Texas’s HUNT (AP) Days after more than 100 people were murdered by flash floods over the July Fourth weekend, the governor of Texas announced Tuesday that more than 160 people are still thought to be missing.
Following the establishment of a hotline for families to call, there was a significant increase in the number of unaccounted for, approximately three times greater than previously reported.
According to Governor Greg Abbott, the majority of the victims have been found in Kerr County, where the people who were reported missing are located. He stated during a press conference that many people were probably traveling to or lodging in the state’s Hill Country over the vacation but did not register at a camp or hotel.
Youth camps and campgrounds abound in the county’s lowlands along the Guadalupe River, notably Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer camp that has been around for a century and where at least 27 campers and counselors perished. Five campers and one counselor are still missing, officials reported Tuesday.
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In the quest for the missing, search and rescue crews are utilizing heavy machinery to remove layers of trees, uncover big rocks along riverbanks, and shift enormous debris heaps that extend for miles. One of the biggest search missions in Texas history involves hundreds of volunteers as well as crews in airboats, helicopters, and on horseback.
According to Bob Henson, a meteorologist with Yale Climate Connections, the flash flood is the deadliest inland flooding event to hit the United States since the July 31, 1976, Big Thompson Canyon flood in Colorado, which claimed 144 lives. On a holiday weekend, Colorado’s centennial celebration, that flood swept down a crowded canyon.
Questions over who was responsible for keeping an eye on the weather and alerting people that floodwaters were rushing toward houses and camps are becoming more pressing for public officials tasked with finding the victims.
When asked who was responsible for the deaths, the Republican governor, who had seen the disaster area in a helicopter, said, “That’s the word choice of losers.”
He claimed that every football squad makes errors. The teams that lose are the ones who attempt to assign blame. “Don’t worry about it, man, we got this,” is what the winning teams say. In order to win this game, we will make sure that we score again. Winners don’t point fingers in their speech.
Abbott pledged to keep looking for victims until they are all located. Additionally, he stated that President Donald Trump has promised to offer Texas any assistance it requires in order to recover. Trump is scheduled to travel to the state on Friday.
Scenes of devastation at Camp Mystic
Mud-splattered blankets and pillows littered a grassy hill that sloped toward the river outside the cabins at Camp Mystic where the girls had slept. There were also stickers on pink, purple, and blue bags among the wreckage.
The camp’s 75-year-old director, a 19-year-old counselor who liked mentoring young girls, and a second-grader who loved pink sparkles and bows were among those who perished there.
The Guadalupe River rose 26 feet (8 meters) in less than an hour due to heavy rains that pushed water hurtling down hills into the river, causing flash floods to break out before daylight on Friday. People living in trailers, tents, and cabins near the river’s edge were overtaken by the wall of water. There were survivors clinging to trees.
In order to reach higher ground, some campers had to swim out of the cabin windows, while others clung to a rope. In just a few minutes, flooding flooded highways, as demonstrated by time-lapse videos.
Experts argue that a warming atmosphere and oceans increase the likelihood of catastrophic storms, even though it is challenging to link a particular weather event to climate change.
Where were the warnings?
Concerns arose on what, if any, steps local authorities made to alert residents and campers spending the July Fourth weekend in the picturesque region that has long been referred to be “flash flood alley.”
Authorities in Kerr County, where searchers have discovered over 90 fatalities, stated that recovering victims comes before going over what transpired in the hours prior to the flash floods.
During an occasionally contentious news conference, Texas Game Wardens Lt. Col. Ben Baker stated, “This team up here is focused on bringing people home right now.”
In the hours following the destruction, Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, the county’s top elected official, stated that the county lacked a warning mechanism.
Families in the Hill Country have been aware of the risks for generations. near 1987, a flood flooded buses and vans and forced the evacuation of a youth camp near the town of Comfort. There were ten teen deaths.
The necessity of a warning system has been discussed by local authorities for many years. Eight years ago, Kerr County applied for a grant of over $1 million for such a system, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency denied the request. According to Kelly, locals objected to having to pay for it themselves.
Recovery and cleanup goes on
According to officials on Tuesday, no one has been discovered alive in the aftermath of the floods in Kerr County for four days.
According to the sheriff, the county, which is home to Camp Mystic and multiple other summer camps, has recovered the bodies of 30 children.
The destruction spanned many hundred miles in central Texas, extending just outside Austin, the state capital.
In the Hill Country town of Ingram, Aidan Duncan heard the muffled blare of a megaphone calling for inhabitants to leave Riverside RV Park and managed to flee just in time.
All of his possessions, including a mattress, sports cards, and the cage for his beloved parakeet, are now covered in mud in front of his house.
“It hurts what’s happening right now,” the 17-year-old stated. I cried so hard, really.
Charles Hanson, 91, a resident of a senior living facility, was cleaning up wood and piling pieces of stone and concrete that had been left over from a playground structure along the Guadalupe’s banks.
On behalf of his neighbors who are unable to go, he wanted to assist with cleanup. He stated, “We’ll do the best we can.”
