KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — As search crews performed boat and helicopter rescues in the swift-moving flood water on Friday, they discovered that at least 13 people had been killed and that over 20 girls attending a summer camp were missing after months of intense rain poured on Texas Hill Country in a matter of hours.
Social media was flooded with desperate requests as family members looked for any information they could about those trapped in the flood area.
Between six and ten dead have been discovered thus far in the desperate hunt for victims, according to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. In the meantime, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha stated that 13 people had died as a result of the flooding during a press conference held concurrently with Patrick’s update.
Overnight, central Kerr County received at least 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain, which caused the Guadalupe River to overflow and prompted frantic requests for information regarding the missing.
Patrick stated at a press conference that some are adults and some are kids. Once more, the origin of the bodies is unknown.
Emergency personnel kept looking for people who were missing as teams performed dozens of rescues. Among them are over 20 girls who went missing from summer camps.
I’m requesting that Texas residents pray fervently this afternoon. Patrick remarked, “I’m kind of praying on my knees that we find these young girls.”
Photos of people in the flood zone were abundant in the comments section of a Facebook post from the Kerr County sheriff’s office. In the hopes that someone might provide an update on the location of individuals they hadn’t heard from, loved ones posted there. One mother begged someone to post the names of people who had already been evacuated since she was unable to get in touch with her daughter, who had booked a cabin in Hunt for her husband and two kids.
The county’s top elected official, Judge Rob Kelly, stated that there had been dozens of water rescues and fatalities as a result of the flooding. Authorities are still trying to identify the people who died, he added, adding that he was told not to provide particular numbers.
At a press conference, Kelly stated, “We don’t know who most of them are.” One of them had no identification at all and was entirely nude. We’re working to identify these people, but we haven’t done so yet.
One family survives a terrifying ordeal
The house of Erin Burgess is located in the Bumble Bee Hills neighborhood, west of Ingram, right across from the river. It was raining quite a little when she woke up to thunder at 3:30 on Friday morning, but she said it wasn’t a huge concern.
Twenty minutes later, Burgess reported that water was rushing through the front and back doors and entering through the walls. She recounted an excruciating hour spent hanging to a tree as they waited for the water to subside sufficiently to enable them to walk up the hill to a neighbor’s house.
While my boyfriend and my dog drifted away, my son and I floated to a tree and grabbed onto it. She became tearful as she said, “We found them after he got lost for a while.”
Fortunately, her 19-year-old son is more over six feet tall, Burgess added. Holding on to him was the only thing that kept me alive.
Isolated amounts of rising water up to 7 inches (17 cm) were predicted by a flood watch issued Thursday afternoon. Overnight, that changed to a flood warning for at least 30,000 people.
Even as local media pointed to the warnings and pressed him for explanations on why greater preparations weren’t taken, Kelly responded, “We don’t have a warning system and we didn’t know this flood was coming,” when asked about the suddenness of the flash flooding.
You can be sure that nobody anticipated this type of deluge, he continued. We always have flooding. The United States’ most hazardous river valley is this one.
According to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, the state is offering assistance to Hill Country municipalities, such as Kerrville, Ingram, and Hunt, that are coping with the flooding.
A popular outdoor summer retreat, the Texas Hill Country starts west of the state capital and is a picturesque and rocky entryway to thriving wineries and vacation accommodations. Flash floods are common in several areas of the area.
On Facebook, dozens of people asked for any information about their family members who were camping over the holiday weekend, their children, or their nieces and nephews who were at one of the numerous nearby campers.
The private Christian summer camp for females suffered catastrophic level floods, according to a statement from Camp Mystic, which was photographed by the Ingram Fire Department. According to the camp, parents whose daughter was missing were contacted personally.
Instagram posts from Camp Waldemar and Camp La Junta, two additional sites on the river, said that everyone was okay.
Bob Fogarty, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Austin/San Antonio office, said that in about two hours, the Guadalupe River gauge at the unincorporated village of Hunt, where the river splits, reported a 22-foot rise (6.7-meter) in elevation. After recording a level of 29 and a half feet (9 meters), according to Fogarty, the gauge malfunctioned.
According to Fogarty, this is the type of stuff that will surprise you. You won’t realize how severe the situation is until it’s on top of you since the water is rushing so quickly.
As the swift-moving waters poured downstream from Hunt and Kerrville, areas east along the Guadalupe River were bracing for their own flooding. The sheriff’s office raised the alarm in Comfort, an unincorporated town in Kendall County.
The statement stated, “We regret to notify everyone that the flood situation in Comfort is not improving.” All inhabitants in the town’s low-lying districts are urged to leave right now as we have activated the flood sirens.
New Jersey also sees deaths due to severe weather
At least three fatalities in central New Jersey were attributed to powerful thunderstorms, including two men in Plainfield who perished after a tree fell on a car they were riding in during a storm’s peak, the city said on Facebook.
According to police, the guys were 25 and 79 years old. They weren’t immediately made public.
In a statement, Mayor Adrian O. Mapp remarked, “Today, our hearts are heavy.” This tragedy serves as a somber reminder of both the fragility of life and the strength of nature.
The city called off its scheduled fireworks display, concert, and parade for July 4. According to Mapp, the community of over 54,000 people had suffered extensive destruction and severe scarring as a result of the disastrous storms, and now was the moment to gather and concentrate all of our efforts on rehabilitation.
In southern New England, where some villages experienced heavy hailfall, there were reports of felled trees and ongoing power disruptions on Friday. In northeastern Connecticut, there have been reports of vehicles skidding off the road.
