13 reported dead and more missing, including girls from a summer camp, after catastrophic Texas flooding
Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said 13 people have been killed in the flooding, The Associated Press reported. A search is underway for more than 20 girls missing from a nearby camp, according to the AP.
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly told reporters one of those killed had been found 'completely naked' and without identification. The Kerr County Sheriff's Office confirmed fatalities but declined to release further information until next of kin had been notified.
Those reported missing included girls from Camp Mystic, according to The Statesman's Tony Plohetski. He wrote on social media the camp said it had notified parents whose children were not yet accounted for. An image, sent to local station KSAT, showed girls in the Kerr County camp wading through water overnight.
Law enforcement has responded to dozens of emergency calls and one man told KABB his brother, sister-in-law, and their two children were lost, along with their house. Nearby, in Ingram, an RV park had been swept away.
Search and rescue efforts and evacuations were underway on Friday afternoon as Kerrville residents braced for more rain.
Kerr County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Clint Morris told the station it is 'an extremely active scene, countywide.'
'This may be a once-in-a-lifetime flood' for the county, he said, noting authorities have responded to multiple calls for high-water rescues. The state has called in the National Guard to assist in the efforts. Kelly later told reporters the county does 'not have a warning system.'
The floods came while people were asleep. As many as 10 inches of rain fell in the area, causing the flash flooding of the Guadalupe River. The river rose to nearly 35 feet on Friday, reaching its second-highest height on record. An additional one to three inches of rain are expected to fall before they subside on Friday night.
The flooding comes as residents in the Northeast were spending their Fourth of July holiday cleaning up from strong thunderstorms that swept through the region Thursday night, bringing heavy rain, wind and hail.
The storms are being blamed for at least three deaths in central New Jersey, including two men in Plainfield who died after a tree fell onto a vehicle they were traveling in during the height of the storm, according to a city Facebook post.
The men were ages 79 and 25, officials said. They were not immediately publicly identified.
'Our hearts are heavy today,' Mayor Adrian O. Mapp said in a statement. 'This tragedy is a sobering reminder of the power of nature and the fragility of life.'
The city canceled its planned July Fourth parade, concert and fireworks show. Mapp said the 'devastating' storms had left 'deep scars and widespread damage' in the community of more than 54,000 people and it was a time to 'regroup and focus all of our energy on recovery.'
Continuing power outages and downed trees were reported Friday throughout southern New England, where some communities received large amounts of hail. There were reports of cars skidding off the road in northeastern Connecticut.
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Sky News
34 minutes ago
- Sky News
At least 24 dead and more than 20 children missing from camp in Texas flooding
Why you can trust Sky News At least 24 people have been killed in the US state of Texas after heavy rain caused flash flooding, according to local media reports. Officials have also said 23 children are missing from a girls' camp in Texas. As much as 10 inches (25 centimetres) of heavy rain fell in just a few hours overnight in central Kerr County, causing flash flooding of the Guadalupe River. An official in the city of Kerville told reporters the flooding struck before dawn "over a very short period of time that could not be predicted, even with the radar". Judge Rob Kelly, the chief elected official in the county, confirmed fatalities from the flooding and dozens of water rescues so far. The judge told reporters at a news conference that "most" of the bodies are yet to be identified. "We're trying to get the identity of these folks, but we don't have it yet," he said. As of Friday night, emergency personnel had rescued or evacuated 237 people, including 167 by helicopter, according to Major General Thomas Suelzer, the adjutant general for the state of Texas. 1:13 More than 20 girls unaccounted for Emergency services are continuing a frantic search to find those missing - including 23 girls. The children were among more than 700 who were at a summer camp when floodwaters swept through at around 4am local time. Elinor Lester, 13, said she and her cabin mates were woken up by a raging storm at 1.30am and had to be helicoptered to safety. "The camp was completely destroyed," Elinor said, describing the situation as "really scary". Most of the campers are safe but they could not be immediately evacuated because high waters have made local roads unusable, authorities said. "Everybody is doing everything in their power to get these kids out," Judge Kelly said. "They could be in a tree. They could be out of communication," Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick said. "We're praying for all of those missing to be found alive. We're doing everything we can to get in there." Asked why more precautions were not taken amid forecasts for stormy weather, Judge 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," he said, adding, "We had no reason to believe this was going to be anything like what's happened here. None whatsoever." Later, US President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One that the floods were "terrible," adding: "We're working with the governor [Greg Abbott]." Search teams are flying 14 helicopters and a dozen drones over the area, while hundreds of emergency personnel are on the ground conducting rescues. People desperately searching for their loved ones have posted comments on a Facebook post from the Kerr County sheriff's office. One woman said she couldn't reach her daughter, who had rented a cabin with her husband and two children. She pleaded for officials to release the names of those who have been evacuated. A man in Kerrville told WOAI that his brother's house is missing after the flood, along with the brother, his wife and their two children. Officials said the death toll could change, as rescue operations for an unspecified total number of missing people are still ongoing, and authorities were still working to identify the dead. It was not clear whether anyone unaccounted for might have ended up among the deceased victims tallied countywide by the sheriff.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Abandoning a multimillion-pound stealth jumpjet in India isn't a good look
Shipborne aviation is a tricky business even in peacetime. Landing a helicopter, even though it can hover, on a ship, is by no means simple – especially if it's not a big ship. In my old life, watching a 13-ton Merlin helicopter land on a heaving frigate flight deck at night, with literally feet to spare between the rotors and the hangar, made me glad the pilot got paid more. Landing a fixed wing jet, even if it's an F-35B and does also have a limited ability to hover, on a ship, is always very difficult and involves quite a lot of danger. Even the US Navy, masters of all things carrier aviation, can still learn the hard way. A US carrier recently made a hard turn under missile attack in the Red Sea. An F-18 was being towed by tractor on deck, with sailors driving both the tractor and the jet: as the ship heeled, both began skidding unstoppably towards the deck edge. The sailors managed to jump out, but the fighter and the tractor both went into the sea. This stuff is hard. My feeling of being glad the aircrew get paid more didn't last. In too many cases it isn't true over time: aviators and mine clearance divers in the Royal Navy, both of which groups receive extra pay, both have the same joke. 'We don't get paid more, we just get paid faster.' If the weather is really bad, even at a normal air base or airport ashore, things get worse. If you're trying to land that helicopter or fixed wing jet in bad weather at sea, they get hugely worse as the thing you are trying to land on is rocking and rolling and the deck is wet and slippery. It's much worse still at night. This was the situation now more than two weeks ago, when a pilot from 809 Naval Air Squadron was attempting to get an F-35B fifth generation stealth fighter back aboard the carrier HMS Prince of Wales. The weather was simply too bad, and – as is not unheard of in peacetime naval aviation – the decision was taken for the jet to divert to an airfield ashore. Ships may send out their aircraft without any diversion option – often there is simply no friendly place to land, for instance during pretty much the whole of the Falklands campaign – but especially in peacetime we try to have a backup plan. The F-35B got on the ground safely at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on the southwestern tip of India. But it then developed a fault which is yet to be fixed, and the jet is still sitting there, cutting an increasingly forlorn figure. It's now been long enough for the 'you can't park there mate' quips to have been and gone, replaced with memes from the local tourism industry about why 'Kerala is such an amazing place, I don't want to leave'. This situation doesn't really surprise me. Two things always got my particular attention in my old life during the rigorous pre-flight briefings. As captain of the ship, I was the man who decided go or no-go. The first thing I didn't like was if there was no diversion-to-shore option. The second second was if the aircraft was going to have to shut down once feet-dry (ashore). There isn't a huge amount you can do about the first other than keep a beady eye on the weather forecast and make sure the deck remains clear throughout, but the second one always made me nervous. In my mid-career we had a Lynx helicopter, a small and usually reliable aircraft. But it didn't like starting up on someone else's patch. Wherever possible the pilot would keep the engine running, perhaps for a long time, so as not to take the risk of winding up stuck ashore. Planning and executing sorties from sea is therefore something that needs to be practiced until you are blue in the face, then practiced some more. It's one of the reasons that HMS Prince of Wales, her escorts and some 4,500 people are far away doing what they do. You can only simulate, wargame and train so much; eventually you have to get to sea and pressure test all the moving parts for real. Doing it at distance from the UK teaches lessons too. It's the only way you can learn and then build in resilience for combat operations. Hopefully all this paints a picture as to why this F-35 is now stuck in Kerala. Jets are not cars – they are complex and they break down. Sometimes they can't be fixed with what you have on the ship, or what you can fly ashore in a helicopter. In this case, it sounds like the jet developed a hydraulic issue of some sort. I'm not a pilot but I have been around maritime aviation long enough to know this is a defect that rarely ends well. We will need the investigation to know for sure why that jet went 'feet dry' and why it is still not returned either to the ship or the UK. The safety of the aircraft and pilot would have trumped potential embarrassment or politics. And with Kerala within range, they took the decision to land there. On landing and since then, the Indian authorities have been providing first class support where needed and perimeter security. Conspiracy theories that they could reverse engineer the technology are incorrect and the jet is safe. Having said all that, our international relations with India are complicated just now. There is always a political element to these things. Personally, I would have moved heaven and earth to get that plane fixed and either back to the ship or back to the UK, for three reasons. First, it minimises embarrassment which is there, no matter how we wish it wasn't. Second, it reduces our dependence on India, which will always come with a political price-tag. Third, and most importantly, because we should train as we mean to fight. We should have simulated needing that jet for combat tasking right away and pressure tested every system, including the Treasury, to make it so. I would have also communicated loud and clear what the plan was to minimise both doubt and further embarrassment. Instead there has been silence from the British government. For me it feels as though we have not been aggressive enough in the rectification of the jet or at least its removal from India. On the plus side, none of this is new. In 1983, a Sea Harrier pilot operating off Portugal found himself unable to locate HMS Illustrious and then got so low on fuel that landing ashore was no longer an option. Rather than eject and lose the aircraft, the pilot decided to land on the container ship Alraigo, with or without their permission. The landing was good, though the Harrier did slide backwards off the container it was on, suffering some damage. Red faces and salvage claims swiftly followed, though it should be noted that the jet returned to service and was later converted to the FA2 standard. Aviation emergencies at sea are not new and they are always complex, expensive and occasionally embarrassing. This one in India is no different.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
How to prepare for a hurricane, as forecasters expect a busy 2025 storm season
Hurricane season can be stressful for millions of Americans living in coastal areas, as powerful winds and heavy rain can cause widespread damage, cut power for days or weeks and otherwise upend people's lives. Forecasters are expecting another unusually busy season for the Atlantic, with predictions calling for six to 10 hurricanes, with up to half reaching major status. But the stress of hurricane season can be reduced if people have a plan for preparing their homes and for whether to stay and ride out a storm or evacuate, according to emergency management officials. That preparation, which includes putting together a kit of essential supplies, should begin long before a storm is approaching. 'Don't be complacent, take preparedness seriously, spend the time now to do the little things that will make a big difference for you and your loved ones when something does happen,' said Brian Mason, director of Houston's Office of Emergency Management. How to prepare a home for a storm Anything in the backyard that isn't tied down, such as furniture and barbecue grills, should be secured or brought inside so it doesn't become a flying projectile that can come through a window, said Shawn Schulze, regional CEO for the American Red Cross Texas Gulf Coast Region. If possible, board up windows and place important documents such as passports and birth certificates in a waterproof case or even a Ziploc bag, Schulze said. That will prevent damage and make documents easier to locate in a quick evacuation. Mason recommends that homeowners get their roofs inspected before each hurricane season and know how to turn off their utilities in case of damage. Well before a storm is brewing, people should trim or remove dead or weakened tree limbs and shrubs that hang over their homes to lessen potential damage from high winds, said Mistie Hinote, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Insurance. Hinote also urged people to review what type of insurance coverage they have and to make a home inventory of their possessions by taking photos of them in case an insurance claim needs to be made after a storm. 'It is a lot of information and a lot of pre-storm steps but a little at a time,' Hinote said. Have an emergency kit Every family should have an emergency kit with supplies to meet its basic needs. For people who stay, a kit should include at least 1 gallon (3.8 liters) of water per day per person, with enough for up to seven days, Mason said. One way to have enough water is to fill a bathtub. People should also have enough nonperishable food for up to seven days, as well as flashlights, batteries, candles, medications, portable power banks or other power sources, and a radio that runs on batteries. Pets should be included in preparations, including bringing them inside ahead of a storm, and having enough food, water and necessary medications for up to seven days, Mason said. Parents should also include something to entertain their kids, such as games or coloring books, because likely power outages after a hurricane mean there won't be internet and cellular service, and there's 'nothing's more challenging for a family than kids that are bouncing off the walls because they're bored,' Mason said. 'If you decide to stay, you need to make sure that you can be self-sufficient for days to weeks, depending on how long it takes for power to be restored,' Mason said. Have an evacuation plan If people decide to leave ahead of a storm, they should also prepare an emergency kit with enough supplies to get to their destination, officials said. Before a storm arrives, people should know their evacuation routes are and have backup routes in case roads get congested, Mason said. Officials recommend fueling vehicles if a storm is approaching. People with electric vehicles should make sure their routes have charging stations along the way, he said. Schulze said it's natural for people to be afraid when a hurricane is coming, but having a plan in place and letting loved ones know you're prepared will go a long way to easing fears. 'Think about what the worst could be and prepare for that and you'll always be ready for what comes your way,' Schulze said. ___ Follow Juan A. Lozano:
