Number of missing victims from Texas flooding drops
July 20 (UPI) -- The number of people missing from Kerr County, the hardest hit after devastating flooding in Texas on July 4, dropped to three after authorities accounted for many who were initially reported missing.
The announcement was made Saturday evening by officials in Kerr County and the city of Kerrville, which did not identify the names of the victims who remained to be found. Those who were accounted for were verified to be safe and removed from the list.
Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice thanked more than a thousand local, state and federal authorities who searched for more than 160 people believed to be missing after torrential downpours caused the Guadalupe River to rise rapidly.
"This remarkable progress reflects countless hours of coordinated search and rescue operations, careful investigative work, and an unwavering commitment to bringing clarity and hope to families during an unimaginably difficult time," Rice said.
Authorities are continuing recovery operations to search for the three missing people."Our thoughts remain with the families still awaiting news, and we will continue to stand with them as efforts persist," Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring said in a statement.
After the August 2023 Maui wildfire, officials first reported about 1,100 missing persons. By September, DNA testing reduced the death count, and by June 2024, only two people remained missing with the official death toll at 102.
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