Desperate search for missing girls as Texas flood death toll rises
Hunt (United States) (AFP) – Rescuers in Texas raced against time Sunday to find dozens of missing people, including children, swept away by flash floods that killed at least 59, as forecasters warned of new deluges.
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Local Texans joined forces with disaster officials to search through the night for the missing, including 27 girls from a riverside Christian summer camp.
The rain-swollen waters of the Guadalupe River reached tree tops and the roofs of cabins in the camp as girls slept, washing away some of them and leaving a scene of devastation.
At the camp in Kerr County, blankets, teddy bears and other belongings ended up caked in mud. Windows in the cabins were shattered, apparently by the force of the water.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said Camp Mystic on the banks of the Guadalupe River, where some 750 girls had been staying when the floodwaters hit, had been "horrendously ravaged in ways unlike I've seen in any natural disaster."
"We won't stop until we find every girl who was in those cabins," he said in a post on social media platform X after a visit to the site.
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said heavy rain likely to cause more flooding was falling Sunday as the death toll at the camp and elsewhere rose to at least 59.
"We expect that to go higher, sadly," Patrick told Fox News Sunday.
The National Weather Service (NWS) warned Sunday that slow-moving thunderstorms threatened more flash floods over the saturated ground of central Texas.
The flooding began Friday -- the start of the Fourth of July holiday weekend -- as months' worth of rain fell in a matter of hours, much of it coming overnight as people slept.
The Guadalupe surged some 26 feet (eight meters) -- more than a two-story building- in just 45 minutes.
Some of the fatalities were found in counties away from the tragedy at the summer camp.
The owner and director of Camp Mystic was among the dead, according to the Kerrville website, as was the manager of another nearby summer camp.
Flash floods, which occur when the ground is unable to absorb torrential rainfall, are not unusual.
The region of south and central Texas where the weekend's deluge occurred is known colloquially as "Flash Flood Alley."
But scientists say that in recent years human-driven climate change has made extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and heat waves more frequent and more intense.
Department of Homeland Security head Kristi Noem said the US Coast Guard was "punching through storms" to evacuate stranded residents.
"We will fly throughout the night and as long as possible," she said in a post on X.
Air, ground and water-based crews were scouring the length of the Guadalupe River for survivors and the bodies of the dead.
In Kerrville on Saturday, the usually calm Guadalupe was flowing fast, its murky waters filled with debris.
"The water reached the top of the trees. About 10 meters or so," said resident Gerardo Martinez, 61. "Cars, whole houses were going down the river."
Noem earlier said Trump, who was at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club on Sunday, wanted to "upgrade the technologies" at the weather service and the NOAA.
"We need to renew this ancient system," Noem told a press conference.
When asked about claims that residents were given insufficient warning, Noem said she would "carry your concerns back to the federal government."
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