The Latest: Authorities now say 4 dead, 2 missing in Texas


              Conroe firefighters evacuate Jim Treadway via boat after Treadway was stranded when Pecan Bend Road was washed out  near the San Jacinto River on Friday, May 27, 2016, in Conroe, Texas. ( Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
Conroe firefighters evacuate Jim Treadway via boat after Treadway was stranded when Pecan Bend Road was washed out near the San Jacinto River on Friday, May 27, 2016, in Conroe, Texas. ( Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

The Latest on severe weather and flooding around the U.S. (all times local):

6 p.m.

Texas authorities now say four people have died in flooding and two remain missing as torrential rains have moved on but left behind swollen rivers that have overrun some communities.

Washington County Judge John Brieden said the bodies of two missing motorists were found on Saturday in separate parts of the rural county located between Austin and Houston.

The body of one person was found Saturday afternoon in a submerged vehicle. The other body was found Saturday morning downstream from where his overturned truck had been located earlier.

Two other deaths in the county had previously been announced by officials.

Lisa Block, an emergency services spokeswoman in Travis County says authorities will continue searching on Sunday for two missing people in the Austin area.

___

5:20 p.m. CDT

Divers were racing against daylight in their search for the body of an 11-year-old Kansas boy who was swept away by a swiftly moving creek.

Wichita Fire Department battalion chief Scott Brown says his department has 12 divers, three search-and-rescue dogs and an airplane searching for any sign of the boy.

He fell into Gypsum Creek about 7:30 p.m. Friday as he was crossing a footbridge. Rescue crews searched for three hours before receding water levels made it unsafe to have boats on the creek.

The search resumed Saturday morning, and Brown says it will continue until either the boy is found or conditions become too dangerous for the search crews because of visibility.

Brown says the boy's family is at the scene helping any way they can.

___

5 p.m. EDT

Tropical Storm Bonnie has formed more than 100 miles off South Carolina's Atlantic coast.

The National Weather Hurricane Center in Miami said Bonnie has top sustained winds of 40 mph by Saturday afternoon. It's the season's second-named tropical storm, emerging four days before the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season.

Forecasters said Bonnie was about 125 miles south-southeast of Charleston, South Carolina, as of 5 p.m. EDT. It has begun spreading locally heavy rains across coastal areas of South Carolina.

The hurricane center says Bonnie is expected to move onshore south of Charleston sometime Sunday morning, then turn northeast and slowly dissipate as it moves along the coast of the Carolinas over the rest of the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

No evacuations have been ordered at this time.

___

2:50 p.m.

Rivers and creeks swollen by torrential rain in Texas have prompted officials to ask for mandatory and voluntary evacuations of homes.

In the city of Simonton, located about 40 miles west of Houston, officials ordered a mandatory evacuation Saturday for most of its 800 residents.

Mayor Louis Boudreaux says the evacuation was prompted by the rising levels of the Brazos River.

About 750 families living in a Houston-area Northwood Pines subdivision were asked Saturday to voluntarily evacuate their homes and apartments due to the rising levels of a nearby creek.

Francisco Sanchez, a spokesman for the Office of Emergency Management in Harris County, where Houston is located, says officials were monitoring the local bayou system as the area was "not out of the woods yet."

___

12:45 p.m.

The Wichita, Kansas, Fire Department says two cadaver dogs are being brought in to help with the search for an 11-year-old boy who was swept away by rushing water.

The search resumed Saturday morning after rescuers were forced to abandon their efforts Friday night when water levels receded too much to use boats in a normally dry creek.

The boy fell into Gypsum Creek around 7:30 p.m. Friday as he was crossing a footbridge. Rescuers spent three hours looking for him before giving up for the night.

The department says on its Facebook page that crews are searching every inch of the creek in what is now a recovery effort.

___

11 a.m.

Texas authorities now say two people have died in flooding and four are missing as the torrential rains have moved out but left behind swollen rivers that have overrun communities.

Washington County Judge John Brieden said Saturday that one person was found dead in a mobile home that was swamped by floodwaters and a second person was found in a vehicle that had gone off a road and was submerged in a ditch.

He says two motorists are missing in separate parts of the rural county, which is between Austin and Houston. One vehicle was located without its driver. The second vehicle can't be found, and Brieden says the fear is that it may be submerged and won't be located until floodwaters recede.

Lisa Block, an emergency services spokeswoman in Travis County, says authorities continue to search for two missing people in the Austin area.

___

7:30 a.m.

Officials in Wichita say they'll resume the search for an 11-year-old boy who fell into a rain-swollen creek and was swept away.

The Wichita Eagle reports (http://bit.ly/1U2RDfT ) that Fire Battalion Chief John Turner said rescuers did a "very thorough" search for the 11-year-old after he and two friends were crossing Gypsum Creek on a footbridge and the boy fell in about 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Turner says Friday's full search was called off at 10:30 p.m. because water levels had receded too much to use boats in the creek. Officials said they'd resume the search Saturday morning.

Turner says he hopes the boy could have gotten out of the creek on his own, but that crews are considering it a recovery operation.

___

1:30 a.m.

Officials in Texas are bracing for the possibility of more rain over the long Memorial Day weekend after flooding there killed one person and left three others missing.

The forecasts through the holiday weekend called for scattered or isolated thunderstorms in Central and Southeast Texas. But officials say they will be monitoring local rivers and waterways, which could rise out of their banks in the coming days due to the heavy rains.

Washington County Judge John Brieden said Friday that one person drowned and another was missing in his area after their vehicle was swept away.

Lisa Block, an emergency services spokeswoman in Travis County, which includes Austin, said officials there were still searching for two people missing from a vehicle on a flooded roadway.

At least one person was dead and three others were missing after torrential thunderstorms caused flooding in Texas, officials said as they braced for the possibility of more rain over the long Memorial Day weekend.

Upcoming Events