Disaster: Crushing Deluge

Crushing Deluge

In bone-dry Brownsville, Texas, the rain came fast and furious, sending pedestrians scurrying for protection. Dozens took shelter at La Tienda Amigo, a retail mart near the bridge to Matamoros, Mexico, across the Rio Grande. Downpour turned to deluge, dumping two inches of rain in 30 minutes -- apparently enough to collapse the structure housing the store into a murderous heap of concrete and metal. Dozens of people were crushed or trapped in the rubble. One wall tumbled outward, killing a woman sitting in a car parked in front of the store. Anthony Padilla, a photographer for the Brownsville Herald, witnessed...

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