KERR COUNTY, Texas (BN24) — Search crews in helicopters, boats and drones combed devastated riverbanks Saturday in a grim and increasingly desperate effort to locate dozens of people still unaccounted for, including more than two dozen girls who vanished when floodwaters obliterated their camp before dawn Friday.
The catastrophic flooding has now killed at least 37 people across Texas, among them 14 children, as communities from Kerr County to San Antonio reeled from the disaster.
Authorities said the Guadalupe River surged 26 feet in just 45 minutes early Friday, overwhelming homes and sweeping away vehicles as panicked residents and campers scrambled to escape the torrent.
More than 36 hours later, officials had yet to confirm exactly how many remained missing, beyond the 27 girls from Camp Mystic — a Christian summer camp along the river where many of the dead were recovered.
Governor Greg Abbott vowed Saturday that emergency crews would work nonstop.
“We will find every one of them,” Abbott said.
Flood warnings remained in effect through the weekend as new rounds of heavy rain lashed already inundated counties. Near Austin, at least three people were killed and 10 reported missing in Travis County alone. In Burnet County, a firefighter was among the missing after being swept away during a rescue operation.
Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said 32 victims had been recovered in the Hill Country, including 18 adults and 14 children.
“The camp was completely destroyed,” said 13-year-old Elinor Lester, one of hundreds of campers who survived. She described waking to violent thunderstorms just after midnight, then being led across a bridge with water whipping around her legs as rescuers tied ropes to keep the children from being washed away.
In Ingram, Erin Burgess and her teenage son spent an agonizing hour clinging to a tree after floodwaters poured into their home minutes after they woke to thunder.
“My son and I floated to a tree where we hung onto it, and my boyfriend and my dog floated away,” she said. “He was lost for a while, but we found them.”
Elsewhere, Barry Adelman described how water forced everyone in his three-story house — including his 94-year-old grandmother and 9-year-old grandson — into the attic.
“I was having to look at my grandson in the face and tell him everything was going to be OK,” Adelman said. “But inside I was scared to death.”
The region is known as “flash flood alley,” a stretch of Central Texas notorious for sudden inundation.
“When it rains, water doesn’t soak into the soil,” said Austin Dickson, CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, which is collecting donations for relief. “It rushes down the hill.”
Local leaders faced scrutiny over whether enough was done to warn residents and camps in areas with a long history of flooding.
AccuWeather and the National Weather Service said they issued warnings about potentially life-threatening flash floods hours in advance, insisting there was time to evacuate camps like Mystic.
Officials defended their response but conceded they did not expect rainfall of such magnitude.
“We know we get rains. We know the river rises. But nobody saw this coming,” said Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, the county’s chief elected official.
Kelly said the county considered installing a river warning system similar to tornado sirens six or seven years ago but abandoned the idea due to funding and logistical hurdles.
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, who represents the area, called it a “once-in-a-century flood” and said he understood why the public was demanding answers.
“There’s a lot of people saying why and how, and I understand that,” Roy said.
Despite treacherous conditions, crews rescued more than 850 people over two days, many of them stranded in trees or marooned by washed-out roads.
At Camp Mystic, helicopters shuttled survivors to safety in the darkness, while families posted photos of missing children and pleaded for information.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived in the area Saturday, pledging the Trump administration would mobilize every available resource. Coast Guard aircraft and helicopters joined the search and rescue, and reunification centers were set up in schools to help locate survivors.
By Saturday evening, one of those centers was mostly quiet.
“We still have people coming here looking for their loved ones,” said Bobby Templeton, superintendent of Ingram Independent School District. “We’ve had a little success, but not much.”
Surveying the destruction from the air, Kelly said he was heartbroken at the sight of body bags lined up at a local funeral home.
“The rescue has gone as well as can be expected,” he said. “It’s getting time now for the recovery. And that’s going to be a long, toilsome task for us.”
Politico.com
