NATION IN BRIEF : TEXAS : Floodwaters Peril Homes, Cotton Crop

Homeowners and campers headed for higher ground as heavy rain doused southwestern Texas and water rose in the Rio Grande and Lake Amistad. Rain and cold also threatened a major agricultural area of western Texas, the South Plains around Lubbock, where cotton farmers grow a quarter of the nation’s crop. Not since 1971 have temperatures dipped into the 40s this early in the season, and that year’s crop was a disaster. Around El Paso, rainfall has damaged chili crops. Elsewhere, officials were trying to locate a man last seen canoeing down the swollen Pecos River from Pandale.