Storms bring heavy rain to North Texas, close portion of I-35

DALLAS - Storms that swept through North Texas brought heavy rain and strong winds that caused some problems for travelers.

A Tornado Watch was issued by the National Weather Service for parts of the Fox 4 Weather viewing area, but it expired at 5 p.m.

There were scattered thunderstorms Saturday morning, with storms becoming more widespread during the afternoon hours. The Fox 4 Weather Team warned that the main threats from the storms were heavy rain, hail, and straight line winds.

DFW Airport and Dallas Love Field had some delays because of the weather, and told travelers to check with their airlines for any potential delays for arrivals and departures.

There have been several road closures reported across North Texas, with authorities reminding drivers to "Turn Around, Don't Drown."

A portion of I-35E is closed because of high waters on the interstate. The southbound lanes near Illinois Ave. closed at about 2:45 p.m. as crews worked to clear the standing water.

Some people had to abandon their cars, and hundreds of vehicles were stopped by the flood waters.

Water had accumulated under the Illinois Ave. overpass.

One woman says she’s grateful she slammed on the brakes when she did. There were three cars stuck in the water.

One of them belongs to Wayne Valentine. He said he and his mother, Sue, were headed home to Rockwall during the heavy rain.

“And all of a sudden, we got in water. It looked fine and we kept going to try to get out and get off the road. And all of a sudden the water was so deep that we had no place to go, that the car just died,” Valentine said.

According to the Oncor outage map, there were more than 60,000 people in the DFW Metroplex who were affected by outages at one point, but as of 8 p.m., that number was down to 25,000.

The Rangers-Cardinals game in Arlington was set to start at 3 p.m., but they had a rain delay. The game ended up starting at 5:15 p.m.

There were several outdoor activities Saturday that were impacted by the storms, but the Grapevine Main St. Fest continued after a rain delay.