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Risk of More Texas Floods Amid Search 07/07 06:04
With more rain on the way, the risk of life-threatening flooding was still
high in central Texas on Monday even as crews search urgently for the missing
following a holiday weekend deluge that killed at least 82 people, including
children at summer camps. Officials said the death toll was sure to rise.
KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) -- With more rain on the way, the risk of
life-threatening flooding was still high in central Texas on Monday even as
crews search urgently for the missing following a holiday weekend deluge that
killed at least 82 people, including children at summer camps. Officials said
the death toll was sure to rise.
Residents of Kerr County began clearing mud and salvaging what they could
from their demolished properties as they recounted harrowing escapes from
rapidly rising floodwaters late Friday.
Reagan Brown said his parents, in their 80s, managed to escape uphill as
water inundated their home in the town of Hunt. When the couple learned that
their 92-year-old neighbor was trapped in her attic, they went back and rescued
her.
"Then they were able to reach their toolshed up higher ground, and neighbors
throughout the early morning began to show up at their toolshed, and they all
rode it out together," Brown said.
A few miles away, rescuers maneuvering through challenging terrain filled
with snakes continued their search for the missing, including 10 girls and a
counselor from Camp Mystic, an all-girls summer camp that sustained massive
damage.
Gov. Greg Abbott said 41 people were unaccounted for across the state and
more could be missing.
In the Hill Country area, home to several summer camps, searchers have found
the bodies of 68 people, including 28 children, Kerr County Sheriff Larry
Leitha said.
Ten other deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and
Williamson counties, according to local officials.
The governor warned that additional rounds of heavy rains lasting into
Tuesday could produce more dangerous flooding, especially in places already
saturated.
Families were allowed to look around the camp beginning Sunday morning. One
girl walked out of a building carrying a large bell. A man whose daughter was
rescued from a cabin on the highest point in the camp walked a riverbank,
looking in clumps of trees and under big rocks.
One family left with a blue footlocker. A teenage girl had tears running
down her face as they slowly drove away and she gazed through the open window
at the wreckage.
Searching the disaster zone
Nearby crews operating heavy equipment pulled tree trunks and tangled
branches from the river. With each passing hour, the outlook of finding more
survivors became even more bleak.
Volunteers and some families of the missing came to the disaster zone and
searched despite being asked not to do so.
Authorities faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were
issued in an area long vulnerable to flooding and whether enough preparations
were made.
President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration Sunday for Kerr
County and said he would likely visit Friday: "I would have done it today, but
we'd just be in their way."
"It's a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible," he told
reporters.
Prayers in Texas -- and from the Vatican
Abbott vowed that authorities will work around the clock and said new areas
were being searched as the water receded. He declared Sunday a day of prayer
for the state.
In Rome, Pope Leo XIV offered special prayers for those touched by the
disaster. The first American pope spoke in English at the end of his Sunday
noon blessing, saying, "I would like to express sincere condolences to all the
families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were in
summer camp, in the disaster caused by the flooding of the Guadalupe River in
Texas in the United States. We pray for them."
Desperate refuge and trees and attics
Survivors shared terrifying stories of being swept away and clinging to
trees as rampaging floodwaters carried trees and cars past them. Others fled to
attics, praying the water wouldn't reach them.
At Camp Mystic, a cabin full of girls held onto a rope strung by rescuers as
they walked across a bridge with water whipping around their legs.
Among those confirmed dead were an 8-year-old girl from Mountain Brook,
Alabama, who was at Camp Mystic, and the director of another camp up the road.
Two school-age sisters from Dallas were missing after their cabin was swept
away. Their parents were staying in a different cabin and were safe, but the
girls' grandparents were unaccounted for.
Warnings came before the disaster
On Thursday the National Weather Service advised of potential flooding and
then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday
before issuing flash flood emergencies -- a rare alert notifying of imminent
danger.
Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an
intense downpour, the equivalent of months' worth of rain for the area.
Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said authorities are committed to a full
review of the emergency response.
Trump, asked whether he was still planning to phase out the Federal
Emergency Management Agency, said that was something "we can talk about later,
but right now we are busy working." He has said he wants to overhaul if not
completely eliminate FEMA and sharply criticized its performance.
Trump also was asked whether he planned to rehire any of the federal
meteorologists who were fired this year as part of widespread government
spending cuts.
"I would think not. This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody
expected it. Nobody saw it. Very talented people there, and they didn't see
it," the president said.
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