PFLUGERVILLE, Texas — Texas lived up to its reputation as "Flash Flood Alley" with the severe storms Thursday evening.
Travis County Emergency Services District No. 2 and the Pflugerville Fire Department rescued 16 people from cars in Williamson and Travis Counties.
Typically, the department gets 37 calls within 24 hours. Once the rainfall began Thursday, they got about 60 calls.
Out of those, 15 were for water-related emergencies.
"We are prone to flooding because of the exceptionally high rainfall that we get sometimes very quickly," Nick Perkins, the Fire Chief for Travis County Emergency Services District No. 2, said. "Add in to the fact that we've had a drought for a while, it primes the soil to create conditions ideal for flooding."
Perkins said Pflugerville saw between 4.5 to 5 inches of rapid rainfall in some areas.
Tow truck driver Demarco Thomas was off-duty when he decided to help first responders fish out several cars from deep water.
"I've never seen water rise like that," Thomas said. "It seemed like a lady was having a panic attack. I'm sure it was scary to be in a car and having your car just shut off in the middle of water rising as high as it did."
Firefighters were dispatched to several locations, seeing plenty of flooding in those areas.
"We saw significant flooding at Gilleland Creek, going out East in Wilbarger, Gregg Lane, and then going down Dessau, Crystal Bend and the Howard area," Perkins said.
With 16 people pulled from the water and no deaths or serious injuries, Perkins is counting his department's blessings.
"We had a number of calls in northeast Travis County where people haven't survived floods, so we're grateful for that. We're happy all these people are okay," Perkins said.
With so many new people moving to this area, Perkins wants to stress the importance of taking warnings about flash flooding seriously. Avoid driving if possible, and if people must drive in rainy conditions, they are strongly encouraged to stay on even level pavement and avoid hills or dips in the road.