Trick Or Treat: Torrential Rains Cause Flooding Around Austin, Texas; City Officials Consider Postponing Halloween Activities

Torrential rains will be the backdrop for Halloween in central Texas as storms have already caused flooding and evacuations of low-lying areas on Thursday, leading meteorologist to recommend postponing Halloween around the Austin area, Reuters reported.

The remainder of Hurricane Raymond that dissipated in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday moved across the western United States and brought wet weather with it, Reuters reported.

Jon Zeitler, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service said overnight rains of up to 15 inches flooded rivers and washed out low-water crossings in a radius of 100 miles around Austin, Reuters reported.

Zeitler said the hurricane remainders combined with warm, humid, low-lying air from the Gulf of Mexico and cooler air at higher altitudes produced the floods, according to Reuters. A similar situation is expected next week with more potential flooding from a tropical storm brewing in the same region, Zeitler added.

The National Weather Service announced on Thursday flooding would occur due to a major storm front producing severe thunderstorms and possibly tornadoes ranging from the Great Lakes down to the Gulf Coast, Reuters reported.

Another meteorologist named Trevor Boucher in Nashville, Tennessee, said postponing Halloween would not be a bad idea.

"It would be kind of irresponsible to say go ahead and go outside," Boucher told Reuters.

He said his office was getting a lot of calls from city and county officials trying to decide whether to proceed with Halloween activities.

No injuries have been reported, but neighborhoods near over-flowing creeks are being evacuated, while residents in hilly areas were told to put sandbags in front of their door steps, Reuters reported.

A creek that normally runs about seven feet swelled to five times that size in a neighborhood southeast of Austin, Reuters reported. Zeitler said the creek may reach 41 feet by the end of Thursday afternoon adding "for certain areas, it looks like this will be in their top 10 (flood events) of all time."

Two weeks ago, Austin's downtown area faced massive flooding due to the remnants of Tropical Storm Octave which brought a foot of rain, but the currently affected neighborhoods haven't seen this level of flooding since 1998 when massive floods caused $750 million in damage and killed more than 24 people from Austin to San Antonio, Reuters reported.