Female Uber driver found dead in submerged car during Dallas flash floods

The woman had been on the phone to her husband as floodwaters started to fill up the vehicle and the call dropped, local news reported

A woman has been found dead after her car was believed to have been swept off the road during intense flash flooding in Dallas, Texas this week.

The female victim’s body was discovered in her vehicle after the waters dropped, the Mesquite Fire Department confirmed in an email to The Independent on Tuesday.

The victim was named as 60-year-old Jolene Jarrell by local news station NBC DFW.

Ms Jarrell, an Uber driver, had been on the phone with her husband as floodwaters started to fill up the vehicle and the call dropped, NBC DFW reported. Her husband later discovered the car underneath a bridge.

Dallas typically sees about eight inches (20cm) of rain all summer but at least three months’ worth of rain fell in just one night, ABC News reported.

Dallas and Fort Worth emergency officials reported dozens of calls related to rescues from high water. Videos and photos showed people swimming through flooded highways, leaving their cars behind. Some people told NBC DFW that they had to quickly escape their cars as water started filling up the vehicle.

In some places, enough rain fell to qualify as a one-in-1,000-year flood event, The Washington Post reported.

Massive storms continued to deluge the Dallas metro area on Monday. The National Weather Service (NWS) reported that over 15 inches (38 centimetres) of rain fell in some areas. Dallas/Fort Worth Airport recorded more than 9 inches of rain in 24 hours, NWS adds.

According to unofficial tallies, over 16in (41cm) of rain fell in Mesquite, Texas in 24 hours, AccuWeather reported. More than 36,000 people were without power on Monday afternoon.

The storm has shifted eastward, and a flood watch was issued through Tuesday evening in eastern Texas, northern Louisiana, and parts of Mississippi and Arkansas on Tuesday.

A man pulls his car out of floodwaters in Dallas, Texas on Monday (AP)

Flash floods are expected to get more common as the climate crisis deepens.

A warmer planet will bring storms that drop a lot of rain all at once. One study earlier this year found that as these more intense storms get more frequent, many parts of the county could experience more flash flooding.

And this summer has brought flooding to many parts of the country — as cities like St. Louis and Las Vegas have been washed through, while devastating flooding in rural parts of eastern Kentucky killed at least 38 people.

AP contributed to this report