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BySethRobbinsand Juan A. Lozano TheAssociatedPress HOUSTON Homeowners dragged soggy carpet to the curb and mopped up coffee- colored muck Wednesday after a barrage of storms and floods in Texas and Oklahoma left at least 19 people dead and a dozen others missing. More rain fell on the hard-hit Houston area, threatening to complicate the cleanup a day after a downpour of nearly a foot triggered some of the worst flooding the nation's fourth- largest city has ever seen. Hundreds of homes were damaged. Hundredsevacuated Heavy weather continued in other parts of Texas, with hundreds of people west of Fort Worth told to evacu- ate along the rising Brazos River and flash flood warn- ings posted in many areas. Gadi Shaulsky spent the day cutting wet carpet and padding from his home in Houston's Meyerland sec- tion and taking it to the curb. His neighbors were doing the same. A water mark showed that up to 6 inches of water had seeped into the home. "That was just really frightening. It was just flowing in," said Shaulsky's wife, Jodi. With tears in her eyes, she added: "It's hard to wrap your head around all that needs to be done." Houston Mayor Annise Parker said two people whose boat capsized during a rescue were also missing. Another person was miss- ing in suburban Houston. In central Texas, crews re- sumed the search for nine people presumed dead af- ter the swollen Blanco River smashed through Wimber- ley, a small tourist town between San Antonio and Austin, over the weekend. Matt Meeks and his wife, Natalie, worked to clean up the resort on the banks of the Blanco that has been in his family for five genera- tions, since the 1920s. Of the 14 rock cabins at Rio Bonito Resort, prob- ably only five will be sal- vageable, they said. Two were destroyed and seven appeared structurally un- sound. Meeks' parents own the resort, but he took charge of removing the debris and salvaging the furniture be- cause "they're too emotion- ally tied to the place to de- cide what gets junked and what stays." On the night of the flood, they were able to get all 100 guests out safely after the fire chief called to warn that the river was rising. The river had never gotten so close to the cabins be- fore, Meeks said. Authorities, meanwhile, defended their telephone and in-person warnings to residents ahead of the bad weather but acknowledged the difficulty in reaching tourists and said a messag- ing system in Houston is awaiting improvements. "Nobody was saying, 'Get out! Get out! Get out!'" said Brenda Morton of Wimber- ley. She said year-round res- idents know the risks, but "people who were visiting or had summer homes, you have company from out of town, you don't know. You don't know when that in- stant is." Wimberley saw some of the heaviest damage, in- cluding the loss of a two- story vacation home that was swept downstream and slammed into a bridge. Eight people in the home were missing, including three children. Authorities in surround- ing Hays County said the warnings included multiple cellphone alerts and calls to landlines. The first wave of warn- ings went to phones of reg- istered users, which could have missed many tourists. But officials said that as the danger escalated they used a commercial database that would have delivered a warning to virtually any- one whose cellphone was in range of local towers. Sheriff's deputies also went along the riverbanks and told people to evacu- ate, but officials could not say whether those in the washed-away home talked to police. In Houston, warnings from the National Weather Service were sent to mobile phones, but city officials said they haven't installed a system that would allow them to give residents tar- geted warnings without the need to register. Vehicles abandoned The flooding in Houston affected virtually every part of the city. At least 2,500 ve- hicles were abandoned by drivers, and anywhere from 800 to 1,400 homes were damaged, officials said. The forecast was for 2 to 3 more inches of rain. Thousands of homes were also damaged or destroyed in the central Texas corridor that includes Wimberley — 744 of them in San Marcos alone, said Kenneth Bell, emergency management coordinator for San Marcos. The death toll climbed to 19 — 15 in Texas, four in Oklahoma. Houston alone had six storm-related deaths. The deaths in Texas in- cluded a man whose body was pulled from the Blanco; a 14-year-old who was found with his dog in a storm drain; and a high school senior who died Saturday after her car was caught in high water. STORMS, FLOODS Homeowners clean up in Texas; death toll rises to 19 CODYDUTY—HOUSTONCHRONICLEVIAAP Motorists are stranded along I-45North Main in Houston on Tuesday. By Stephen Ohlemacher The Associated Press WASHINGTON IRS inves- tigators believe the iden- tity thieves who stole the personal tax information of more than 100,000 tax- payers from an IRS website are part of a sophisticated criminal operation based in Russia, two officials told the Associated Press. The information was sto- len as part of an elaborate scheme to claim fraudu- lent tax refunds, IRS Com- missioner John Koskinen told reporters. Koskinen declined to say where the crime originated. But two officials briefed on the matter said Wednes- day that the IRS believes the criminals were in Rus- sia, based on computer data about who accessed the in- formation. The officials spoke on condition of an- onymity. The revelation highlights the global reach of many cy- ber criminals. And it's not the first time the IRS has been targeted by identity thieves based overseas. In 2012, the IRS sent a to- tal of 655 tax refunds to a single address in Lithuania, and 343 refunds went to a lone address in Shanghai, according to a report by the agency's inspector general. The IRS has since added safeguards to prevent simi- lar schemes, but the crimi- nals are innovating as well. The information was taken from an IRS web- site called "Get Transcript," where taxpayers can get tax returns and other tax filings from previous years. In order to access the information, the thieves cleared a secu- rity screen that required de- tailed knowledge about each taxpayer, including their So- cial Security number, date of birth, tax filing status and street address. The IRS believes the crim- inals originally obtained this information from other sources. They were accessing the IRS website to get even more information about the taxpayers, which would help them claim fraudulent tax refunds in the future, Koski- nen said. "We're confident that these are not amateurs," Koskinen said. "These ac- tually are organized crime syndicates that not only we but everybody in the finan- cial industry are dealing with." Congress is demanding answers about how iden- tity thieves were able to steal the information. "When the federal gov- ernment fails to protect private and confidential taxpayer information, Con- gress must act," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chair- man of the Finance Com- mittee. The IRS said it is notify- ing taxpayers whose infor- mation was accessed. The IRS is providing them with credit monitoring services. ELABORATE SCHEME IRS believes identity thieves from Russia, sources say By Mary Clare Jalonick The Associated Press WASHINGTON Drinking water for 117 million Amer- icans will be protected un- der new rules shielding small streams, tributaries and wetlands from pollu- tion and development, the Obama administration said Wednesday. The White House said the rules would provide much- needed clarity for land- owners, but some Republi- cans and farm groups said they go much too far. House Speaker John Boehner de- clared they would send "landowners, small busi- nesses, farmers, and man- ufacturers on the road to a regulatory and economic hell." Supreme Court rulings The rules, issued by the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, are designed to clarify which smaller waterways fall un- der federal protection af- ter two Supreme Court rul- ings had left the reach of the Clean Water Act uncer- tain. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said the wa- ters affected would be those with a "direct and signifi- cant" connection to larger bodies of water down- stream that are already pro- tected. The Supreme Court de- cisions in 2001 and 2006 left 60 percent of nation's streams and millions of acres of wetlands without clear federal protection, according to EPA. The new rules say a tributary must show evidence of flowing water to be protected — like a bank or a high wa- ter mark. The regulations would kick in and force a permitting process only if a business or landowner took steps to pollute or destroy those waters. President Barack Obama said in a statement that the rules will provide needed clarity for business and in- dustry and "will ensure polluters who knowingly threaten our waters can be held accountable." The rules face deep op- position from the Republi- can-led Congress and farm- ers concerned that every stream, ditch and puddle on their private land could now be subject to federal oversight. The House voted to block the regulations ear- lier this month, and a simi- lar effort is underway in the Senate. Republican James Inhofe of Oklahoma, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Com- mittee, said his panel will consider the Senate bill to force the EPA to withdraw and rewrite the rules this summer. 'Power grab' House Speaker Boehner called the rules "a raw and tyrannical power grab." Farm groups have said the rules could greatly ex- pand the reach of the clean water law and create confu- sion among officials in the field as to which bodies of water must be protected. EPA's McCarthy has ac- knowledged the proposed rules issued last year were confusing and said the fi- nal rules were written to be clearer. She said the regula- tions don't create any new permitting requirements for agriculture and even add some new exemptions for ar- tificial lakes and ponds and water-filled depressions, among other features. These efforts were "to make clear our goal is to stay out of agriculture's way," McCarthy said in a blog on the EPA website. "Major economic sectors, from manufacturing and energy production to agri- culture, food service, tour- ism and recreation, depend on clean water to function and flourish," McCarthy said. The American Farm Bu- reau Federation has led op- position to the rules, saying they could make business more difficult for farmers. STREAMS, WETLANDS EPA issues new rules on protecting drinking water 2015 Tehama County Medical Guide A reference guide to North State medical professionals and related medical services available to Tehama County residents. • 7,000 in full-run distribution of The Daily News • 3,000 additional distribution through May, 2016: • Red Bluff Chamber of Commerce office/Visitor Center • Hotels at Rolling Hills Casino and Red Bluff area • Advertisers receive copies for countertop or waiting-room distribution. • Online version of this special publication is posted on RedBluffDailyNews.com, all year long, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! This highly viewed online edition reached over 15,000 unique visitors in the past year! • Digital technology allows viewers to "turn pages" and even click from your ad to your website! Red Bluff and Tehama County Chambers, Tehama County and City of Red Bluff post this special edition on their websites. 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