Bewildering accounts of survival revealed as death toll climbs to 80 with 11 children still missing in catastrophic Texas floods
Catastrophic flooding struck central Texas on Friday, with waters reaching between six and eight metres on the Guadalupe River, near Kerrville.
It caused widespread damage and a complete washing out of roads.
The death toll rose to 80 dead across six counties on Sunday US time, with officials in Kerr County reporting 68 deaths, including 40 adults and 28 children.
In Travis County, four people are believed dead while three others have lost their lives in Burnet County, two in Kendall Country and one death each reported in Tom Green and Williamson counties, officials have said.
Among the most devastating impacts of the flooding occurred at Camp Mystic summer camp, a nearly century-old Christian camp, where 11 girls and a counsellor are still missing.
The grandson of Camp Mystic's longtime director, Dick Eastland, said his grandfather had died while trying to save campers from the nightmare floodwaters.
On Friday when asked why the summer camps in the area were not evacuated, Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, the county's top elected official said: 'I can't answer that. I don't know.'
Officials on Saturday said more than 850 people had been rescued, including some clinging to trees, after a sudden storm dumped up to 38 centimetres of rain across the region, about 140 km north-west of San Antonio.
"It was nothing short of horrific to see what those young children went through," said Governor of Texas Greg Abbott, who toured the area on Saturday and pledged to continue efforts to locate the missing people.
President Donald Trump announced on Sunday he had 'signed a Major Disaster Declaration' for relief for Kerr County while the region deals with heavy rains and extreme flooding.
The declaration allows first responders to have the access they need as they continue to work on search and rescue efforts.
US Coast Guard helicopters and planes are helping the search and rescue efforts, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said.
'These families are enduring an unimaginable tragedy, with many lives lost, and many still missing,' Trump wrote to Truth Social.
Speaking to reporters late on Sunday, Trump vowed continued federal support for Texas and said he would 'probably' visit the state on Friday.
'We'll continue to be there. And we're working very closely with representatives from Texas, and it's a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible,' Trump told reporters as he departed New Jersey after a weekend at his golf club.
'So, we say, God bless all of the people that have gone through so much, and God bless, God bless the state of Texas,' Trump said.
Asked about his plans to phase out the FEMA, Trump said it was a matter for another time.
'FEMA is something we can talk about later, but right now, they're busy working, so we'll leave it at that,' he said.
The national weather service extended the flood watch over much of south-central Texas with several inches of rain still expected for the region on Sunday.
Two brothers, Brock and Braeden Davis, caught up in the terrifying floods described how their beds were 'tipping over' as the rapidly rising water forced them to flee for their lives.
The two young brothers had arrived at Camp La Junta earlier in the week and said they were abruptly woken up by the sound of screaming around 4am on Friday.
'I hear screaming from outside. Later on, I find out someone's cabin flooded, and they were outside in the middle of the rain,' Braeden said.
'We jumped up to another bed, a top bunk and like our beds started tipping over, and we got to the top really quick and then, one of the walls fell down,' Brock added.
The two boys waited 13 hours on the top bunk until they were found.
Trump has previously outlined plans to scale back the federal government's role in responding to natural disasters, leaving states to shoulder more of the burden themselves.
Some experts questioned whether cuts to the federal workforce by the Trump administration, including to the agency that oversees the National Weather Service, led to a failure by officials to accurately predict the severity of the floods and issue appropriate warnings ahead of the storm. - With Reuters
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He declined to respond directly, saying his focus was on finding the missing victims and that a full analysis of what went wrong with the response would come later. "We will answer those questions," he said. "I can't tell you when - a week or two, okay? We're going to get to them. We're not trying to deflect them." Scientists say climate change has made extreme flood events more frequent and damaging by creating warmer, wetter weather patterns. Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice has said the amount of rainfall exceeded predictions and fell so fast that there was not enough time to order evacuations without further endangering people. Abbott said on Tuesday that the Texas legislature would convene a special session later in July to investigate the emergency response and provide funding for disaster relief. Search teams are sifting through mounds of debris in Texas Hill Country as hopes of finding more survivors dimmed five days after flash floods tore through the region, killing at least 119 people including many children. As of Tuesday evening, there were more than 170 people still unaccounted for, according to figures provided by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Searchers have not found anyone alive since Friday. Most of the fatalities and missing people were in Kerr County. The county seat, Kerrville, was devastated when torrential rains lashed the area early on Friday, dropping more than 300mm of rain in less than an hour and swelling the Guadalupe River to a height of nearly nine metres. The death toll in Kerr County was 95 as of Wednesday morning, Sheriff Larry Leitha told reporters at a briefing, including three dozen children. That figure includes at least 27 campers and counsellors from Camp Mystic, a Christian girls' summer retreat on the banks of the Guadalupe. Authorities have warned the death toll will likely keep rising as floodwaters recede. Elsewhere on Tuesday, three people died in New Mexico, two of them young children, when a flash flood swept through the village of Ruidoso in mountains around 215km southeast of Albuquerque, the state's largest city. The flooding was sparked by heavy rain that fell on wildfire burn scars, causing a rapid runoff of water that saw the Rio Ruidoso River rise to a record 20 feet, five feet higher than its previous historical high, the village said in a statement. Public officials in Texas have faced days of questions about whether they could have warned people sooner, giving them time to move to higher ground ahead of the raging floodwaters. At Wednesday's briefing, the sheriff was again pressed to address questions about how long it took for officials to respond to "Code Red" alerts about the flash flooding during the early hours of July 4. He declined to respond directly, saying his focus was on finding the missing victims and that a full analysis of what went wrong with the response would come later. "We will answer those questions," he said. "I can't tell you when - a week or two, okay? We're going to get to them. We're not trying to deflect them." Scientists say climate change has made extreme flood events more frequent and damaging by creating warmer, wetter weather patterns. Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice has said the amount of rainfall exceeded predictions and fell so fast that there was not enough time to order evacuations without further endangering people. Abbott said on Tuesday that the Texas legislature would convene a special session later in July to investigate the emergency response and provide funding for disaster relief. Search teams are sifting through mounds of debris in Texas Hill Country as hopes of finding more survivors dimmed five days after flash floods tore through the region, killing at least 119 people including many children. As of Tuesday evening, there were more than 170 people still unaccounted for, according to figures provided by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Searchers have not found anyone alive since Friday. Most of the fatalities and missing people were in Kerr County. The county seat, Kerrville, was devastated when torrential rains lashed the area early on Friday, dropping more than 300mm of rain in less than an hour and swelling the Guadalupe River to a height of nearly nine metres. The death toll in Kerr County was 95 as of Wednesday morning, Sheriff Larry Leitha told reporters at a briefing, including three dozen children. That figure includes at least 27 campers and counsellors from Camp Mystic, a Christian girls' summer retreat on the banks of the Guadalupe. 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He declined to respond directly, saying his focus was on finding the missing victims and that a full analysis of what went wrong with the response would come later. "We will answer those questions," he said. "I can't tell you when - a week or two, okay? We're going to get to them. We're not trying to deflect them." Scientists say climate change has made extreme flood events more frequent and damaging by creating warmer, wetter weather patterns. Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice has said the amount of rainfall exceeded predictions and fell so fast that there was not enough time to order evacuations without further endangering people. Abbott said on Tuesday that the Texas legislature would convene a special session later in July to investigate the emergency response and provide funding for disaster relief. 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Authorities have warned the death toll will likely keep rising as floodwaters recede. Elsewhere on Tuesday, three people died in New Mexico, two of them young children, when a flash flood swept through the village of Ruidoso in mountains around 215km southeast of Albuquerque, the state's largest city. The flooding was sparked by heavy rain that fell on wildfire burn scars, causing a rapid runoff of water that saw the Rio Ruidoso River rise to a record 20 feet, five feet higher than its previous historical high, the village said in a statement. Public officials in Texas have faced days of questions about whether they could have warned people sooner, giving them time to move to higher ground ahead of the raging floodwaters. At Wednesday's briefing, the sheriff was again pressed to address questions about how long it took for officials to respond to "Code Red" alerts about the flash flooding during the early hours of July 4. He declined to respond directly, saying his focus was on finding the missing victims and that a full analysis of what went wrong with the response would come later. "We will answer those questions," he said. "I can't tell you when - a week or two, okay? We're going to get to them. We're not trying to deflect them." Scientists say climate change has made extreme flood events more frequent and damaging by creating warmer, wetter weather patterns. Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice has said the amount of rainfall exceeded predictions and fell so fast that there was not enough time to order evacuations without further endangering people. Abbott said on Tuesday that the Texas legislature would convene a special session later in July to investigate the emergency response and provide funding for disaster relief.
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Crews comb flood-stricken Texas for 170 missing people
Search teams are sifting through mounds of debris in Texas Hill Country as hopes of finding more survivors dimmed five days after flash floods tore through the region, killing at least 119 people including many children. As of Tuesday evening, there were more than 170 people still unaccounted for, according to figures provided by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Searchers have not found anyone alive since Friday. Most of the fatalities and missing people were in Kerr County. The county seat, Kerrville, was devastated when torrential rains lashed the area early on Friday, dropping more than 300mm of rain in less than an hour and swelling the Guadalupe River to a height of nearly nine metres. The death toll in Kerr County was 95 as of Wednesday morning, Sheriff Larry Leitha told reporters at a briefing, including three dozen children. That figure includes at least 27 campers and counsellors from Camp Mystic, a Christian girls' summer retreat on the banks of the Guadalupe. Authorities have warned the death toll will likely keep rising as floodwaters recede. Elsewhere on Tuesday, three people died in New Mexico, two of them young children, when a flash flood swept through the village of Ruidoso in mountains around 215km southeast of Albuquerque, the state's largest city. The flooding was sparked by heavy rain that fell on wildfire burn scars, causing a rapid runoff of water that saw the Rio Ruidoso River rise to a record 20 feet, five feet higher than its previous historical high, the village said in a statement. Public officials in Texas have faced days of questions about whether they could have warned people sooner, giving them time to move to higher ground ahead of the raging floodwaters. At Wednesday's briefing, the sheriff was again pressed to address questions about how long it took for officials to respond to "Code Red" alerts about the flash flooding during the early hours of July 4. He declined to respond directly, saying his focus was on finding the missing victims and that a full analysis of what went wrong with the response would come later. "We will answer those questions," he said. "I can't tell you when - a week or two, okay? We're going to get to them. We're not trying to deflect them." Scientists say climate change has made extreme flood events more frequent and damaging by creating warmer, wetter weather patterns. Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice has said the amount of rainfall exceeded predictions and fell so fast that there was not enough time to order evacuations without further endangering people. Abbott said on Tuesday that the Texas legislature would convene a special session later in July to investigate the emergency response and provide funding for disaster relief.
