More than an entire summer’s worth of rain fell in some spots in central Texas in just a few hours early on the Fourth of July, quickly overwhelming dry soils and creating significant flash flooding. Central Texas is currently home to some of the worst drought in the United States and bone-dry soils flood very quickly.

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - It was a worst-case scenario in Texas as heavy rain led to deadly flooding early in the morning on the Fourth of July. A meteorological system known as a mesoscale convective vortex slowly swirled over the region, causing training storms and dropping heavy rain.