Central Texas floodwaters recede as rescuers continue search for victims
Vehicles partially submerged in flood water following torrential rains along the Guadalupe River in San Angelo, Texas.
- A frantic search continued on July 5 for about two dozen people still missing from a century-old Christian girls' camp in central Texas after flash floods in the area killed at least 24 at the start of the US Independence Day weekend and prompted the rescue of hundreds of others.
In a break for rescue crews, authorities said floodwaters on July 5 were receding in the area around the Guadalupe River, about 137 km north-west of San Antonio, where at least 237 people were rescued, with more than 100 by helicopters.
Another 23 to 25 people from the Camp Mystic summer camp were missing, most of them reported to be young girls. The river waters rose 8.8m rapidly near the camp.
The US National Weather Service said that the flash flood emergency has largely ended for parts of Kerr County in south-central Texas Hill Country, about 105 km north-west of San Antonio, following thunderstorms that dumped as much as a foot of rain early on July 4.
A flood watch, however, remains in effect until 7pm local time on July 5 (8am on July 6, Singapore time) from the San Antonio-Austin, Texas, region, with scattered showers expected throughout the day, said Ms Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the NWS Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
'In terms of the Guadalupe River, the extreme floodwaters have receded,' she said. 'It's no longer at extreme flood stages. And we're not expecting additional impacts.'
At a news conference late on July 4, almost 18 hours after the July Fourth crisis began, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said search-and-rescue operations would press on through the night and into July 5.
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Mr Abbott said resources devoted to the effort would be 'limitless'.
President Donald Trump said on July 4 that 'we'll take care of them,' when asked about federal aid for the disaster.
Mr Dalton Rice, city manager for Kerrville, the county seat, told reporters on July 4 that the extreme flooding struck before dawn with little or no warning, precluding authorities from issuing advance evacuation orders as the Guadalupe River swiftly rose above major flood stage.
'This happened very quickly, over a very short period of time that could not be predicted, even with radar,' Mr Rice said. 'This happened within less than a two-hour span.'
State emergency management officials had warned as early as July 3 that west and central Texas faced heavy rains and flash flood threats 'over the next couple of days,' citing National Weather Service forecasts ahead of the holiday weekend.
The weather forecasts, however, 'did not predict the amount of rain that we saw,' Mr W. Nim Kidd , director of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, told a news conference on the night of July 4. REUTERS
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