Update: There are now 78 people dead from the Texas flash floods, and 10 campers are still unaccounted for.
The Associated Press, by Jim Vertuno, Julio Cortez, and John Seewer
KERRVILLE, TX At least 67 people have died as a result of the flash floods that swept across Central Texas on Sunday. Rescuers navigating difficult terrain discovered more remains and continued their frantic search for numerous others, including 11 missing girls from a summer camp.
Sheriff Larry Leitha reported that since Saturday afternoon, searchers in Kerr County had discovered 16 more bodies, bringing the total to 59. 21 children were among the fatalities, he said.
He promised to continue looking in the Hill Country area until all people from Friday’s flash floods were located.
Additionally, four deaths—three in Burnet and one in Kendall—were recorded in Travis County.
In their challenging search for survivors, rescuers had to battle with overturned vehicles, shattered trees, and debris covered in mud. Other than the 11 kids and a camp counselor from the Christian summer camp Camp Mystic, authorities have not yet disclosed the number of missing persons.
While local workmen using heavy machinery retrieved tree trunks and tangled branches from the water as they searched along a riverbank on Sunday morning, families were permitted to explore the camp. A fresh storm rumbled with thunder.
One of the cabins, which was near to a stack of wet mattresses, a storage trunk, and clothing, was briefly entered by a woman and a teenage girl wearing rubber waders. The couple once broke down in tears and then embraced.
The prospect of discovering more survivors seemed increasingly grim with every hour that went by. Despite being instructed not to, volunteers and some missing persons’ families drove to the disaster area and scoured the riverbanks.
Authorities were increasingly questioned about whether adequate preparations had been taken and whether enough warnings had been sent in areas that were long at risk of flooding.
Homes and cars were washed away by the swift, damaging floods, which climbed 26 feet (8 meters) on the river in just forty-five minutes before daylight on Friday. With fresh rain falling in central Texas on Sunday and flash flood watches still in effect, the threat was far from gone.
In order to find casualties and rescue individuals trapped in trees and in camps cut off by washed-out roadways, searchers deployed helicopters, boats, and drones. Over 850 individuals were saved in the first 36 hours, according to officials.
Prayers in Texas and from the Vatican
Authorities will work around the clock, Gov. Greg Abbott promised, adding that as the water receded, additional areas were being explored. He declared Sunday to be the state’s day of prayer.
In a statement, he urged all Texans to join him in prayer this Sunday for the lives lost, the missing, our towns’ recovery, and the security of those fighting on the front lines.
Pope Leo XIV of Rome said particular prayers for everyone affected by the tragedy. At the conclusion of his Sunday noon blessing, the first American pope in history spoke in English. I would like to offer my deepest sympathies to all the families who have lost loved ones in the Guadalupe River flooding disaster in Texas, especially their daughters who were attending summer camp. We offer up prayers for them.
Generations of families have come to swim and enjoy the outdoors at the century-old youth camps and campers scattered throughout the hills around the Guadalupe River. It is more challenging to determine the number of missing people because the location is particularly crowded around the Independence Day vacation.
Dalton Rice, the city manager of Kerrville, stated on Saturday that they don’t even want to start estimating just yet.
Harrowing escapes from floodwaters
As raging floodwaters dragged cars and trees past them, survivors told horrifying tales of being swept away and clinging to branches. Others escaped to their homes’ attics in the hopes that the water wouldn’t get to them.
Water whipped over the legs of a cabin full of girls at Camp Mystic as they crossed a bridge while clinging to a rope strung by rescuers.
The director of another camp up the road and an 8-year-old child from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who was at Camp Mystic, were among those confirmed dead.
Although there were warnings, many campers and homeowners were taken off guard by the overnight flooding, even though locals knew the area is prone to flash floods.
Warnings came before the disaster
Before issuing flash flood emergencies, a rare alert indicating impending danger, the National Weather Service issued a succession of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday after warning of possible flooding on Thursday.
After keeping an eye on the weather at the Mo-Ranch Camp near the town of Hunt, administrators decided to relocate several hundred campers and guests of a church youth conference to higher ground. The day before their second summer session ended on Thursday, organizers at neighboring Camps Rio Vista and Sierra Vista likewise posted on social media that they were keeping an eye on the weather.
According to elected leaders and authorities, they did not anticipate such a heavy downpour, which is equivalent to months’ worth of rain for the region.
As people search for someone to blame, U.S. Representative Chip Roy, whose district covers the devastated area, recognized that there will be finger-pointing and second-guessing.
Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio, and Cortez from Hunt, Texas. Contributions were made by Associated Press writers Nicole Winfield in Rome, Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut, and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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