Death toll from Texas floods rises to 24 as search underway for more than 20 girls unaccounted for
Date: 12 min ago
Title: Trump calls Texas flooding "terrible" and promises federal aid
Content:
President Donald Trump called the central Texas flooding 'terrible' and pledged federal support in the aftermath.
'It's terrible. The floods? It's shocking. They don't know the answer yet as to how many people, but it looks like some young people have died,' Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he traveled to his New Jersey golf club.
Asked if there will be federal aid, he responded, 'Oh yeah, we'll take care of them. We're working with the governor. We're working with the governor. It's a terrible thing.'
At least 24 people have died in Kerr County, Texas, after severe flooding inundated the area, according to County Sheriff Larry Leitha.
Update:
Date: 12 min ago
Title: More than 20 campers unaccounted for, more than 200 people rescued across Kerr County, officials say
Content:
Between 23 and 25 people at Camp Mystic in Kerr County, Texas, are still unaccounted for following severe flooding in the region, authorities said Friday night.
Early Friday morning, about 107 game wardens and an aviation group tried to access the camp, according to officials. Shortly after midday, they were able to enter the camp and start rescuing children.
Authorities were in contact with about 18 camps along the Guadalupe River and said Camp Mystic was the only camp with people still unaccounted for as of Friday evening.
'The far majority of those camps have their campers and have already contacted their families and working to reunite those families together,' Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, said at a news conference Friday. 'We are focused on the ones that cannot help themselves right now, and that is our primary area of concern.'
More than 200 people have been rescued across Kerr County, and emergency response efforts are still underway.
'As of a few hours ago, we had rescued or evacuated 237 people and 167 of those were by helicopter,' Major General Thomas M. Suelzer said at a news conference Friday night. 'So we are having a very good helicopter response when the weather allows.'
On Saturday, personnel will be sent to help manage evacuee shelters with tracking efforts to help confirm those located to date, he added.
Suelzer said three additional helicopters are also on the way to help support the community.
Update:
Date: 12 min ago
Title: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issues disaster declaration following deadly flooding
Content:
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Friday he has issued a disaster declaration after severe flooding left at least 24 dead and more than 20 missing in the state.
The declaration was issued for several of the hardest hit counties in central Texas: Bandera, Comal, Concho, Gillespie, Kendall, Kerr, Kimball, Llano, Mason, McCullough, Menard, Reeves, San Saba and Tom Green.
It will ensure the counties 'are going to have access to every tool, strategy, personnel that the state of Texas can provide to them, which will be limitless,' he said.
'We'll put in everything we have in the entire state,' Abbott said.
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Associated Press
21 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Texas officials face scrutiny over response to catastrophic and deadly flooding
KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Before heading to bed before the Fourth of July holiday, Christopher Flowers checked the weather while staying at a friend's house along the Guadalupe River. Nothing in the forecast alarmed him. Hours later, he was rushing to safety: He woke up in darkness to electrical sockets popping and ankle-deep water. Quickly, his family scrambled nine people into the attic. Phones buzzed with alerts, Flowers recalled Saturday, but he did not remember when in the chaos they started. 'What they need they need is some kind of external system, like a tornado warning that tells people to get out now,' Flowers, 44, said. The destructive fast-moving waters that began before sunrise Friday in the Texas Hill Country killed at least 32 people, authorities said Saturday, and an unknown number of people remained missing. Those still unaccounted for included 27 girls from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp along a river in Kerr County where most of the dead were recovered. 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When the warnings began An initial flood watch — which generally urges residents to be weather aware — was issued by the local National Weather Service office at 1:18 p.m. local time on Thursday. It predicted rain amounts of between 5 to 7 inches (12.7 to 17.8 centimeters). Weather messaging from the office, including automated alerts delivered to mobile phones to people in threatened areas, grew increasingly ominous in the early morning hours of Friday, urging people to move to higher ground and evacuate flood-prone areas, said Jason Runyen, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service office. At 4:03 a.m., the office issued an urgent warning that raised the potential of catastrophic damage and a severe threat to human life. Jonathan Porter, the chief meteorologist at AccuWeather, a private weather forecasting company that uses National Weather Service data, said it appeared evacuations and other proactive measures could have been undertaken to reduce the risk of fatalities. 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Fox News
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Yahoo
25 minutes ago
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Frantic search for survivors of Texas floods that killed 32, including 14 children
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