The sudden floods – the worst in the country in decades – reached camps and riverside houses before the dawn last Friday
The number of dead following catastrophic floods in Texas during the July 4th weekend has already surpassed the 100, while the intensive searches of missing persons continued.
In Kerr County, where is the Camp Mystic and several other summer camps, the investigators found the bodies of 84 people, including 28 children, Kerr County officials said.
Authorities spoke just hours after Camp Mystic operators, a centenary Vacation field at Texas Hill Country, announced that they lost 27 campers and counselors because of the floods.
However, search and rescue teams also continue to look for the dead, using heavy equipment to remove the trees and enter the flooded rivers. Mud -covered volunteers separate pieces of debris, piece by piece in an increasingly bleak scenario.
With more rain on the way, more floods threaten the already saturated areas of the center of Texas. Authorities claim that the number of dead will “certainly” increase.
The announcement made by Camp Mystic confirmed the worst fears, after a wall of water hit the huts built along the bank of the Guadalupe River. The local sheriff later said that 10 girls and a camp advisor was still missing.
The sudden violent – the worst in the country in decades – reached riverside camps and houses before the dawn last Friday, drawing up people who are sleeping from their cabins, tents and linked and dragging them for miles, through tree trunks and floating cars. Some survivors were found clinging to trees.
Stacks of twisted trees, partially covered with mattresses, refrigerators and refrigerators, now cover the banks of the river. The wreckage also includes memories of many who were attracted to the campsite parks and hill country cabins – a ball of volleyball, canoes and a family portrait.
In harshly hit Kerr County, where Camp Mystic is located and several other vacation fields, the investigators found the bodies of 75 people, including 27 children, the Sheriff Larry Leitha said.
According to the local authorities, Dezanoe deaths were recorded in the counties of Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson.
However, there are appeals to find out why the warnings were not heard
Authorities have promised that one of the next steps will be to investigate whether sufficient warnings have been issued and why some camps have not been removed to or have not moved to higher areas, in a vulnerable place to flooding, to which some local residents refer to “sudden flood alley.”
To this end, it will be necessary to review the way the weather warnings were sent and received. One of the challenges is that many camps and cabins meet in places with a disabled mobile phone service, Dalton Rice, director of the city of Kerrville, said.
Some camps, however, were aware of the dangers and to monitor time. At least one transferred several hundred campers to higher land before flooding.
Senator Ted Cruz, Texas’s republican, said the recent cuts in government expenses with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Meteorology Service did not delay any warning.
“There is a moment to have political struggles, there is a moment to disagree. This is not the right time,” he said. “There will be time to find out what could have been done differently. My hope is that, over time, we learn some lessons to apply the next time there is a flood,” he added.
Meteorology service began to warn of flooding on Thursday and then sent a series of rapid flood warnings in the early hours of Friday, before emerging sudden flooding-a rare measure that warns the public to the possibility of flooding.
