Texas flooding live updates: Flood threat lingers, with death toll expected to rise
HUNT, Texas — The 750 campers were sound asleep in their bunk beds in the early-morning hours of July 4, expecting to wake up to a day of celebrations — a fireworks show and special treats of Hershey's bars and Coca-Cola by the river that evening.
Late Sunday afternoon, dark clouds descended once again over the area. Thunder began to rumble. A slow but steady rain began to fall.
Along the Guadalupe River between the towns of Comfort and Center Point, searchers continued to walk the riverbanks amid warnings that the water could soon rise again.
'If it were my kids, I would want anybody to help,' said Mario Fierro, 36, of Kerrville.
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29 minutes ago
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Videos Show Water Rising Within Minutes During Deadly Texas Flash Flood
At least 90 people have died and more than a dozen are missing after devastating flash floods hit central Texas over the 4th of July weekend. Search and rescue operations are still underway as more rain is expected to hit the battered region in the coming days.
Yahoo
38 minutes ago
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Search for woman who texted 'we're being washed away' in Texas flood
As the raging Guadalupe River burst its banks and wreaked havoc in central Texas, a young woman named Joyce Bandon sent a text message that may have been her last. Triggering one of many frantic search efforts, Bandon pleaded for help from a house along the river, according to Louis Deppe, leader of a group of volunteers trying to help the Bandon family find their daughter. Torrential rains starting the night before the Independence Day holiday caused the river to rise the height of a two-story building in less than hour, flooding parts of Kerr County, including several children's camps, tearing down trees and tossing cars as if they were toys. The death toll as of Sunday afternoon was at least 78, with more casualties expected. Bandon and three friends had gone to a country house to spend the July 4 holiday together. It rained all Thursday night into Friday morning, when disaster struck. "Their house collapsed at about 4 in the morning and they were being washed away. On her cellphone, the last message (her family) got was 'we're being washed away' and the phone went dead," Deppe told AFP. He said the team works in groups of two or three people as they look through the debris and detritus left behind by the deluge. "One of the bodies was 8 to 10 feet in a tree, surrounded up by so much debris. Not one person could see it, so the more eyes, the better," he added. The river is returning to normal now but there is utter destruction everywhere on its banks, like a dead cow hanging from a tree, its head caught between two branches. Nearby a pickup truck lies upside down and around it dozens of dead fish swept out of the water are beginning to rot and stink. Helicopters fly overhead looking for survivors or bodies while rescue teams in boats ride up and down the river and emergency officials comb its banks. Little by little, debris like uprooted trees and ruined cars is being taken away. - Finding bodies - Tina Hambly, 55, the mother of Joyce Bandon's best friend and roommate, walks around with a kayak oar poking at branches and other debris, hoping to find something or someone. "We're doing a seven-mile stretch, and there's seven teams and we're doing a mile apiece, so just kind of dividing and conquering, trying to find any four of them or anyone," Hambly told AFP. "But, you know, we are friends and families and frankly, some strangers have shown up," she added. In the town of Hunt, one of the worst hit areas, a summer gathering for children called Camp Mystic initially reported dozens of those kids missing in the flooding. The figure now stands at 11 plus a counselor. Toys, clothing, towels and other belongings lie strewn around camp cabins full of mud. The volunteers looking for Bandon have found some bodies -- two early on Saturday morning and then another stuck in debris up in a tree. "And they did let me know that she was one of the Camp Mystic girls that went missing," said Justin Morales, 36, part of the search team. "We're happy to give a family closure," he said. "That's why we're out here." mav/sla
Bloomberg
44 minutes ago
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Weather Expert Sees Texas Floods as Worst Case Scenario
CC-Transcript 00:00When you look at what had happened in Texas, devastating floods, the deaths exceeding 90. Should there have been something different that officials were doing to alert the people in the course of the storm? Well, I mean, look, to me, the first place to start is with the understanding that this really was a unfortunately a worst case scenario as it developed. You had thunderstorms move repeatedly over the same area, this particularly vulnerable south Fork of the Guadalupe River for 3 to 4 hours produced just incredible amounts of rain in an area that is very flood prone. This this region is known as flash flood alley. The whole country of Texas. And there have been, you know, catastrophic flash floods on this river in the past. So it it was definitely very difficult to anticipate, you know, more than a few hours, you know, really before the rains started. It would be difficult to anticipate that this particular area was going to have such a catastrophic event. But we certainly would encourage people that are in these kind of, you know, particularly flood prone areas, whether you're talking about individual people or, you know, businesses like campground and stuff, to have multiple ways to receive warnings so that they can act when there's just a devastating event like this. I am curious and we should just point out, too, of course, as they are still search for people and try to start the cleanup there, we are expecting more rain, more heavy rains in that area over the next 24 hours. It raises a question, though, too, Allan. I mean, as someone who understands how these weather patterns unfold, there have been a lot of talk about the drought that was affecting this area prior to that and how that may have actually made this worse. Explain that in layman's terms. Essentially, the soil type in this part of the country is such that when it is dried out by drought, it almost kind of acts like concrete. It becomes very hard and impermeable. So when you get the sudden summer thunderstorms on top of this, the soil type, the water just runs off like it does in urban areas. And so that just exacerbates how much water actually gets into the river itself and is part of the reason why you get these, you know, these massive flood waves on these rivers in the hill country. I don't want to divert too much attention away from the loss of human life, from the tragedy. But I am curious to get your thoughts. Having worked at Noah and seeing the budget cuts that have taken place over the last few months, not just at Noah, but in other programs that are designed to monitor hurricanes, a monitor weather patterns, especially now that we are in hurricane season or getting into the heart of hurricane season. I am curious as to whether the United States, in your view, is going to be prepared for future weather patterns of this type of severity? Well, I mean, it does appear like the Weather Service was able to provide the warnings and forecasts that one would typically expect for this kind of an event over the weekend. But having said that, there are a number of offices around the country that are significantly challenged as far as staffing because of some of the buyouts and firings that occurred earlier this year. So I'm definitely very concerned that as we go on through the summer, through the hurricane season, that the weather service is going to continue to be increasingly stressed. You know, we don't know exactly how much impact that might have had on this event, but it's certainly a problem for future events.
