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Photos: Texas Governor Declares State of Disaster After Violent Tornado Ravages U.S.-Mexico Border
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Photos: Texas Governor Declares State of Disaster After Violent Tornado Ravages U.S.-Mexico Border

"At least 10 people were killed."

MEXICO CITY (TheBlaze/AP) -- A tornado raged through a city on the U.S.-Mexico border Monday, destroying homes, flinging cars like matchsticks and ripping an infant from its mother's arms. At least 10 people were killed, authorities said.

In Texas, 12 people were reported missing in flash flooding from a line of storms that stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes.

The baby was also missing after the twister that hit Ciudad Acuna, a city of 125,000 across from Del Rio, Texas, sent its infant carrier flying. Rescue workers began digging through the rubble of damaged homes in a race to find more victims.

"It hit an area of about seven blocks," said Victor Zamora, interior secretary of the northern state of Coahuila, describing the neighborhood as "devastated."

Officials confirmed 10 dead, but that number could climb, Zamora said.

Photos from the scene showed cars with their hoods ripped off, resting upended against single-story houses. One car's frame was bent around the gate of a house. A bus was seen flipped and crumpled on a roadway.

The twister struck not long after daybreak, around the time buses were preparing to take children to school, Zamora said.

In the U.S., the system dumped record rainfall on parts of the Plains and Midwest, spawning tornadoes and causing major flooding that forced at least 2,000 Texans from their homes. A vacation house in Texas was swept away by a rain-swollen river.

The system was blamed for three deaths Saturday and Sunday, including two in Oklahoma and one in Texas, where a man's body was recovered from a flooded area along the Blanco River, which rose 26 feet in an hour and created huge piles of debris.

The line of storms was expected to linger over a large swath of the region Monday.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbot declared states of disasters in 24 counties Monday and said that all available resources would be deployed to the affected areas.

“My thoughts and prayers are with all the communities that are suffering as a result of this weather disaster, and I am grateful for the first responders who have worked tirelessly to provide shelter, care and resources to all impacted areas," Abbot said.

Among the worst-affected communities were Wimberley and San Marcos, which are in Central Texas along the Blanco River in the corridor between Austin and San Antonio.

"It looks pretty bad out there," Hays County emergency management coordinator Kharley Smith said of Wimberley, where an estimated 350 to 400 homes were destroyed. "We do have whole streets with maybe one or two houses left on them and the rest are just slabs."

About 1,000 homes were damaged throughout Hays County, which includes Wimberley. Five San Marcos police cars were washed away, and the firehouse was flooded, said Kristi Wyatt, a spokeswoman for San Marcos.

Rivers swelled so quickly that whole communities awoke Sunday surrounded by water. The Blanco crested above 40 feet - more than triple its flood stage of 13 feet. The river swamped Interstate 35 and forced parts of the busy north-south highway to close. Rescuers used pontoon boats and a helicopter to pull people out.

After a surge of mud and water flooded their cottage in Wimberley, John and Valerie Nelson fled through waist-deep waters in darkness early Sunday with transformers sparking and trees crashing around them. The single-story house had been carefully rebuilt on stilts so that it would be able to withstand even the worst flooding.

"I'm absolutely dumbfounded," said Valerie Nelson, who has owned the property for about 50 years. "I didn't think the water would ever get that high."

Hundreds of trees along the Blanco were uprooted or snapped, and they collected in piles of debris that soared 20 feet high.

"We've got trees in the rafters," said Cherri Maley, the property manager of a house where the entire rear portion collapsed with the flooding, carrying away furniture.

"We had the refrigerator in a tree," she said. "I think it's a total loss."

About 1,000 people were evacuated from an area near an earthen dam out of fear that the levee about 50 miles north of Houston could fail. The evacuation order was lifted after weather improved and crews shored up the dam at the Lewis Creek Reservoir. Residents were allowed back to their homes late Sunday.

A tornado briefly touched down Sunday in Houston, damaging rooftops, toppling trees, blowing out windows and sending at least two people to a hospital. Fire officials said 10 apartments were heavily damaged and 40 others sustained lesser damage.

Dallas faced severe flooding from the Trinity River, which was expected to crest near 40 feet Monday and lap at the foundations of an industrial park. The Red and Wichita rivers also rose far above flood stage.

This May is already the wettest on record for several Plains cities, with days still to go and more rain on the way. So far this year, Oklahoma City has gotten 27.37 inches of rain. It got only 4.29 inches all of last year.

The recent rainfall may officially end the drought that has gripped the region for years, according to Forrest Mitchell, a meteorologist at the weather service's office in Norman, Oklahoma. He said many lakes and reservoirs are full.

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Jon Street

Jon Street

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