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The heaviest rain from Tropical Storm Bill is now expected to arrive in Dallas on Wednesday, rather than overnight Tuesday, as was originally forecast. The biggest risk for flooding, the most likely severe weather from Bill, will happen days after the rain, Rocky Vaz with the Dallas Office of Emergency Management said Tuesday.
The city has mostly dried out from the record rains it received in May, Vaz said, but local lakes are still at high levels. Later this week, when lake levels rise, runoff into the Trinity River could cause flooding in Dallas. Sarah Standifer, the city’s interim director of watershed management, says the city now expects between 6 and 8 inches of rain.
The areas most likely to be affected by flooding are those hardest hit by floods at the end of May: portions of West Dallas and the area around Northwest Highway west of Stemmons Freeway, Vaz said. The city says it’s brought in 15 portable pumps near the previously flooded West Dallas neighborhoods as well.
Because of the slowed storm, Dallas Emergency Operations Center, originally scheduled to open at 6 p.m. Tuesday night, will not open until 6 a.m. Wednesday. The National Weather Service’s flash flood warning extends through Thursday. The service also warns that tornadoes could be possible, especially for those portions of North Texas east of I-35.
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