Mexico and US lashed by storms, leaving at least 17 dead

At least 17 people have died in Mexico and the US after extreme weather lashed regions along the border over the weekend and into Monday.
A tornado that struck Ciudad Acuña on the Mexican side of the border killed 13 as it destroyed homes and flung cars against buildings.
In the US at least four people were killed and 12 missing in flash floods. The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, on Monday expanded the emergency disaster zone in the state, adding 24 counties to a list of 13 affected by storms and flooding. Oklahoma was also hit hard.
Abbott said the damage wreaked by floods in central Texas was “absolutely devastating” and had been caused by “relentless, tsunami-type power”.
Twelve people were reported missing from two families staying in a house in Wimberley Valley, Texas. Witnesses reported seeing the house pushed off its foundations by water surging from the Blanco river.

No more survivors were expected to be found in the flood debris along the river.
At least 2,000 Texans were forced from their homes on Monday. The centre of the state was worst affected, especially San Marcos and Wimberley, near the Blanco. The river swelled to 40ft, its highest since 2010.
Evacuations were also under way in Austin, Texas after another river overflowed its banks in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The National Weather Service said 6-10 inches of rain had fallen on south-east Texas on Monday night.

The Austin American-Statesman reported that teams had used boats and helicopters to rescue some residents and were conducting door-to-door searches.
High winds, thunderstorms and hail were forecast for parts of south-west Arkansas and north-west Louisiana into Monday night. North Texas, including Dallas and Fort Worth, was placed on tornado watch.
In Mexico, rescuers were digging through the rubble of damaged homes after a tornado hit a seven-block area of Ciudad Acuña, a city of 125,000 across from Del Rio, Texas. Mayor Evaristo Perez Rivera said 300 people were being treated in hospital, and up to 200 homes had been destroyed. Three people were unaccounted for.
“There’s nothing standing, not walls, not roofs,” said Edgar Gonzalez, a spokesman for the city government, describing some of the destroyed homes in a square-mile area. By midday on Monday, 13 people were confirmed dead, including three children.
Photos from the scene showed cars with their bonnets torn off, resting upended against single-storey houses. One car’s frame was bent around the gate of a house; a bus was flipped over and left crumpled on a roadside.
The tornado struck not long after daybreak on Monday, around the time buses were preparing to take children to school.