits of the heavy rains were that Lake J.B. Thomas rose 15 feet during the event, from 4% capacity to 20% capacity. The last time the lake was this high was in 1994.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5705770. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.