by KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — On Sunday, families rummaged over soggy rubble and entered deserted cabins at Camp Mystic, a camp for all-girls that was destroyed by flash floods that killed at least 79 people in central Texas and tore homes off their foundations.
Rescuers navigating difficult terrain persisted in their frantic hunt for the missing, which included ten girls and a camp counselor. Governor Greg Abbott reported that 41 individuals were officially unaccounted for throughout the state, and that more might be missing, for the first time since the storms started battering Texas.
Sheriff Larry Leitha announced in the afternoon that searchers had discovered the dead of 68 individuals, including 28 children, in Kerr County, which is home to Camp Mystic and other youth camps in the Texas Hill Country.
He promised to continue looking until all victims of Friday’s flash floods were located. Local officials reported ten additional deaths in the counties of Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green, and Williamson. According to Texas Department of Public Safety Col. Freeman Martin, the death toll will undoubtedly increase over the coming days.
The governor issued a warning on Sunday that future rounds of intense rains that continue into Tuesday might result in more potentially fatal flooding, particularly in areas that are already saturated.
Starting Sunday morning, families were given the opportunity to tour the camp. One girl carried a big bell as she left a building. On a riverbank, a guy who claimed to have saved his daughter from a cabin on the camp’s highest point peered beneath large rocks and around clusters of trees.
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.
A blue footlocker was taken by one family. As they slowly drove away, a teenage girl with tears streaming down her face stared out the open window at the devastation.
Searching the disaster zone
Nearby workmen using heavy machinery retrieved tree trunks and tangled branches from the water as they scoured the river while the families witnessed the destruction for the first time.
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.
In a region that has historically been prone to floods, authorities were increasingly questioned about whether adequate warnings had been given and whether adequate preparations had been done.
On Sunday, President Donald Trump activated the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Texas by signing a major disaster designation for Kerr County.
The president stated that he will probably come on Friday. After spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, he told reporters, “I would have done it today, but we’d just be in their way,” before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington. It was a terrible, terrible incident that happened.
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.
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.
The cabin of two Dallas school-age girls was washed away, and they went missing. The girls’ grandparents were missing, but their parents were safe and staying in another cabin.
Although the Hill Country is known for its flash floods, many campers and locals were taken off guard by the overnight flooding despite warnings.
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.
Authorities are dedicated to a thorough examination of the emergency response, including how the public was informed of the storm threat, 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 been harshly critical of FEMA’s performance and has previously stated that he wants to restructure, if not abolish, the agency.
The question of whether Trump intended to rehire any of the federal meteorologists who were let go this year due to widespread government expenditure cuts was also posed to him.
I doubt it. 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.”
By John Seewer and Jim Vertuno, Associated Press
