Texas flood tragedy: 78 dead, 11 still missing
US President Donald Trump said he would "probably" visit the southern state on Friday.
The president brushed off concerns his administration's wide-ranging cuts to weather forecasting and related federal agencies had left local warning systems worse-off.
Instead, Trump described the flash floods as a "100-year catastrophe" that "nobody expected."
At least 40 adults and 28 children were killed in the worst-hit Kerr County in central Texas, Sheriff Larry Leitha said, while at least ten more people were killed by flooding in nearby areas.
"You will see the death toll rise today," warned Texas public safety chief Freeman Martin at a press conference.
"Across the state, in all the areas affected by flooding, there are 41 known missing," Texas Governor Greg Abbott said.
As questions grew about why warnings did not come sooner or people were not evacuated earlier in the area popular with campers, Trump said the situation was a "Biden setup."
"That was not our setup," Trump told reporters on Sunday, adding that he would "not" hire back meteorologists when probed about staff and budget cuts at the National Weather Service (NWS).
Asked about whether he would change his plans to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency, he responded: "FEMA is something we can talk about later."
Trump, who previously said disaster relief should be handled at the state-level, also signed a major disaster declaration that freed up resources for Texas.
In central Texas, some 17 helicopters joined the search for missing people, including ten girls and a counselor from a riverside Christian summer camp where about 750 people had been staying when disaster struck.
In a terrifying display of nature's power, the rain-swollen waters of the Guadalupe River reached treetops and the roofs of cabins in Camp Mystic as girls slept overnight Friday, washing away some of them and leaving a scene of devastation.
Blankets, teddy bears and other belongings at the camp were caked in mud. Windows in the cabins were shattered, apparently by the force of the water.
The National Weather Service (NWS) warned Sunday that slow-moving thunderstorms threatened more flash floods over the saturated ground of central Texas.
Governor Abbott warned that heavy rainfall could "lead to potential flash flooding" in Kerrville and surrounding areas, as officials warned people against going near the swollen river and its creeks.
The flooding began at 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 around 26 feet (eight meters) – more than a two-story building – in just 45 minutes.
Flash floods, which occur when the ground is unable to absorb torrential rainfall, are not unusual in this region of south and central Texas, known colloquially as "Flash Flood Alley."
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.
Officials said while rescue operations were ongoing, they were also starting the process of debris removal.
"There's debris all over the place that makes roads impassable, that makes reconstruction projects unachievable," Abbott said.
People from elsewhere in Texas converged on Kerr County to help look for the missing.
Texans also started flying personal drones to help look but local officials urged them to stop, citing a danger for rescue aircraft.
One of the searches focused on four young women who were staying in a house that was washed away by the river. Adam Durda and his wife Amber, both 45, drove three hours to help.
"There was a group of 20-year-olds that were in a house that had gotten washed away," Durda told AFP. "That's who the family requested help for, but of course, we're looking for anybody."
Justin Morales, 36, was part of a search team that found three bodies, including that of a Camp Mystic girl caught up in a tree.
"We're happy to give a family closure and hopefully we can keep looking and find some of the... you know, whoever," he told AFP.
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The Star
6 hours ago
- The Star
At least 87 dead, dozens missing in Texas flooding as rescue enters fourth day
HOUSTON, July 7 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from flash flooding in central Texas has risen to 87, with dozens still missing as search and rescue efforts entered the fourth day on Monday, according to local authorities. Camp Mystic, a 99-year-old all-girls Christian summer camp along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, grieved Monday the loss of at least 27 campers as well as counselors after heavy rains led to multiple flash floods in central Texas on Friday and Saturday. Ten girls and a counselor from the camp were still unaccounted for as of Monday morning, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha told a press conference. Leitha said that as of Monday morning, 48 adults and 27 children were confirmed dead in Kerr County flooding, many of them pending identification. Four other counties in central Texas have reported a combined total of 12 deaths, including several children. "Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy," the camp wrote in a statement on its website. "We are praying for them constantly." Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday approved federal disaster assistance as part of a Major Disaster Declaration to unlock key federal resources for Texas. In the meantime, criticism has been mounting over how the National Weather Service, whose budget and staff were cut under the Trump administration earlier this year, handled the emergency. Some local officials and residents said the flood warnings were late or insufficient. Additional heavy rainfall is expected in the coming days, keeping parts of the state at risk for further flooding, according to Abbott.
The Star
16 hours ago
- The Star
Search teams scour Texas flood zone for dozens missing; 78 confirmed dead
KERRVILLE, Texas (Reuters) -Search teams plodded through mud-laden riverbanks and flew aircraft over the flood-stricken landscape of central Texas for a fourth day on Monday, looking for dozens of people still missing from a disaster that has claimed at least 78 lives. The bulk of the death toll from Friday's flash floods was concentrated in the riverfront Hill Country Texas town of Kerrville, accounting for 68 of the dead, including 28 children, according to Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha. The Guadalupe River, transformed by predawn torrential downpours into a raging, killer torrent in less than hour, runs directly through Kerrville. The loss of life there included an unspecified number of fatalities at the Camp Mystic summer camp, a nearly century-old Christian girls retreat on the banks of the Guadalupe where authorities reported two dozen children unaccounted for in the immediate aftermath of the flooding on Friday. On Sunday, Leitha said search teams were still looking for 10 girls and one camp counselor, but he did not specify the fate of others initially counted as missing. As of late Sunday afternoon, state officials said 10 other flood-related fatalities were confirmed across four neighboring south-central Texas counties, and that 41 other people were still listed as unaccounted for in the disaster beyond Kerr County. Freeman Martin, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, predicted the death toll would rise further as floodwaters receded and the search gained momentum. Authorities also warned that continued rainfall - even if lighter than Friday's deluge - could unleash additional flash floods because the landscape was so saturated. State emergency management officials had warned on Thursday, ahead of the July Fourth holiday, that parts of central Texas faced the possibility of heavy showers and flash floods based on National Weather Service Forecasts. CONFLUENCE OF DISASTER But twice as much rain as was predicted ended up falling over two branches of the Guadalupe just upstream of the fork where they converge, sending all of that water racing into the single river channel where it slices through Kerrville, according to City Manager Dalton Rice. Rice and other public officials, including Governor Greg Abbott, vowed that the circumstances of the flooding, and the adequacy for weather forecasts and warning systems would be scrutinized once the immediate situation was brought under control. In the meantime, search and rescue operations were continuing around the clock, with hundreds of emergency personnel on the ground contending with a myriad of challenges. "It's hot, there's mud, they're moving debris, there's snakes," Martin said during a news briefing on Sunday. Thomas Suelzar, adjutant general of the Texas Military Department, said airborne search assets included eight helicopters and a remotely piloted MQ-9 Reaper aircraft equipped with advanced sensors for surveillance and reconnaissance missions. Officials said on Saturday that more than 850 people had been rescued, some clinging to trees, after a sudden storm dumped up to 15 inches (38 cm) of rain across the region, about 85 miles (140 km) northwest of San Antonio. In addition to the 68 lives lost in Kerr County, three died in Burnet County, one in Tom Green County, five in Travis County and one in Williamson County, according to Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was activated on Sunday and was deploying resources to Texas after President Donald Trump issued a major disaster declaration, the Department of Homeland Security said. U.S. Coast Guard helicopters and planes were aiding search and rescue efforts. SCALING BACK FEDERAL DISASTER RESPONSE Trump, who said on Sunday he would visit the disaster scene, probably this coming Friday, has previously outlined plans to scale back the federal government's role in responding to natural disasters, leaving states to shoulder more of the burden themselves. Some experts questioned whether cuts to the federal workforce by the Trump administration, including to the agency that oversees the National Weather Service, led to a failure by officials to accurately predict the severity of the floods and issue appropriate warnings ahead of the storm. Trump's administration has overseen thousands of job cuts from the National Weather Service's parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, leaving many weather offices understaffed, former NOAA director Rick Spinrad said. Ahead of Friday's floods, the Weather Service office near San Antonio, which oversees warnings issued in Kerr County, had one key vacancy - a warning coordination meteorologist, who is responsible for working with emergency managers and the public to ensure people know what to do when a disaster strikes. The person who served in that role for decades was among hundreds of Weather Service employees who accepted early retirement offers and left the agency at the end of April, media reported. Trump pushed back when asked on Sunday if federal government cuts hobbled the disaster response or left key job vacancies at the Weather Service under Trump's oversight. "That water situation, that all is, and that was really the Biden setup," he said referencing his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. "But I wouldn't blame Biden for it, either. I would just say this is 100-year catastrophe." (Reporting by Sergio Flores and Evan Garcia in Kerrville, Texas. Additional reporting by Marco Bello and Sandra Stojanovic in Comfort, Texas; Rich McKay in Atlanta; Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Deborah Gembara in Washington; Nathan Howard in Morristown, New Jersey; Ryan Jones and Bhargav Acharya in Toronto; Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; and Nathan Layne in New York; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Bill Berkrot, Will Dunham and Diane Craft and Stephen Coates)
New Straits Times
16 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Texas flood tragedy: 78 dead, 11 still missing
HUNT, United States: Rescuers in Texas raced against time Sunday to find dozens of missing people, including children, swept away by flash floods that killed at least 78 people, with forecasters warning of new deluges. US President Donald Trump said he would "probably" visit the southern state on Friday. The president brushed off concerns his administration's wide-ranging cuts to weather forecasting and related federal agencies had left local warning systems worse-off. Instead, Trump described the flash floods as a "100-year catastrophe" that "nobody expected." At least 40 adults and 28 children were killed in the worst-hit Kerr County in central Texas, Sheriff Larry Leitha said, while at least ten more people were killed by flooding in nearby areas. "You will see the death toll rise today," warned Texas public safety chief Freeman Martin at a press conference. "Across the state, in all the areas affected by flooding, there are 41 known missing," Texas Governor Greg Abbott said. As questions grew about why warnings did not come sooner or people were not evacuated earlier in the area popular with campers, Trump said the situation was a "Biden setup." "That was not our setup," Trump told reporters on Sunday, adding that he would "not" hire back meteorologists when probed about staff and budget cuts at the National Weather Service (NWS). Asked about whether he would change his plans to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency, he responded: "FEMA is something we can talk about later." Trump, who previously said disaster relief should be handled at the state-level, also signed a major disaster declaration that freed up resources for Texas. In central Texas, some 17 helicopters joined the search for missing people, including ten girls and a counselor from a riverside Christian summer camp where about 750 people had been staying when disaster struck. In a terrifying display of nature's power, the rain-swollen waters of the Guadalupe River reached treetops and the roofs of cabins in Camp Mystic as girls slept overnight Friday, washing away some of them and leaving a scene of devastation. Blankets, teddy bears and other belongings at the camp were caked in mud. Windows in the cabins were shattered, apparently by the force of the water. The National Weather Service (NWS) warned Sunday that slow-moving thunderstorms threatened more flash floods over the saturated ground of central Texas. Governor Abbott warned that heavy rainfall could "lead to potential flash flooding" in Kerrville and surrounding areas, as officials warned people against going near the swollen river and its creeks. The flooding began at 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 around 26 feet (eight meters) – more than a two-story building – in just 45 minutes. Flash floods, which occur when the ground is unable to absorb torrential rainfall, are not unusual in this region of south and central Texas, known colloquially as "Flash Flood Alley." 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. Officials said while rescue operations were ongoing, they were also starting the process of debris removal. "There's debris all over the place that makes roads impassable, that makes reconstruction projects unachievable," Abbott said. People from elsewhere in Texas converged on Kerr County to help look for the missing. Texans also started flying personal drones to help look but local officials urged them to stop, citing a danger for rescue aircraft. One of the searches focused on four young women who were staying in a house that was washed away by the river. Adam Durda and his wife Amber, both 45, drove three hours to help. "There was a group of 20-year-olds that were in a house that had gotten washed away," Durda told AFP. "That's who the family requested help for, but of course, we're looking for anybody." Justin Morales, 36, was part of a search team that found three bodies, including that of a Camp Mystic girl caught up in a tree. "We're happy to give a family closure and hopefully we can keep looking and find some of the... you know, whoever," he told AFP.
