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Storm tears through Texas

An evacuation order has been lifted for people living near a reservoir north of Houston after weather improved and work crews made progress shoring up threatened areas along a levee weakened by recent heavy rains.

Montgomery County authorities allowed residents back into their homes in neighbourhoods near the Lewis Creek Reservoir late Sunday evening.

County Judge Craig Doyal said he regrets the inconvenience that several hundred residents may have experienced, but he says the decision to order evacuations early Sunday was made based on weather forecasts at the time and in the interest of public safety.

The reservoir serves an Entergy power plant about 50 miles north of Houston. Officials have reported no breaches.

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1 a.m. CDT

A line of storms stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes dumped record rainfall on parts of Texas, Oklahoma and other Plains and Midwest states.

The weekend storms spawned a tornado that damaged a Houston apartment complex and caused major flooding that forced at least 2,000 Texans from their homes.

Authorities are blaming three deaths on the storms. Two were in Oklahoma and the last was in Texas, where a man's body was found along the swollen Blanco River.

Among the worst-affected communities are Wimberley and nearby San Marcos in the Central Texas corridor between San Antonio and Austin. Many homes in those communities were damaged or destroyed.

More rain is in the forecast for Monday for a large swath of the nation's midsection.



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