Heartbreak as first details of Texas flooding victims emerge
The catastrophic flooding was triggered by unexpected torrential downpours on Friday evening, causing the Guadalupe River to rise rapidly.
The disaster severely impacted Camp Mystic, an all-girls summer camp, where several children were killed and 27 were initially reported missing.
Identified victims include young campers such as Renee Smajstrla, Sarah Marsh, Janie Hunt, and Lila Bonner, as well as adults like camp director Jane Ragsdale and Julian Ryan, who died saving his family.
The floods destroyed homes and swept away vehicles, with authorities continuing to identify and release details of the deceased.
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The Guardian
42 minutes ago
- The Guardian
California blaze spreads in hot, windy conditions in year's largest wildfire
A fast-growing wildfire in central California has become the largest in the state this year, surpassing the size of January's wildfires that devastated parts of Los Angeles, as the flames spread in hot, windy conditions. The Madre fire had exploded to more than 50,000 acres by Thursday afternoon, after breaking out in San Luis Obispo county on Wednesday afternoon and tearing through grasslands as dry. Extreme heat has raised the fire risk for large portions of the state before the Fourth of July holiday. Acres burned US wildfires are measured in terms of acres. While the size of a wildfire doesn't necessarily correlate to its destructive impact, acreage provides a way to understand a fire's footprint and how quickly it has grown. There are 2.47 acres in a hectare, and 640 acres in a square mile, but this can be hard to visualise. Here are some easy comparisons: one acre equates to roughly the size of an American football field. London's Heathrow airport is about 3,000 acres. Manhattan covers roughly 14,600 acres, while Chicago is roughly 150,000 acres, and Los Angeles is roughly 320,000 acres. Megafire A megafire is defined by the National Interagency Fire Center as a wildfire that has burned more than 100,000 acres (40,000 hectares). Containment level A wildfire's containment level indicates how much progress firefighters have made in controlling the fire. Containment is achieved by creating perimeters the fire can't move across. This is done through methods such as putting fire retardants on the ground, digging trenches, or removing brush and other flammable fuels. Containment is measured in terms of the percentage of the fire that has been surrounded by these control lines. A wildfire with a low containment level, such as 0% or 5%, is essentially burning out of control. A fire with a high level of containment, such as 90%, isn't necessarily extinguished but rather has a large protective perimeter and a rate of growth that is under control. Evacuation orders and warnings Evacuation warnings and orders are issued by officials when a wildfire is causing imminent danger to people's life and property. According to the California office of emergency services, an evacuation warning means that it's a good idea to leave an area or get ready to leave soon. An evacuation order means that you should leave the area immediately. Red flag warning A red flag warning is a type of forecast issued by the National Weather Service that indicates when weather conditions are likely to spark or spread wildfires. These conditions typically include dryness, low humidity, high winds and heat. Prescribed burn A prescribed burn, or a controlled burn, is a fire that is intentionally set under carefully managed conditions in order to improve the health of a landscape. Prescribed burns are carried out by trained experts such as members of the US Forest Service and Indigenous fire practitioners. Prescribed burns help remove flammable vegetation and reduce the risk of larger, more catastrophic blazes, among other benefits. Prescribed burning was once a common tool among Native American tribes who used 'good fire' to improve the land, but was limited for much of the last century by a US government approach based on fire suppression. In recent years, US land managers have returned to embracing the benefits of prescribed burns, and now conduct thousands across the country every year. Evacuation orders and warnings were issued for tiny communities near State Route 166 as the flames moved through hilly terrain toward the Carrizo Plain national monument. The region, which lies about 125 miles (200km) north-west of Los Angeles, contains vast grasslands that draw visitors in the spring to enjoy its wildflowers. The fire was pushed by summer gusts that typically increase as the sun starts going down, said Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. 'The winds are pretty light during the day, but they do pick up pretty substantially in the afternoon and evening hours,' Kittell said. He said gusts could reach 40mph (64km/h) later in the day Thursday, posing new challenges for firefighters working in extreme heat: temperatures in the area were expected to climb to nearly 100F (37C) by the afternoon. As of Thursday morning, the fire was at 5% containment, according to the state's wildfire agency, Cal Fire. The cause of the fire was not yet known. A spokesperson for Cal Fire told the San Luis Obispo Tribune that more than 300 first responders were battling the blaze The Madre fire is one of at least a dozen blazes burning across California. Western states are bracing for a potentially explosive summer wildfire season due to a dry winter, followed by warm spring and summer temperatures that have dried out vegetation. Farther north in Oregon, which has been dealing with record-breaking early season heat, officials warned that a large wildfire in June 'should come as a reminder to Oregonians to be ready'. Firefighters and experts recently said that the US federal firefighting force is worryingly underprepared for the summer due to a series of changes ushered in by the Trump administration, including cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) – the agency that provides US weather monitoring – as well as staffing and budget reductions. Officials have urged residents to take precautions over the holiday weekend, a time when fireworks are notorious for starting fires. 'In California, human activities account for about 95% of all wildfire starts, often starting from preventable actions like improperly extinguished campfires, malfunctioning equipment, and fireworks,' the office of California governor, Gavin Newsom, said in a statement on Thursday.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Search teams scour Texas flood zone for dozens missing; 78 confirmed dead
KERRVILLE, Texas, July 7 (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. 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. 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."
BreakingNews.ie
an hour ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Young Irishman (30s) killed in road accident in US
A young Irishman has been killed in the United States. The man, who was a native of Co Donegal, was struck by a car in the early hours of Sunday morning (local US time) in a suburb of California. Advertisement The man is in his mid-30s and has been living in the country for a number of years. He has a partner and is also a father of young children. His immediate family in Co Donegal have been informed of his death. However, his name has not been released publicly until all family members have been informed of his tragic passing. The Department of Foreign Affairs has been contacted for a comment on the tragic incident.
