PRAYERS FOR THE MISSING
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said on Friday afternoon that authorities were searching for 23 girls listed as missing from among more than 750 children at summer camp sites along the banks of the Guadalupe River when the area was inundated by floodwaters at around 4am local time.
The missing campers had all been attending Camp Mystic, a private Christian summer camp for girls.
“We’re praying for all those missing to be found alive,” Patrick said.
It was not clear whether anyone unaccounted for might have ended up among the deceased victims tallied countywide by the sheriff.
Otherwise, all other campers were safe, authorities said, with campers being evacuated throughout the day, officials said.
“Everybody is doing everything in their power to get these kids out,” Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, the top local elected official, had said at a news briefing on the disaster hours earlier.
Kelly said a number of scattered residential subdivisions, recreational vehicle parks and campgrounds were hit hard.
Pressed by reporters why more precautions were not taken with stormy weather in the forecast, Kelly insisted a disaster of such magnitude was unforeseen.
“We have floods all the time. This is the most dangerous river valley in the United States,” Kelly said. “We had no reason to believe this was going to be anything like what’s happened here. None whatsoever.”
Lieutenant Governor Patrick said the Guadalupe River had risen 8m in 45 minutes as heavy showers soaked the region.
As of Friday night, emergency personnel had rescued or evacuated 237 people, including 167 by helicopter.
With additional rain forecast in the region, Patrick warned that an ongoing threat for possible flash flooding extended from San Antonio to the city of Waco for the next 24 to 48 hours.
On Friday night, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a disaster declaration to hasten emergency assistance to Kerr and a cluster of additional counties hardest hit by the floods.
Personnel from the US Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency also were activated to assist local authorities in confronting the crisis, officials said.
