AKIPRESS.COM - Hundreds of people were ordered to evacuate flood-threatened areas of Texas on Wednesday as torrential rains battered the state, where at least 15 people have been killed in weather-related incidents this week, including six in Houston.

People were told to stay away from more than 200 homes in Parker County where the Brazos River was poised to overflow its banks about 30 miles (50 km) west of Fort Worth on Wednesday night, county officials said.

"The river is coming up fast and flowing at dangerous volumes," Parker County Judge Mark Riley told a news conference, adding shelters were available.

The death toll in Texas was expected to rise, with about a dozen people still missing and more thunderstorms pelting the already flooded cities of Houston and Austin.

Floods damaged about 4,000 structures and snarled transport in Houston, the fourth most-populous U.S. city, where more than a thousand vehicles were trapped in rising water, reports Reuters.