KERRVILLE, TXAs the extensive search for missing persons continues, the number of fatalities from the devastating floods that occurred in Texas during the July Fourth weekend has topped 100.
On Monday, there were 104 fatalities. According to Kerr County officials, searchers have discovered the dead of 84 individuals, including 28 children, in the hard-hit county that is home to Camp Mystic and many other summer camps.
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Authorities in charge of the Texas flood victims’ search stated that they will postpone answering inquiries concerning weather alerts and the reasons for the evacuation of some summer camps.
The officials’ remarks came just hours after Camp Mystic’s administrators in the Texas Hill Country reported that 27 campers and counselors had perished in the floods. Search and rescue crews continued to look for the deceased in the meantime, wading across flooded rivers and used large machinery to clear trees. In a chore that grew more and more depressing, volunteers soaked in mud picked through pieces of trash.
Saturated areas of central Texas remain at risk, with more rain on the horizon. According to authorities, the death toll will undoubtedly increase.
After a wall of water crashed into cottages erected along the Guadalupe River’s brink, Camp Mystic’s announcement validated the darkest concerns.
Before sunrise on Friday, the nation’s violent flash floods swept into houses and camps along the river, dragging people who were sleeping out of their cabins, tents, and trailers and hauling them for kilometers past cars and floating tree trunks. There were survivors clinging to trees.
The riverbanks are now littered with piles of bent trees, mattresses, refrigerators, and coolers. A volleyball, boats, and a family portrait were among the artifacts found among the rubble, serving as reminders of what attracted so many people to the Hill Country’s campgrounds and homes.
According to local officials, there are 19 counties in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green, and Williamson.
Among them were a former soccer coach and his spouse, who were lodging at a house by the river, and two 8-year-old sisters from Dallas who were at Camp Mystic. They have yet to find their daughters.
Requests to investigate why warnings were ignored
Investigating whether and why certain campers did not evacuate or relocate to higher ground in an area that some locals refer to as “flash flood alley” is one of the next measures, authorities promised.
A review of the transmission and reception of weather warnings will be part of that. According to Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice, one of the difficulties is that a large number of campgrounds and cabins are located in areas with inadequate cellular service.
He stated, “We absolutely want to dive in and look at all those things.” When we are able to finish the search and rescue, we are eager to do that.
However, several camps kept an eye on the weather and were mindful of the risks. Prior to the floods, at least one relocated several hundred campers to higher land.
The National Weather Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not postpone any warnings, according to Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz.
There is a time and place for disagreements and political arguments. Cruz stated that now is not the time. One day, we’ll discover what could have been done differently. Hopefully, we will eventually learn some lessons that we can apply the next time there is a flood.
Prior to issuing flash flood emergencies, an uncommon measure that warns the public of impending danger, the weather service initially issued a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday after warning of possible flooding on Thursday.
The equivalent of a torrential downpour, authorities and elected figures have stated that they did not anticipate it. Some locals claimed they never got any warnings.
President Donald Trump stated on Sunday that he has no intention of rehiring any of the federal meteorologists who were let go this year. Trump announced a major disaster proclamation for Kerr County and is scheduled to visit the region.
This occurred in a matter of seconds. The president said that no one had anticipated it.
According to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, there were enough warnings from federal and local weather authorities.
That was a divine act. Leavitt stated that although the administration was not at blame for the flood’s timing, there were early and regular warnings.
Governor Greg Abbott announced on Sunday that over three dozen persons were missing around the state and that more might be missing.
On Monday, search and rescue personnel at one staging location reported that over 1,000 volunteers had been sent to Kerr County.
Not much time to avoid floods
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.
Mother of children Elizabeth Lester reported her small kid had to swim out his cabin window to get out of Camp Mystic and neighboring Camp La Junta during the storm. As the floodwaters thrashed across her legs, her daughter ran up the mountainside.
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From Toledo, Ohio, Seewer provided a report. The following Associated Press writers contributed to this report: Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; Sophia Tareen in Chicago; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Michael Biesecker and Brian Slodysko in Washington; and Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama.
