(AP) KERRVILLE, TX As search crews performed boat and helicopter rescues in swift-moving floodwaters, at least 13 people were killed and numerous others, including roughly 20 girls attending a summer camp, were still missing Friday after months of intense rain poured on Texas Hill Country in a matter of hours.
Social media was flooded with desperate appeals from loved ones looking for any information about those trapped in the flood zone. The Guadalupe River experienced flash flooding after central Kerr County received at least 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain over night.
Rescue efforts are still underway for an unknown number of missing people, and authorities emphasized that the situation was constantly evolving and that the dead toll could change. According to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, six to ten bodies have been discovered thus far. At about the same time, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said that the flooding had claimed the lives of thirteen people.
Patrick stated at a press conference that some are adults and some are kids. Once more, the origin of the bodies is unknown.
Kerr County’s chief elected official, Judge Rob Kelly, stated that investigators were still trying to identify the deceased.
At a press conference, Kelly stated, “We don’t know who most of them are.”
People shared photos of their loved ones and begged for assistance in locating them on the Kerr County sheriff’s office Facebook page. At least 400 people were on the ground assisting with the reaction, according to Patrick. According to Patrick, some persons were being pulled from trees by nine rescue teams, fourteen helicopters, and twelve drones that were involved in the search.
According to Patrick, only 23 of the approximately 750 females enrolled in Camp Mystic were among those who were missing on Friday.
He stated that search teams were doing everything they could to locate everyone.
In only about two hours, a river gauge at Hunt, where the Guadalupe forks, reported a 22-foot (6.7-meter) rise, according to Bob Fogarty, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Austin/San Antonio office. After recording a level of 29 and a half feet (9 meters), according to Fogarty, the gauge malfunctioned.
According to Forgarty, you won’t realize how serious the situation is until it’s on top of you since the water is moving so quickly.
At 3:30 in the morning, Erin Burgess in Ingram awoke to rain and thunder. She claimed that only twenty minutes later, water was rushing into her house across the river. She recounted a torturous hour spent clinging to a tree while they waited for the water to subside sufficiently to enable them to walk up the hill to a neighbor’s house.
While my boyfriend and my dog drifted away, my son and I floated to a tree and grabbed onto it. We found them, she replied, but he was lost for a while.
Fortunately, her 19-year-old son is more over six feet tall, Burgess added. Holding on to him was the only thing that kept me alive.
Kerrville resident Matthew Stone, 44, said that he had not gotten an emergency alert on his phone when police knocked on homes at 5:30 a.m.
There was no emergency alert. Stone stated that there was nothing. Then: a death wall that is completely dark.
Stone claimed that cops rescued a neighbor by using his paddle boat. Stone claimed that he and the rescuers believed they heard someone calling for assistance. from the sea, but no one was seen.
Rain was predicted, and a flood watch for at least 30,000 people was raised to a warning for the night. However, Fogarty noted that totals in several locations surpassed projections.
Patrick pointed out that a wide area was at risk of flooding and severe rain.
“We’re not exactly sure where it’s going to land, but everything was done to give them a heads up that you could have heavy rain,” Patrick said. Naturally, as night fell yesterday night, we entered the early morning hours, which is when the storm began to intensify.
When asked how Kerr County residents were informed so they could evacuate, Kelly responded, “We don’t have a warning system.”
“Don’t worry, nobody knew this kind of flood was coming,” he said in response to reporters’ questions about why greater measures weren’t taken.
“We constantly have floods,” he continued. The United States’ most hazardous river valley is this one.
According to Austin Dickson, CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, which was gathering money to support NGOs assisting with the tragedy, the location is in what is known as “flash flood alley” in Texas due to the hills’ thin soil layer.
According to Dickson, water does not seep into the ground when it rains. Down the hill it rushes.
However, according to Dickson, the Hill Country economy depends heavily on the river tourism sector. According to Dickson, children from all around Texas and the nation attend renowned summer camps that have been around for a century. There are many of rental cabins and river houses between Hunt and Ingram.
According to Dickson, it’s a relatively peaceful river with stunningly brilliant blue water that has drawn tourists for many years.
As severe weather rolled across northern New Jersey, where thunderstorms were cited as the cause of at least three fatalities, floods occurred in Texas.
According to a city Facebook post, two men in Plainfield lost their lives when a tree fell on a car they were riding in during the height of a storm.
The city called off its scheduled fireworks display, concert, and parade for July 4.
___
From Des Moines, Iowa, Fingerhut provided a report. Contributions were made by Associated Press writers Susan Haigh of Norwich, Connecticut; Hannah Schoenbaum of Salt Lake City; and Adrian Sanz of Memphis, Tennessee.
