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More than 200 car accidents reported in Tarrant County

Posted on May 03, 2011

More than 200 car accidents were reported in Tarrant County Monday as commuters faced heavy rain and lots of traffic.

Rain was falling in the area as the morning commute began, and traffic backed up due to several wrecks on major thoroughfares in Dallas-Fort Worth.

As of 3:30 p.m. today, 166 car accidents were reported to Fort Worth police since midnight. As of 1:30 p.m., 32 major accidents and 25 minor accidents have been reported in Arlington since midnight, Arlington police spokeswoman Tiara Richard said.

This morning's forecast had called for a low of 43 degrees, which would beat the previous record of 44 set in 1978; but the lowest temperature recorded at the National Weather Service office at D/FW Airport as of 6 a.m. was 46, with temperatures not expected to dip lower, weather service meteorologist Amber Elliott said.

The high today is expected to be in the lower 50s, and the rain is expected to end later this afternoon as the system moves to the southeast. However, the National Weather Service is also warning of the possibility of street flooding in areas that got heavy rainfall overnight. A flood advisory went into effect early this morning for Denton, Dallas and Tarrant counties until 2:15 p.m.

Tuesday's forecast is for mostly sunny skies with a high in the upper 60s and a low in the lower 40s.

A roof leak closed Oakmont Elementary School in Crowley this morning, Crowley Independent School District spokesman Anthony Kirchner said.

Some students were picked up by parents and the remainder were relocated to Deer Creek Elementary School, Kirchner said. The missed school day will not be counted as an absence, Kirchner said.

Parents can pick up their children at Deer Creek Elementary School but schoolbuses are scheduled to take students home at the end of the school day, Kirchner said.

Plans to repair the roof and water damage are under way and a decision regarding the relocation of Tuesday's classes will be made soon, Kirchner said.

On Sunday, one person was killed and five people were injured when a vehicle flipped over a guardrail several times at eastbound Interstate 30 and Rosedale at about 8:45 p.m., Fort Worth police spokesman Pedro Criado said.

There were seven people in the vehicle at the time, police said.

Ambulances transported five people to the hospital, three with possibly life-threatening injuries and two with minor injuries, MedStar spokesman John Farris said.

The yo-yo two-day forecast comes on the heels of Sunday's storms in morning and afternoon.

"We had a big storm in the northwest part of the Metroplex in the late afternoon, with hail from 1/2 inch to 1 inch," National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Harris said Sunday.

One and a half inch-sized hail was reported in west Fort Worth early Monday morning, with 1.25 inch-sized hail reported in Benbrook and 1.70 inch sized-hail in Grand Prairie, Elliott said.

North Fort Worth received an inch and a half of rain overnight with Dallas receiving 1.8 inches and Denton receiving three inches, Elliott said.

As strong storms packing heavy rain, wind gusts and lightning moved through North Texas on Sunday, the Denton County Sheriff's Department reported a fire at a gas well site that was apparently triggered by lightning. No injuries were reported.

Another fire was reported in Denton County after lightning struck a church in Little Elm at about 6 a.m. Monday, Elliott said.

Although no severe weather damage was reported Sunday in the Metroplex, high wind damaged a 95-foot steeple at Parkside Baptist Church on U.S. 75 in Denison.

Pastor Chet Haney said he and a small prayer group that meets every morning at 6 began hearing rain and intense wind. Then "the building began to heave," he said.

When they came out, they found that the steeple was knocked over 90 degrees and was "pointing due east."

The church had roof damage and lost electricity, but the pastor said parishioners were mindful "that this was nothing compared to the devastation people are experiencing across the country."

"We're praying for them," Haney said.

No damaging winds or hail is expected for the Metroplex Monday, but the southeast areas of North Texas have a slight risk of severe hail in their forecast, Elliott said.

After all the wet weather over the weekend through this week, North Texas will see some dry weather starting Tuesday through Sunday with cooler temperatures that dip below the seasonal averages, Elliott said.

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