



KERRVILLE, Texas >> The death toll from catastrophic flooding in Texas over the July Fourth weekend surpassed 100 on Monday as search-and-rescue teams continued to wade into swollen rivers and use heavy equipment to untangle trees as part of the massive search for missing people.
Authorities overseeing the search for flood victims said they will wait to address questions about weather warnings and why some summer camps did not evacuate ahead of the flooding that killed at least 104.
The officials spoke only hours after the operators of Camp Mystic, a century-old all-girls Christian summer camp in the Texas Hill Country, announced that they lost 27 campers and counselors to the floodwaters. Kerr County officials said Monday 10 campers and one counselor have still not been found.Searchers have found the bodies of 84 people, including 28 children, in the county home to Camp Mystic and several other summer camps, officials said.
With additional rain on the way, more flooding still threatened saturated parts of central Texas. Authorities said the death toll was sure to rise.
The raging flash floods — among the nation’s worst in decades — slammed into camps and homes along the edge of the Guadalupe River before daybreak Friday, pulling sleeping people out of their cabins, tents and trailers and dragging them for miles past floating tree trunks and cars. Some survivors were found clinging to trees.
Piles of twisted trees sprinkled with mattresses, refrigerators and coolers littered the riverbanks Monday.
Nineteen deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, local officials said.
Among those confirmed dead were 8-year-old sisters from Dallas who were at Camp Mystic and a former soccer coach and his wife who were staying at a riverfront home. Their daughters were still missing.
Calls for investigation
Authorities vowed that one of the next steps would be investigating whether enough warnings were issued and why some camps did not evacuate or move to higher ground in a place long vulnerable to flooding that some local residents refer to as “flash flood alley.”
That will include a review of how weather warnings were sent out and received. One of the challenges is that many camps and cabins are in places with poor cellphone service, Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said.
“We definitely want to dive in and look at all those things,” he said. “We’re looking forward to doing that once we can get the search and rescue complete.”
Some camps were aware of the dangers and monitoring the weather. At least one moved several hundred campers to higher ground before the floods.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick of Texas acknowledged that flood-warning sirens might have saved lives if they had been along the river. He added that they needed to be in place by next summer. Kerr County officials had considered installing them but balked at the price tag. Patrick, speaking on Fox News on Monday, said that if local governments couldn’t afford it, “then the state will step up.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said recent government spending cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service did not delay any warnings.
“There’s a time to have political fights, there’s a time to disagree. This is not that time,” Cruz said. “There will be a time to find out what could been done differently. My hope is in time we learn some lessons to implement the next time there is a flood.”
The weather service first advised of potential flooding on Thursday and then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies — a rare step that alerts the public to imminent danger.
Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months of rain. Some residents said they never received any warnings.
President Donald Trump was tentatively scheduled to travel to Texas on Friday, said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary. The visit was being coordinated with local officials to ensure it does not disrupt recovery efforts, she said. Trump criticized President Joe Biden last year for not immediately visiting North Carolina, also to avoid interfering with relief efforts, after disastrous flooding there.
Leavitt said local and federal weather services provided sufficient warnings.
Dozens still sought
More than three dozen people were unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing, Gov. Greg Abbott said Sunday.
Search-and-rescue crews at one staging area said Monday that more than 1,000 volunteers had been directed to Kerr County.
Kerrville city officials urged people to stop flying drones over the area after they said a private drone operating illegally Monday afternoon collided with a helicopter involved in emergency operations. The helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing and is out of service until further notice.
Further risk
Much of central Texas, including the Hill Country, was under a flood watch on Monday, and there was a chance of more flash flooding through the day and overnight.
On Sunday, heavy rainfall led to a minor rise in the Guadalupe River, which has seen the worst devastation, prompting a brief pause in search-and-rescue operations.
River levels later returned to normal, said Jason Runyen, a meteorologist at the weather service office for Austin, San Antonio, and the surrounding areas.
Risk of further flooding “is there again today,” he said Monday. “If the heavy rain happens to be in the Guadalupe river basin, we could see some minor rises on the river.”
This report includes information from the New York Times.