omar villafranca, cbs news, galveston, texas. >> many schools and businesses in the houston area are closed for the day and local officials say flooding could cause them to shut down some roadways until the weather clears. >>> the only man charged in the d.c. mansion murders has a new attorney. daron wint appeared in court this morning. during the hearing the judge accepted sean hanover as his new attorney. hanover was hired by wint's family and replaces a public defender. as a result of the change, the next hearing has been delayed till july 2. wind remains held without bond in the murders of savvas and amy savopoulos, their son philip and alecia figueroa. >>> a young boy died in an accident on sam eig highway. the road was closed for six hours but is now back open. nikki burdine has been at the crash scene all morning and has more from gaithersburg. >> reporter: a very sad day in montgomery county. a young boy is dead after a fiery car crash early this morning. around 3:30 this morning, a woman in this car was driving on sam eig highway when for some reason she crossed over the med

omar villafranca is in galveston. >> reporter: bill made landfall this morning with 60mph winds, heavy rain and minor street flooding, but this is just the beginning of the storm that could last for three days. it comes just three weeks after heavy rains left more than 30 people dead in texas and destroyed hundreds of homes. >> after the rains devastated this area, it looked like a war zone. >> reporter: beverley schorres' houston neighborhood is still littered with debris from the last round. her own home came within inches of being flooded when water reached the doorstep. she's worried she won't be so lucky this time. >> we're shell-shocked. it could happen again. we just don't know. >> reporter: an estimated 35 trillion gallons of rain fell on texas in may enough rain to create what researchers call a brown ocean, soil so saturated with water that it may actually feed into the new storm system. dr. marshall shepherd is with the university of georgia. >> when we see these storms moving over this very wet soil, that environment is mimicking the ocean and providing ample moisture to pe

here's omar villafranca. >> reporter: tod king and casey cavalier came to get their marriage license today. on friday they were turned away from the denton county courthouse because of a computer glitch. this afternoon the glitch is gone. >> we're going to go get married >> reporter: king said it's a day 19 years in the making. how does it feel? >> outstanding. i can't believe it. i'm so excited. report but the couple worries that state officials are putting up even more serious hurdles for same-sex couples. texas attorney general ken paxton issued an opinion on sunday saying clerks have religious freedoms and can't be forced to issue marriage licenses because of their religious objection. paxton warned employees will likely face fines in litigation, but said numerous lawyers stand ready to assist clerks defending their religious beliefs. attorney jeff mateer is lead council with the liberty institute, a group that claims to be the largest organization the defend religious freedom. >> they have constitutional rights. and actually what the attorney general is doing is telling them inf

omar villafranca is in dallas. >> reporter: bill pounded the texas gulf coast before racing up north towards oklahoma. the heavy rain caused flash flooding outside of houston and shut down roads more than 200 miles away in dallas. so far the state has avoided a disaster, but problems could still spill over for 40 million people under flood watches. before the may rainy season, texas was in a historic five-year drought. in october of 2011, 97% of the the state was in an extreme drought. conditions slowly improved but last month's record-setting rainfall, an estimated 35 trillion gallons, is helping to finish off the drought. more than 90% of the state is entirely drought free. at its height the drought cost texas farms and ranches more than $7 billion in lot of production. but national weather service meteorologist victor murphy says the dams and reservoirs left empty by the drought kept the recent heavy rains from doing more damage. >> you know, we still have a lot of life, loss of property due to flash flooding and river flooding but it would have been much, much worse if the dam op

villafranca says relief will be slow in coming. >> reporter: it's not over yet. rivers and lakes are still at dangerously high levels. on saturday abeight-year-old girl in suburban dallas was killed after a car crash ejected her into floodwaters. rescuers had to use a boat to recover her body. at least 21 roads were still closed in the dallas area, but that didn't stop some drivers from ignoring low water crossing barriers and risking their lives to passes through. lieutenant scott walton is with the dallas police department. >> if you actually move a barricade, the person that comes along behind you doesn't know that barricade was there and puts themselves in danger. this is a violation of state law. >> reporter: just 30 miles from houston several hundred cattle were stranded in floodwaters and had to be rescued. along the brazos river in houston, officers have something new to worry about gawkers. dug adolph with the sugarland police department is trying to keep people from getting too close. >> if you go in, there's a strong likelihood that you'll go under and

omar villafranca reports. >> reporter: torrential rains took aim at oklahoma on wednesday leaving abandoned cars floating in a window high mess. the southern part of the state is the latest to be surrounded, alone and drenched by the remnants of tropical storm bill. the waters overtook a camp bus in falls creek completely submerging its nose. no children were hurt. texas drivers are also facing dangerous and water logged roadways. three teenagers clung to the roof of their car in an austin park as raging flood waters inched up around them. firefighters had to battle through water up to their waist eventually pulling the group to safety in a boat. two days after making landfall along the texas coastline, the storm is still heading northeast. mike houston's arkansas home is in its path. >> it's coming in. we're not sure what's going to happen. and we're just waiting and we have -- if we have to move, we'll move. >>> still ahead on wusa9, erica grow will have our forecast. plus, pope francis weighs in not on catholicism but on climate change. we'll have local reaction. >> plus, a feminine face

villafranca has that. >> reporter: for more than 50 years, confederate flags have flown on the grounds of alabama's state capitol, but that ended this morning. alabama governor robert bentley: >> we looked at the laws. there was nothing that said that it should be flown. there was no reason that i could not remove it, so that's exactly what i did. >> reporter: and in mississippi today, the state flag also came under fire. both of the state's u.s. senators and the state speaker said it's time to change. but governor phil bryant said no. >> the people voted on this flag in 2001. it was on the ballot overwhelmingly supported the current flag in the state of mississippi. i don't think that we need to go about trying to supercede the will of the people. >> reporter: in virginia, the governor wants to remove the confederate flag from license plates. four other states may follow. a symbol of slavery and racism to many, the confederate flag has been a source of pride to others. chuck bond is with the sons of confederate veterans. >> it's a flag of more than honor. it's a flag these men took in

omar villafranca is where the conditions have turned dangerous. omar, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. this quiet creek turned into a raging riverover night. the waters came over this guardrail and swept away a 2-year-old. the search continued for that little boy throughout the night. torrential rains took over tuesday night. the southern part of the state is the latest to be surround eded drenched by the remnants of tropical storm bill. the waters overtook a camp bus completely submergeing its nose. no children were hurt. texas drivers are facing dangerous and waterlogged roadways. three teenagers clung to the roof of their car in an austin park as raging waters inched up around them. firefighters had to battle water up to their waist, eventually pulling the group to safety in a boat. the storm is still heading northeast. mike houston's arkansas home is in its packet. >> it's coming in. we're not sure what's going to happen and we're just waiting and if we have to move we'll move. >> the search for that little boy will continue once the s

omar villafranca is in galveston over a tropical storm warning. omar, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. the window to evacuate here in galveston is already starting to close. now, right now what we are seeing are some of the outer bands of this storm. it's not expected to make landfall for a few hours. the island of galveston could get about 10 inches of rain. other parts of the state, they are talking about a foot. a lot of people will get a heavy dose of sustained 50-mile-an-hour winds. waves battered the shores of galveston early this morning. the winds whipped in the wind as signs of the tropical storm hit the coastline. >> we have shut our shutters and moved people out of our yard that might become a proceedjecti.le. >> we expect there will be flooding and don't know how bad the flooding will be right now. >> reporter: texas just endured its wettest may on record. the memorial day storms video shows how raging floodwaters overtook a bar in austin and sending stacks of tables and chairs swirling. across the state washed away cars and ho