The body of a man was recovered from White Rock Creek on Sunday after the individual was swept away while attempting to ford the creek on Saturday.
Officials have released few details at this point, and it has yet to be determined why the man was attempting to cross the creek. A woman who had been with the man notified 911 Saturday at 10:32 p.m. to report that the man was missing, according to Dallas Fire-Rescue, NBC 5 DFW reported.
Search teams went to the area around West Lawther Road and White Rock Creek in search of the missing man, reported Fox 4 KDFW. DFR deployed boats and search teams overnight on Saturday but failed to locate the man. His body was found approximately 100 yards from where he went missing when the search resumed on Sunday morning. The Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office took the body but has not released a cause of death or his identity.
White Rock Creek was running at a very high level on Saturday, according to data from the National Weather Service (NWS).
NWS shows White Rock Creek swelled from 71 feet to 82 at approximately 10 a.m. Saturday morning. The NWS gauge is located along Greenville Avenue, where the creek runs below the roadway. While the creek level was considerably higher than usual, it did not reach flooding levels. The river floods at 84 feet. As of 10 a.m. April 22, the creek had returned to near-normal levels and was at just over 71 feet.
The most recent storms broke records, as previously reported by The Dallas Express. Rainfall at DFW International set a new record for the date, with more than two inches recorded. The storms also generated significant lightning activity, with Fox Weather reporting between 300 and 500 lightning strikes every five minutes. Most areas received between one and two inches of rain, while Love Field recorded more than four inches.
There were limited reports of hail from the storm and no tornado activity, though NWS did issue warnings. As the storms moved along to the East Coast, hail has become more of an issue, with reports of golfball- to tennis ball-sized hail reported in the Carolinas.
