Amarillo’s first responders busy during last night’s rain, responding to flooding

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - The Amarillo Police Department described last night’s rain and subsequent flooding as “severe.”

“I don’t think we lost anybody, we didn’t have any injuries but people were getting into deeper water very quickly and the water was getting deep very quickly. So it was, I would say a very severe situation,” says Corporal Jeb Hilton, Public Information Officer for the Amarillo Police Department.

According to meteorologist Sheldon Breshears, our area saw anywhere from one to four inches of rain last night.

Along with Amarillo Fire, TxDOT, and the Amarillo Streets Department, the Amarillo Police Department was responding from 9:00 p.m. in the evening to 2:00 a.m. this morning.

They answered calls regarding alarms, stranded people, and towards the end of the night, abandoned cars.

“Several, well over 30 calls, but that doesn’t really give a good illustration of how many people called in because, on some of those calls, there were multiple callers. So we had officers go into different intersections to some underpasses. So some different places where there were multiple people who were stuck,” says Hilton.

Hilton goes on to say, when it comes to events like the one last night, APD doesn’t necessarily do water rescues; however, they work with the fire department to help remove drivers from deep water and block roadways.

“We do have a dive truck now that is a very large military vehicle. So what we’re able to do is drive that into the deeper water and assist people out,” explains Hilton.

Here are some areas to avoid when severe rain comes to Amarillo:

• I-40 and Washington Street
• Underpasses under I-40
• 45th Avenue and Coulter Street near McDonald Lake
• 3rd Avenue and Grant Street
• 10th Avenue and Grant Street

Hilton said that last night they had to shut down many parts of I-40.

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