(August 19, 2008)—Residents of a neighborhood in Kosse in Limestone County were evacuated Tuesday as rising water threatened their homes.

Eight houses were at least partially underwater late Tuesday morning because of a blocked culvert that’s not permitting the area to drain.

Kosse’s community center was opened to displaced residents.

Meanwhile Kosse volunteer firefighters are using pumps to try to drain the backed up water and have requested additional pumps from two other fire departments and a private company.

Once the water level drops, officials say they’ll clear the blockage in the culvert.

Power to the neighborhood has been cut off and an Atmos energy crew is checking on several small natural gas leaks.

Elsewhere in Limestone County, water covered FM 339 in seven places 10 miles south of Groesbeck

Water also covered a portion of FM 937 six miles east of Thornton.

In Robertson County, water covered Highway 46 at Walnut Creek Crossing southeast of Bremond.

Meanwhile, the Department of Public Safety closed a stretch of Highway 6 and FM 46 near Reagan Tuesday morning because of high water.

Around the state, heavy rain is blamed in the collapse of a shopping strip roof in the Dallas suburb of Garland overnight.

No injuries were reported in the collapse.

Heavy rain overnight also flooded some major roads in the Wichita Falls area, including parts of Interstate 44 between Wichita Falls and Burkburnett.

The flooding came at the opposite end of the state from disastrous flooding in Starr County in the Rio Grande Valley.

A spokesman for the Starr County Sheriff's Department says at east 243 people were evacuated to a shelter at Roma, where an estimated 38 people were already seeking refuge.

Natividad Gonzalez said the evacuations took place Monday night.

He said he was not aware of any injuries from Monday's 13 inches of heavy rain that poured.

Gonzalez says the flood waters are "going down and the main highways are open."

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