In brief: San Antonio flooding kills two, leaves hundreds stranded

SAN ANTONIO – Torrential rains swamped San Antonio with flash floods on Saturday, leaving at least two people dead as emergency workers rushed to rescue more than 200 residents stranded in cars and homes.

A woman became trapped in her car and climbed to the roof before being swept away in floodwaters, said San Antonio Fire Department spokesman Christian Bove. Her body was later found against a fence, he said.

Emergency officials also found the body of a woman who was swept away in her car while firefighters were trying to rescue here.

In suburban Schertz, a teenage boy who was swept away while trying to cross the swollen Cibolo Creek was still missing Saturday night.

The Fire Department conducted more than 235 rescues across the city, some by inflatable boats, authorities said. They continued their search into the evening.

Collision collapses rail overpass

CHAFFEE, Mo. – The National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation into the cause of a cargo train collision that partially collapsed a highway overpass Saturday in southeast Missouri, injuring seven people.

The collision occurred about 2:30 a.m. when a Union Pacific train hit a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train at a rail intersection under a highway near Chaffee, a town of about 3,000 southwest of Cape Girardeau.

Several cars derailed and hit a pillar of the Highway M overpass, bringing it partially down, an official said. Two cars were on the overpass when it fell.

Seven people – five in the vehicles and a UP train conductor and engineer – were taken to Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, treated and released by early afternoon, hospital spokeswoman Felecia Blanton said.

Obama: Honor fallen soldiers

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Americans to commemorate the Memorial Day weekend by honoring U.S. soldiers who have died in the nation’s wars.

“They gave America the most precious thing they had – ‘the last full measure of devotion,’ ” Obama said in his weekly Internet and radio address, citing a passage from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

On Monday, Obama plans to travel to Arlington National Cemetery to deliver remarks and lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.