TYLER, Texas — In the last 24 hours, we have seen a total solar eclipse, heavy rain, hail and tornado warnings. Smith County Emergency Services District 2 has been busy.
With heavy rain causing flooding throughout different parts of the region, first responders in the area had to stay on their toes.
"We’ve had an increase in calls for service, not necessarily all of them are bad, it’s just the numbers are coming, and they’re coming pretty regular," JD Smith, assistant chief for Smith County ESD2, said.
Smith said that his team were preparing for something big with the eclipse coming and that didn’t turn out to be so bad. But ESD2 had extra hands on deck to respond to potential severe weather.
Smith County’s only major road that went underwater was along County Road 463. But the rain was so heavy last night, that Smith and his crew had to perform a water rescue at Lake Palestine.
"As the storm approached, they pulled under the water intake to get out of the storm. They tied their boat up to the water intake, and when the storm came through it broke the rope on their boat," Smith said.
That was certainly memorable for the SCESD2 crew, but not the wildest thing to come from one of their calls for these storms.
"A house getting struck by lightning twice in the same night is probably the weirdest one of this event," Smith said.
Smith County ESD2 hopes things will slow down within the next day or so as the rain is supposed to let up by Wednesday. Stay tuned to our weather coverage on CBS19.