Houston Flood Killed 12 and many still missing

The death toll from extreme weather in Texas and Oklahoma has risen to 12 after another body was fished from the swollen Blanco River between Austin and San Antonio today.

The grim tally comes amid an even more dire one - 40 people are still missing from Hays County, which saw the bulk of the flash flooding.

Eight of those missing are from one vacation house in Wimberley, which was washed off its foundation and smashed into a bridge Sunday night. Five adults and three young children from two different families are assumed dead.

Flood waters are slowly starting to recede this afternoon in Houston, where a historic four inches of rain in just a few short hours wreaked havoc and led to at least three deaths.

Interstate highways in the nation's fourth-largest city turned to raging rivers, neighborhoods became lakes and hundreds of people had to be rescued from flooded homes and stranded vehicles. The flooding had one other horrifying consequence - snakes and other creatures that were flooded out of their homes crept into homes and vehicles in search of high ground.