Death toll from Texas floods reaches 69, including 21 children
HUNT : The death toll from catastrophic floods in Texas reached at least 69 on Sunday, including at least 21 children, as the search for girls missing from a summer camp entered a third day.
Texas governor Greg Abbott, speaking at a press conference on Sunday afternoon, said the death toll in Kerr county, the epicentre of the flooding, had reached 59, while another 10 had died elsewhere in Texas and 41 remained missing.
Among the most devastating impacts of the flooding occurred at Camp Mystic summer camp, a nearly century-old Christian girls camp, where 11 girls and a counselor are still missing.
'It was nothing short of horrific to see what those young children went through,' said Abbott, who said he toured the area on Saturday and pledged to continue efforts to locate the missing.
The flooding occurred after the nearby Guadalupe River broke its banks after torrential rain fell in the central Texas area on Friday, the US Independence Day holiday. Larry Leitha, the Kerr County Sheriff in Texas Hill Country, said earlier that 21 children have died in the flooding.
Officials speaking at the press conference on Sunday afternoon said the destruction killed three people in Burnet County, one in Tom Green county, five in Travis county and one in Williamson county.
Officials said on Saturday that more than 850 people had been rescued, including some clinging to trees, after a sudden storm dumped up to 15 inches (38cm) of rain across the region, about 85 miles (140km) northwest of San Antonio.
'Everyone in the community is hurting,' Leitha told reporters.
The national weather service issued flood warnings and advisories for central Texas that were to last until 4.15pm local time (2115 GMT) as rains fell, potentially complicating rescue efforts.
The federal emergency management agency was activated on Sunday and is deploying resources to first responders in Texas after President Donald Trump issued a major disaster declaration, the department of homeland security said in a statement.
US coast guard helicopters and planes are helping the search and rescue efforts, the department said.
Trump 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 (NOAA), leaving many weather offices understaffed, former NOAA director Rick Spinrad said.
Spinrad said he did not know if those staff cuts factored into the lack of advance warning for the extreme Texas flooding, but that they would inevitably degrade the agency's ability to deliver accurate and timely forecasts.
Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees NOAA, said a 'moderate' flood watch issued on Thursday by the national weather service had not accurately predicted the extreme rainfall and said the Trump administration was working to upgrade the system.
Joaquin Castro, a Democratic US congressman from Texas, told CNN's 'State of the Union' programme that fewer personnel at the weather service could be dangerous.
'When you have flash flooding, there's a risk that if you don't have the personnel … to do that analysis, do the predictions in the best way, it could lead to tragedy,' Castro said.
'Complete devastation'
Camp Mystic had 700 girls in residence at the time of the flooding.
Katharine Somerville, a counselor on the Cypress Lake side of Camp Mystic, on higher ground than the Guadalupe River side, said her 13-year-old campers were scared as their cabins sustained damage and lost power in the middle of the night.
'Our cabins at the tippity top of hills were completely flooded with water. I mean, y'all have seen the complete devastation, we never even imagined that this could happen,' Somerville said in an interview on Fox News on Sunday.
Somerville said the campers in her care were put on military trucks and evacuated, and that all were safe.
The disaster unfolded rapidly on Friday morning as heavier-than-forecast rain drove river waters rapidly to as high as 29 feet (9m).
A day after the disaster struck, the summer camp was a scene of devastation. Inside one cabin, mud lines indicating how high the water had risen were at least six feet (1.83m) from the floor. Bed frames, mattresses and personal belongings caked with mud were scattered inside. Some buildings had broken windows, one had a missing wall.
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5 hours ago
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