2 Bodies Found As Storms Leave Texas

Mayes (Okla.) County commissioner Melvin Pritchett, pointing, shows county road crew employees, from left, Billy Nelson and Rick Motter, and Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Toy Thilges the damage done so far by a sink hole on County Road 437 west of Locust Grove, Okla., Thursday, July 5, 2007. The hole opened up in the road early Thursday morning following weeks of rain and floodiing in northeastern Oklahoma. (AP Photo/The Tulsa World, Stephen Holman) (Stephen Holman - AP)

Meanwhile, rivers in Oklahoma and Kansas continued to recede, revealing millions of dollars in flood damage to at least a few thousand homes and businesses. Authorities found a man believed to be the flood's first fatality in Kansas.

The region may get some relief beginning this weekend. Much of Texas may get some daytime showers and isolated thunderstorms over the weekend, but the large swaths of pounding rain were expected to dissipate, forecasters said.

"You're going to see less and less," National Weather Service meteorologist Cristy Mitchell said.

But river waters could keep rising in some places. Forecasters warned that the Trinity River in East Texas would crest near 43 feet on Sunday _ well above the 28-foot flood stage. Flood warnings were in effect for rivers in Oklahoma, including the Neosho River.

While much of the West has been parched under record temperatures and drought, Texas has been drenched day after day since late May, filling lakes and rivers, washing out bridges and roads, and damaging 1,000 homes. Since May 23, there have been 15 weather-related deaths in Texas.

In Oklahoma, water threatened to overflow from swollen Lake Texoma into a spillway Friday.

The lake, which straddles the border between Oklahoma and Texas along the Red River, stood about one inch below the top of a 640-foot-high concrete spillway, said Ross Adkins, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman.

"It's lapping over the spillway now," Adkins said.

The Corps is pumping an estimated 27,000 cubic feet per second of water into the Red River to help steady the lake's level. Water levels in the river have fallen following heavy rains that swelled it and other streams.

In Coffeyville, Kan., search teams going door-to-door found a man dead late Thursday in a motel room, city clerk Cindy Price said.

The cause of the man's death wasn't immediately available, but authorities said he had apparently ignored warnings to leave the southeast Kansas town, where a flash flood triggered a 42,000-gallon crude oil spill into the Verdigris River.

The state on Friday ordered residents away from the contaminated areas after emergency workers began experiencing rashes and diarrhea, and National Guardsman manned barricades at streets leading into flood neighborhoods.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Friday that two flood water samples from Coffeyville showed high levels of fecal coliform bacteria. The tests showed the level of the bacteria was more than 130 times the standard and could cause stomach-ache, fever, vomiting and diarrhea, the agency said.

Officials encouraged city residents who had come in contact with the contaminated water to get tetanus shots but said the supply was low. A shipment was expected to arrive on Monday to meet the demand, state health and environment department spokesman Joe Blubaugh said.

State officials said the flooding has left about 3,150 homes damaged or destroyed. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius wondered what had befallen her state this year _ flooding, a winter ice storm and May tornadoes.

"The locusts may come next," she said. "We hope not."

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Associated Press writers Tim Talley in Oklahoma City and Marcus Kabel in Coffeyville, Kan., contributed to this report.