Strong floods have caused this Friday the death of at least 13 people and dozens of disappearances in Texas this Friday. By the authorities, they began around four in the morning and caused the overflow of the Guadalupe River, in Kerr County, a place located to the State’s center-south, about 100 kilometers from San Antonio.
According to the first reports, the rains quickly reached heights between 10 and 20 centimeters, although some reports recorded up to 38 centimeters in some areas, almost half of the annual county precipitation. Meanwhile, the river level grew at approximately eight meters in 45 minutes.
One of the main affected places was a summer camp called Mystic, where 750 girls were. The Vice Governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, announced that more than 20 of the minors are in an unknown whereabouts, and warned that this “does not mean that they are lost”, because there is hope that they have found shelter. More than 500 people were immediately mobilized to undertake the search. “We will do everything possible [para encontrarlas]reviewing each tree, stirring each stone, whatever necessary, ”Patrick told the families of the minors.
At a press conference, Patrick also said that “between six and ten bodies, some adults and some of children” had been found throughout the county. Shortly after, the figure of 13 deaths was confirmed. He sheriff Local, Larry L. Leitha, explained that it expects more deaths to be reported, because the storms have not ceased and is forecast to continue during the night. Leitha also urged Kerr residents to remain covered while rescue work continues. To do this, several shelters and reunification centers in the community were enabled, where the current landscape is chaos of electrical cables on the ground, flooded streets and poor telephone service.
Judge Rob Kelly, the main elected official of the County, said that the area does not have an alert system. “We didn’t know this flood was coming,” he said.
His words were backed by Dalton Rice, the administrator of Kerville, the main city of County. “We could not anticipate this, despite flood warnings, despite everything that was happening, there were some things that happened very fast,” he said. He was referring to alerts issued by the National Meteorological Service in the early morning, warning that the county had a high risk of sudden floods. That service has been decimated by and for the first time this year faces the hurricane season without 24 -hour active personnel.
According to Rice, Relief teams are also working in the rest of the city, in order to find and rescue possible people affected. “We still actively try to find those who are already out those who need help,” he explained. He added that the main efforts are oriented to “find out where people are, what is happening and what is the best way to attend them.”
He wrote in his X account that the State is using all the resources available to respond to floods, which he described as “devastating.” As he said, the local authorities mobilized aquatic rescue teams, enabled refuge centers and put the National Guard and the Department of Local Public Security alert. “The immediate priority is to save lives,” said Abbott. A few hours later he published images where an agent hanging from a helicopter saved a person who was trapped among the trees, in the rain. The agent went down a rope from the ship and took the woman in her arms, by the air. “Air rescue missions such as this is carried out 24 hours a day. We will not stop until everyone is accounted for,” said the governor about it.
