Heavy rains keep drenching South Texas, tornado reported in San Antonio

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Heavy rains keep drenching South Texas, tornado reported in San Antonio

2026-07-15 21:47 Last Updated At：21:51

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Slow-moving storms with heavy rain were drenching a large swath of South Texas on Wednesday, spawning a tornado in San Antonio a day after downpours washed out roads and farmland and led to dozens of high-water rescues in the region.

The National Weather Service said a tornado touched down in the northwestern part of San Antonio near Interstate 10. Videos posted on social media showed what appeared to be a small twister. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Warnings of potentially dangerous flash flooding, meanwhile, were posted in some areas as the deluge was expected to continue through Thursday evening. The weather service said 10 to 20 inches (25 to 50 centimeters) of rain was possible in some areas by the time the storms move out.

There have been no reports of deaths or injuries from the flooding.

Flash flood warnings were posted Wednesday morning for several counties near the Mexico border including parts of Kerr County, where catastrophic flooding along the Guadalupe River last year killed more than 100 people. Kerr County officials said they have been in contact with summer camps and retreat centers where river flooding could happen.

The highest rainfall totals so far have been in Uvalde County — up to 16 inches (40 centimeters) in some areas, the weather service said.

“This is called a typical mid-summer tropical weather pattern that happens in Texas,” said Monte Oaks, a meteorologist with the weather service. “About once every five years, we’ll get socked in with a daily recurrence of heavy rain chances that’s generally produced by a stagnant kind of a pattern with a low-pressure center that’s just not moving very fast.”

Oaks said the rain is being fueled with tropical moisture, mostly from the Gulf of Mexico and some from the Pacific Ocean.

The highest level of concern for potentially dangerous flooding Wednesday was for areas west of San Antonio and north of Route 90, he said.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued disaster declarations for dozens of counties.

Authorities posted videos on Tuesday showing a rescue crew in a boat navigating flooded streets and a vehicle being swept away by fast-moving waters. Five people were rescued by the Texas Game Warden Search and Rescue Team and four were rescued by a local game warden, said Maggie Berger, a Texas Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman.

The weather service said the city of Uvalde has been hardest hit. Officials there said there had been at least two dozen water rescues, and a local event center was open for anyone displaced by flooding. In Sabinal, officials were also making plans for a shelter.

Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.

Gibraltar ushers in a new era as British territory's border fence with Spain is removed

MADRID (AP) — Thousands of people who travel every day between the southern tip of Spain and the British territory of Gibraltar will no longer have to cross a physical border, beginning on Wednesday.

The official opening at midnight on Tuesday, after a border fence was removed, allows a new freedom of movement under a historic treaty between the European Union and the United Kingdom. It came after years of post-Brexit wrangling.

The contested British overseas territory of 38,000 people is perched at the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula, in a strategic location mere miles from Morocco where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea.

Soon after midnight, crowds crossed freely between La Línea de Concepción in Spain and Gibraltar in both directions. Many wore Spanish soccer jerseys after Spain’s victory against France in the World Cup semifinal on Tuesday, adding to the celebratory mood.

“What you feel here is the brotherhood between the two people,” Gibraltar's Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told Spanish broadcaster RTVE.

When Britain left the EU in 2020, the relationship between Gibraltar and the bloc had been left unresolved.

Previous talks on a deal to ensure people and goods could keep flowing across the border had made halting progress. In 2025, the EU and U.K. announced an agreement on those issues, with the two sides and Gibraltar’s government signing a treaty Tuesday that eases border crossings.

The U.K.’s Foreign Office Minister Stephen Doughty said Tuesday that the agreement secured Gibraltar’s long-term economic future and interests.

Maroš Šefčovič, the EU’s trade representative, praised the agreement, too.

“It has taken four years of patient, complex negotiation, but the outcome speaks for itself,” Šefčovič said. “It is a very special feeling to see a fence come down.”

Without a deal, Gibraltar could have a faced a hard land border with full passport checks, posing economic risks for the territory deeply dependent on some 15,000 Spaniards — almost half Gibraltar’s workforce — who cross the frontier every day for work.

Mendez Segura, 51, crossed into Gibraltar from Spain on Wednesday for work, unused to the newfound freedom of movement.

“I’ve been crossing over and working in Gibraltar all my life with my identity card,” the home care worker said. “I know you’ll be able to cross without it, but it’s just what I’m used to.”

Leisure visits by people crossing both sides of the border would have been affected, too.

“People who are visiting family in Spain, or whose Spanish family is visiting them in Gibraltar. Children who are going to football matches and extracurricular activities, either in Spain or in Gibraltar. They will be able to do that without having to worry about frontier queues,” Picardo told The Associated Press in an interview.

The deal in effect brings the territory into the EU’s Schengen free travel area. At Gibraltar’s airport and port, entry and exit checks will be conducted by both U.K. and Spanish border officials. The arrangement is similar to what’s in place at Eurostar train stations in London and Paris, where both British and French officials check passports.

Gibraltar was ceded to Britain in 1713, but Spain has maintained its sovereignty claim ever since. Relations between the two countries on the issue of Gibraltar have had their ups and downs over the centuries. The treaty that removed the border fence doesn't resolve the territory’s contested status.

In Britain’s 2016 Brexit referendum, 96% of voters in the Rock, as the territory is popularly known in English, supported remaining in the EU.

Travelers to Gibraltar from countries outside the Schengen Area, including the U.K., will have to contend with the EU Entry-Exit System, or EES, which was rolled out in Europe in April and replaced passport stamps with biometric data collected through photographs and digital fingerprints.

With the border fence gone, Gibraltar officials have set up live facial recognition cameras at entry points and throughout the territory.

Chief Minister Picardo said the territory will have many more closed-circuit television cameras and that it has increased its police presence as well as resources for customs and coast guard agencies.

“The fortress has become a digital fortress now,” Picardo said.