[...] the death toll continues to rise as search teams dig through debris piles along rivers that raged through Central Texas and the Houston area. [...] officials would continue to watch for any effects from Thursday night rains in the vicinity of Possum Kingdom Lake, said Parker County Emergency Management spokesman Joel Kertok. The river level at Horseshoe Bend had fallen below the 21-foot flood stage to 20.9 feet Thursday night after the Brazos River Authority closed the floodgates on the Possum Kingdom dam upstream, Kertok said. The river crested at 23.6 feet about noon Thursday, almost 3 feet above flood stage, and Kertok said floodwaters lapped at the foundations of 11 homes but rose no further before beginning to recede. [...] the same drenching rainfall that paralyzed parts of Houston and swept away a vacation home with eight people inside also offered relief from a long dry spell.