(AP) KERRVILLE, TX In the search for victims of the devastating floods that occurred over the July Fourth weekend in Texas, which claimed the lives of over 80 people, including more than two dozen students and counselors from an all-girls Christian camp, crews trudged amid wreckage and swam into swollen riverbanks on Monday.
Saturated areas of central Texas were still at high risk of further floods, and more rain remained on the horizon. As teams searched for the numerous victims who were still missing, authorities warned that the death toll would undoubtedly increase.
A wall of water blasted into cabins built along the Guadalupe River’s edge, confirming the worst fears of Camp Mystic’s operators, who announced Monday that they had lost 27 campers and counselors at the century-old summer camp in the Texas Hill Country.
The camp released a statement saying, “We have been in contact with local and state authorities who are tirelessly deploying extensive resources to search for our missing girls.”
People sleeping in tents, cabins, and houses along the river were washed away in the middle of the night on Friday by the floodwaters, which are among the worst to hit the country in decades.
According to Reagan Brown, his parents, who are in their 80s, were able to flee uphill as the water flooded their Hunt, Texas, house. The pair returned to save their 92-year-old neighbor after learning that she was stuck in her attic.
After they managed to get to their tool shed on higher ground, neighbors started to get there in the early morning, and they all rode out together, according to Brown.
The hunt for the missing continued a few miles further as rescuers negotiated difficult, snake-infested terrain.
Governor Greg Abbott reported on Sunday that 41 people were missing around the state and that more might be on the way.
According to Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha, searchers have discovered the dead of 68 people, including 28 children, in the Hill Country region, which is home to multiple summer camps.
Local officials reported ten additional deaths in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green, and Williamson counties.
As early as Sunday morning, families were permitted to tour Camp Mystic. On a riverbank, a guy whose daughter had been saved from a cabin on the camp’s highest point peered beneath large rocks and in groups of trees.
A blue footlocker was taken by one family. As they slowly drove away, a teenage girl looked at the carnage through the open window, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Investigating the disaster area
Tree trunks and tangled branches were removed from the river by crews using heavy machinery. The hope of discovering more survivors dwindled with every hour.
Despite being instructed not to, volunteers and some of the missing’s families conducted searches.
In a region that has historically been prone to flooding, authorities were increasingly questioned about whether adequate warnings and measures had been made.
President Donald Trump said he would probably visit Kerr County on Friday and issued a major disaster designation for the county on Sunday. He told reporters, “It’s a terrible thing that happened, absolutely terrible.”
Trees, attics, and desperate shelter
As floodwaters took cars and trees past them, survivors told horrifying tales of being swept away and clinging to branches. Others hid in 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 girl from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who was at the camp, were among those confirmed deceased.
On Sunday, two Dallas school-age girls went missing after their cabin was washed away. The girls’ grandparents were missing, but their parents were safe and staying in another cabin.
The catastrophe was preceded by warnings.
Before issuing flash flood emergencies, a rare alert alerting the public to 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.
Authorities and political officials have stated that they were not prepared for such a heavy precipitation, which is comparable to months of rain in the region.Authorities are dedicated to a thorough evaluation of the emergency response, according to Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice.
In response to a question about whether he still intended to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Trump stated that while he was busy working at the time, he may discuss the matter later. He has harshly criticized FEMA’s performance and stated that he intends to restructure, if not abolish, the agency.
As part of massive government expenditure cuts this year, Trump stated that he has no plans to rehire any of the federal meteorologists who were let go.
This occurred in a matter of seconds. No one anticipated it. It went unnoticed. The president added, “There were very talented people there, and they didn’t see it.”
