KERRVILLE, TXAs the hunt for victims of devastating floods in Texas over the Fourth of July holiday weekend continues Monday, Camp Mystic says it is grieving the death of 27 campers and counselors.
The terrible flooding that blasted a wall of water through the century-old summer camp is made even more heartbreaking by the statement.
THIS NEWS UPDATE IS BREAKING. Below is AP’s earlier story.
KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Despite teams searching desperately for the missing after a holiday weekend deluge that killed at least 82 people, including children at summer camps, the potential of life-threatening flooding remained high in central Texas Monday, with more rain on the way. According to officials, the death toll will undoubtedly increase.
Late Friday, Kerr County residents described terrifying escapes from fast rising floodwaters as they started to clean mud and salvage what they could from their destroyed properties.
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 toolshed on higher ground, neighbors started to get there in the early morning, and they all rode out together, according to Brown.
Rescuers navigating through difficult snake-infested terrain a few miles distant continued searching for the missing, which included ten kids and a counselor from Camp Mystic, a summer camp for all females that suffered significant damage.
According to Governor Greg Abbott, 41 people are still missing throughout the state, and there may be more.
According to Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha, searchers have discovered the dead of 68 people, including 28 children, in the Hill Country region, which is home to multiple summer camps.
Local officials reported ten additional deaths in the counties of Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green, and Williamson.
The governor issued a warning that further severe floods could result from heavy rains that continue into Tuesday, particularly in areas that are already wet.
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 whose daughter had been saved from a cabin on the camp’s highest point peered beneath large rocks and in groups of trees.
A blue footlocker was taken by one family. As they slowly drove away, a teenage girl looked at the carnage through the open window, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Investigating the disaster area
Tree trunks and tangled branches were removed from the river by nearby teams using heavy machinery. The prospect of discovering more survivors seemed increasingly grim with every hour that went by.
Despite being told not to, volunteers and some missing persons’ families visited the disaster area and conducted searches.
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.
President Donald Trump stated that he would probably visit Kerr County on Friday and signed a major disaster designation for the county on Sunday: We would only be in their way, but I would have done it today.
He told reporters, “It’s a terrible thing that happened, absolutely terrible.”
Prayers from the Vatican and in Texas
Abbott stated that as the water receded, additional sites were being checked and promised that authorities would work around the clock. He declared Sunday to be the state’s day of prayer.
Pope Leo XIV of Rome said particular prayers for everyone affected by the tragedy. “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,” the first American pope said in English at the conclusion of his Sunday noon blessing. We offer up prayers for them.
Trees, attics, and desperate shelter
As raging floodwaters dragged cars and trees past them, survivors told horrifying tales of being swept away and clinging to branches. Others hid in 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.
The catastrophe was preceded by warnings.
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.
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 evaluation of the emergency response, 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 harshly criticized FEMA’s performance and stated that he intends to restructure, if not abolish, the agency.
Trump was also questioned about his intentions to rehire federal meteorologists who were let go this year due to massive government spending cuts.
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.”
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From Toledo, Ohio, Seewer provided a report. Christopher Weber in Los Angeles, Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Cedar Attanasio in New York; Sophia Tareen in Chicago; Michelle Price in Morristown, N.J.; and Nicole Winfield in Rome were among the Associated Press reporters who contributed to this story.
