Death toll rises after devastating flooding in central Texas
Dozens of people have been killed since raging floodwaters slammed into central Texas on Friday.
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The death toll rose to nearly 70 on Sunday after searchers found more more bodies in the hardest-hit Kerr County. The victims include children who were camping along the banks of the Guadalupe River.
Officials have said they will not stop searching until every person is found.
Besides the 59 dead in Kerr County — 38 adults and 21 children — additional deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet and Kendall counties.
Rescuers dealt with broken trees, overturned cars and muck-filled debris in a difficult task to find survivors.
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Authorities still have not said how many people are missing beyond the children from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp where most of the dead were recovered.
With each passing hour, the outlook became more bleak. Volunteers and some families of the missing who drove to the disaster zone began searching the riverbanks despite being asked not to do so.
Authorities faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in an area vulnerable to flooding and whether enough preparations were made.
The destructive, fast-moving waters rose 26ft on the river in only 45 minutes before daybreak on Friday, washing away homes and vehicles. The danger was not over as flash flood watches remained in effect and more rain fell in central Texas on Sunday.
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Debris on a bridge over the Guadalupe River after the flooding (Julio Cortez/AP)
Searchers used helicopters, boats and drones to look for victims and to rescue people stranded in trees and from camps isolated by washed-out roads. Officials said more than 850 people were rescued in the first 36 hours.
Governor Greg Abbott vowed that authorities will work around the clock and said new areas were being searched as the water receded. He declared Sunday a day of prayer for the state.
'I urge every Texan to join me in prayer this Sunday — for the lives lost, for those still missing, for the recovery of our communities, and for the safety of those on the front lines,' he said in a statement.
In Rome, Pope Leo XIV offered special prayers for those touched by the disaster. History's first American pope spoke in English at the end of his Sunday noon blessing, saying '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. We pray for them.'
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The hills along the Guadalupe River are dotted with youth camps and campgrounds where generations of families have come to swim and enjoy the outdoors. The area is especially popular around the Independence Day holiday, making it more difficult to know how many are missing.
'We don't even want to begin to estimate at this time,' Kerrville City manager Dalton Rice said on Saturday.
Fast-moving waters rose 26 feet in 45 minutes, washing away homes and vehicles (Eric Gay/AP)
Survivors shared terrifying stories of being swept away and clinging to trees as rampaging floodwaters carried trees and cars past them. Others fled to attics inside their homes, praying the water would not reach them.
At Camp Mystic, a cabin full of girls held onto a rope strung by rescuers as they walked across a bridge with water whipping around their legs.
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Among those confirmed dead were an eight-year-old girl from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who was at Camp Mystic, and the director of another camp up the road.
Locals know the area as ' flash flood alley' but the flooding in the middle of the night caught many campers and residents by surprise even though there were warnings.
The National Weather Service on Thursday advised of potential flooding and then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies — a rare alert notifying of imminent danger.
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EXCLUSIVE I clung to a tree for hours to survive monster Texas floods... now I'm haunted by the friends I saw swept to their deaths
With the death toll well over 100 and rising daily, even more still missing and harrowing scenes playing out across television screens and online, the Guadalupe River flood in Texas has dominated the past week's news cycle. Ten times the average monthly rain fell in just 48 hours, causing it to burst its banks and surge down the valley in the early hours of July 4.
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Horrifying final act inflicted on Camp Mystic children BEFORE Texas floods hit
Brave counselors who realized Camp Mystic may be swept away by raging water wrote campers' names on their arms as the deadly Texas floods rolled through. Silvana Garza Valdez and María Paula Zárate, both 19, started preparing their campers for the worst as cabins nearest the Guadalupe River started to be evacuated via helicopter. 'We began writing the girls' names on their skin, wherever it could be visible,' Zárate told the Los Angeles Times. 'We told them to make a bag with all their things, whatever was most necessary to get ready to evacuate.' At least 120 people have died in the flash floods that laid waste to the Hill Country region of Texas and more than 160 people are still believed to be missing as recovery efforts are underway. Among those killed in the tragedy were 27 campers and counselors at Camp Mystic, a century-old all-girls Christian summer camp. Officials said five campers and one counselor from the camp have still not been found. Community members are urgently calling on city and county officials to implement a warning system to prevent deadly disasters, such as floods and tornadoes. More than 38,000 people have signed an online position requesting that old-fashioned outdoor sirens be installed across Kerr County, where the majority of fatalities occurred. Authorities have faced scrutiny over the region's emergency alert system since last Friday when the Guadalupe River swelled and broke its banks in the middle of night, with many locals alleging the alert response was delayed or never came at all. Valdez and Zárate, both from Mexico, were first privy to the severe weather around 3am Friday when torrential downpour knocked the electricity out across the camp. But it wasn't until midday that all counselors were notified that a portion of the camp had been ravaged by the floods, with survivors being kept in the dining hall. 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Valdez, who described the floods as a 'storm from a horror movie', added that the situation felt 'unreal' and said she didn't understand the 'gravity' of the disaster 'until we left on the Army trucks'. Local authorities and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott have urged the public not to point fingers after the flooding, but anger is starting to boil over. Self-described 'undersigned residents' have launched a petition calling for city and county officials to implement a 'modern outdoor early warning siren system for floods, tornadoes, and other life-threatening emergencies'. 'The tragic events at Camp Mystic and the devastating flooding along the Guadalupe River that happened in July are stark reminders that severe weather can strike with little notice,' the petition reads in part. 'A well-placed siren system will provide critical extra minutes for families, schools, camps, businesses, and visitors to seek shelter and evacuate when needed.' The petition urges a warning siren system is 'not just a wish' but instead a 'necessary investment in public safety' which can save 'thousands of lives'. Nicole Wilson, who started the petition, says rural communities 'lived and died' by warning sirens in the 80s and 90s - when text alerts did not exist - and thinks they should be brought back. 'I would be willing to talk about it but not yet. It's just too raw right now,' said Glenn Andrew, a former Kerrville city council member who voted in 2017 to pull the city out of the grant proposal for the project. 'My preference is to look forward to the future.' 'When I found out that there were no sirens in this area and in a lot of areas in the state of Texas... that blew my mind because sirens are simply an easy warning system,' she told CNN. Wilson argued disaster agencies 'cannot rely on the text alerts' because technology can fail, service is patchy and, in the case of children attending summer camps, not necessarily accessible. 'My daughters were just at a faith-based camp. These children are not allowed to bring any technology whatsoever. It'll get confiscated because they're there to be present,' she explained, adding that often times counselors are also banned from having cell phones in the cabins. She says agencies need to have 'layers' of alerts and 'cannot rely on one single mitigation'. Over the last decade, an array of Texas state and local agencies missed opportunities to fund a flood warning system intended to avert a disaster like Friday's flash floods. A spokesperson for Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Wednesday that lawmakers, who begin a special session later this month, would approve funding to cover such projects in the future. 'The state will provide emergency warning sirens where needed,' Patrick spokesperson Steven Aranyi wrote in an email. But some Raymond Howard, a city council member in Ingram, Texas, in Kerr County, said Wednesday it´s 'unfathomable' that county officials never took action despite repeatedly talking about it. 'That´s just mind-boggling,' he said. 'It´s unfathomable that they never worked on it. If it comes down to funding, they´re constantly raising taxes on us for other stuff. This is more important. This is lives. This is families. This is heartbreaking.' Howard, who lives in a home along the Guadalupe River, said any action now would come too late for those who have died. Kerr County requested a flood warning system grant in 2016 through the Texas Division of Emergency Management´s hazard mitigation program, which is supported by Federal Emergency Management Agency funding to help communities reduce their risk. 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an hour ago
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Once the storm has arrived Find out what local officials are recommending, and follow their instructions. If it's time to evacuate, do it before the storm comes. 'We see a lot of casualties from people attempting to stay at their home,' Bicette-McCain said. 'Don't be that person.' Bicette-McCain said it is never a good idea to touch the stormwater because it is impossible to know how contaminated it is. The only exception is if the space you're in is so dangerous that you have to trudge through water to get somewhere safer. In that case, she recommended finding an umbrella or big stick to judge how deep the water is or whether there is debris in front of you. 'We're talking very turbulent, very putrid waters that you can't see through,' she said. If it's too late to evacuate, don't. Trying can be fatal. Just 6 inches (15 centimeters) of moving water can knock a person down, and a foot of moving water can move a car. 'Very often the people that die during floods ... are driving across bridges or they're trying to drive through water,' Doss-Gollin said. 'The one piece of advice that everyone will give you is don't drive through floodwaters, ever.' ___ The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
