KERRVILLE, TXOver the Fourth of July holiday weekend, flash floods in Texas killed at least 89 people and left others, including girls at a summer camp, missing. Massive search efforts have been prompted by the destruction along the Guadalupe River outside of San Antonio, while officials are being questioned about their readiness and the haste of their early response.
Learn more about the tragic flooding, the massive weather system that caused it in and around Kerr County, Texas, and the ongoing victim identification efforts.
In an area that is prone to flooding, heavy rain fell at the wrong moment.
At the middle of a lengthy holiday weekend, when most people were asleep, the floods reached their worst point.
Because of the dry, dirt-packed terrain in the Texas Hill Country in the state’s center, where the soil allows rain to slide over the ground rather than soak it up, the region is inherently vulnerable to flash flooding. A especially strong storm that dumped the majority of its 12 inches (30 cm) of rain in the dark early morning hours on Friday was the precursor to Friday’s flash floods.
Around 4 a.m. on Thursday, the National Weather Service office issued an urgent warning that raised the possibility of catastrophic damage and a serious threat to human life, after a flood watch alert issued at noon. Some in the Kerrville City vicinity claim that water levels were becoming dangerously high by at least 5:20 a.m. In just 45 minutes, the Guadalupe River rose 26 feet (8 meters) as a result of the heavy rain that poured over the hills.
The number of missing is unknown, and the death toll is predicted to increase.
Sheriff Larry Leitha announced Monday morning that 75 individuals, including 27 children, had been found dead in Kerr County, which is home to summer camps in the Texas Hill Country. As of Monday morning, 89 people had died, including fatalities in neighboring counties.
At Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp along the river, ten girls and a counselor remained missing.
The incident transformed joyful memories into sorrow for former campers.
The amount of missing people from other neighboring campgrounds and the surrounding area had not been made public, in addition to the Camp Mystic campers who were still unaccounted for.
On Sunday, Governor Greg Abbott announced that 41 persons were officially missing throughout the state and that more might be missing.
During a news conference on Monday, Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice stated that he was unable to provide an estimate of the number of persons who are still missing, only that it is a large number.
Authorities are under fire for flash flood warnings.
Survivors claim they were not given any emergency warnings and have referred to the floodwaters as an apitch black wall of death.
Rob Kelly, a Kerr County Judge who resides near the Guadalupe River, stated on Saturday that nobody anticipated this. The water levels were extremely unusual based on historical records, which is why officials have called it a 100-year flood.
Furthermore, records supporting those figures don’t always take climate change brought on by humans into consideration. Meteorologists argue that a warmer atmosphere can contain more moisture and allow severe storms to drop significantly more rain, but it’s difficult to link individual storms to global warming so soon after they happen.
Officials have also come under fire for failing to notify or advise residents and kids summer camps along the river to evacuate before 4 a.m.
Rice stated on Monday that he was unsure whether law enforcement and the summer camps had spoken at all on Friday between 1 and 4 a.m. However, Rice added that a number of things may have made communication more difficult, such as patchy cell service in some of Kerr County’s most remote locations and cell towers that might have gone out of operation due to bad weather.
According to Rice, authorities aim to complete the search and rescue before examining any problems with radios, cell towers, and emergency warnings.
Officials pointed out that too frequent flooding advisories or forecasts that prove to be small can wear people out.
Similar to a tornado warning system, Kerr County officials said they had proposed a more comprehensive flood warning system, but the public was upset about the expense.
A monumental effort to clean and reconstruct
Campsites have been destroyed by the flash floods, and houses have been torn off their foundations.
After flying over the devastation on Saturday, Kelly stated, “It’s going to be a long time before we’re ever able to clean it up, much less rebuild it.”
Residents and business owners have given up due to other severe flooding disasters, such as those that occurred in areas hit by Hurricane Helene last year.
On Friday, President Donald Trump is expected to visit the flood area.
The extent of the damage and one of Texas’ biggest rescue and recovery operations have been documented by AP photographers.
