Texas Flash Floods Close Roads From Fort Worth to Kerrville

A slow-moving storm system parked over Texas on Thursday, October 1, and ended months of hot, dry weather in the north of the state with a round of flash flooding. The National Weather Service office for Austin and San Antonio rated the day a Level 3 of 4 flood threat. It expects 2 to 4 inches of rain across the region through at least Friday, with isolated totals up to 8 inches. By sunrise Thursday, flash flood warnings covered Dallas, Denton, and Tarrant counties in the north and Kerr, Real, Bandera, Edwards, and Gillespie counties in the Hill Country.

In Dallas-Fort Worth the rain hit the morning commute at 2 to 3 inches an hour, and forecasters flagged stretches of I-35E, I-35W, I-20, and I-30 for high water. As of Thursday morning, Oncor reported more than 15,000 customers without power, most of them in Tarrant County. DFW International logged more than 1,100 delays and 300 cancellations by evening, and the State Fair of Texas pushed its opening back to noon. Fort Worth reported sewage overflows at two locations once storm water overwhelmed the lines. The city's sandbag giveaway handed out 500 bags per site in the first hour. Those counts are as of the Thursday dateline and will keep changing while the rain continues.

In the Hill Country the names on the warning were familiar. The flash flood warning for Kerr County ran until 2 p.m. Thursday. Kerrville police closed the low crossings at Goat Creek Road, Town Creek, and Bear Creek and asked drivers to slow down and avoid travel until it lifted. This is the same stretch of the Guadalupe River where flooding killed more than 130 people in July 2025 and two more this past July. Most of the Kerrville crossings reopened by early afternoon, but the flood watch for the Hill Country holds until 7 p.m. Friday. Farther north, the Weather Service in Wichita confirmed a tornado near Lucas, Kansas, on Wednesday evening as the same unsettled pattern crossed the Plains.

Every flash flood warning issued this week carried the same reminder from the Weather Service: most flood deaths occur in vehicles. A low crossing that was dry on the drive to work can be running two feet deep on the drive home, and two feet of moving water floats most cars. The habits that keep a family safe while surviving a flood start with that decision at the barricade. If your street or garage sits low, a stack of sandbags staged before the next round of rain does more than any amount of bailing after it. Fort Worth ran through its supply in an hour, so the time to pick them up is before the watch posts.

The rain tapers to scattered showers on Friday and a mostly damp weekend before drier weather arrives next week. The ground across Texas is now saturated, so even a modest downpour will run off fast for the next several days. Keep flashlights charged and a power outage kit within reach while Oncor works through the restorations. Then check whether your own town sits among the cities most at risk of floods before the next line of storms forms.