Gov. Abbott to Visit Flood-Ravaged East Texas

greg abbott officialORANGE, Texas (AP) – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will tour flood-ravaged communities in East Texas where swollen rivers have displaced thousands of people and forced closures of a major interstate along the Louisiana border.

Abbott planned a stop Wednesday in the town of Orange, whose mayor, Jimmy Sims, said he’d never seen the kind of flooding that has hit the area about 100 miles east of Houston over the last week.

No deaths or serious injuries have been reported in the region, which was slammed by as much as 20 inches of rain over four days last week. Steadily rising waters along rivers prompted evacuations beginning last weekend.

The flooding has led to intermittent closures of stretches of Interstate 10, one of the country’s major transportation arteries.

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