USA Today, by Jeanine Santucci, Joel Shannon, Eduardo Cuevas, Trish Choate, and Zac Anderson: A day after flooding rains rapidly overwhelmed the Guadalupe River and sent deadly floodwaters through a swath of central Texas, authorities said hundreds of people had been saved from the danger but many remained missing – and the death toll continued to rise.
“The rescue has gone as well as can be expected. It’s getting time now for the recovery, and that’s going to be a long, toilsome task for us,” Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said.
At least 52 people were killed. Forty-three of the deaths ‒ 28 adults and 15 children ‒ were in Kerr County, Sheriff Larry Leitha said. The count was up from 18 adults and nine children earlier in the day Saturday.
The other nine deaths were spread throughout other counties.
Tanya Burwick, 62, was found dead in San Angelo, in Tom Green County several blocks from her SUV, which was engulfed in 12 feet of water during the flood, San Angelo police said.
Kendall County officials also reported a flood death. An additional four deaths were reported in Travis County and three in Burnet County, according to media reports.
Over 850 people were rescued or evacuated from the Guadalupe River corridor, Kerr County officials said Saturday.
Camp Mystic remains a major focus of concern. When the flash flood struck early on Friday, about 700 children were in residence, according to details provided Friday by Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. As of Saturday afternoon, there were 27 missing campers from the camp, said Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice.
One Camp Mystic camper, 8-year-old Sarah Marsh of Alabama, was confirmed among the dead, according to Mountain Brook, Alabama, Mayor Stewart Welch. Janie Hunt, 9, was also among the dead, The New York Times and CNN both reported. Other campers were also reported dead by news outlets on Saturday.
Photos of the flooding’s aftermath at Camp Mystic showed abandoned bunkbeds covered with mud and girls’ belongings flung about. Photos taken on Saturday show a damaged building at the camp missing one entire side, debris strewn about. A stuffed animal lies alongside a single sandal on the ground.
The camp is located in central Texas’ Kerr County, about 60 miles northwest of San Antonio. Generations of Texas families sent their daughters to Camp Mystic, a place where they formed lifelong friendships, former camper Clair Cannon told USA TODAY. Cannon’s mother and daughter both also attended.
Summer after summer, they’d take Highway 39 as it winds along the Guadalupe River until arriving at the grounds on the riverbank.
“What that area is like when it’s in its prime – when it’s not devastated like this – is probably one of the most serene and peaceful places that I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Cannon, a commercial and residential real estate agent in Dallas. “That part of Texas is just absolutely gorgeous.”
Now, much of the area is feeling the impact of the catastrophic flooding as rescuers race to find any survivors and recover victims. There is an unknown number of people missing, Rice said, adding that officials can’t begin to estimate true numbers because there may be an untold number of people visiting the region on vacation.
Responders have been pulling survivors out of trees and finding them stranded on higher ground.
Authorities haven’t released further information about the victims as they continue to identify them and notify family members.
Terrain and timing conspired to cause ‘horrifying’ Texas rainfall
Texas Hill Country is no stranger to extreme flooding. In the rugged, rolling terrain it’s known for, heavy rains collect quickly in its shallow streams and rivers that can burst into torrents like the deadly flood wave that swept along the Guadalupe River on July 4.
Several factors came together at once – in one of the worst possible locations – to create the “horrifying” scenario that dropped up to 16 inches of rainfall in the larger region over July 3-5, said Alan Gerard, a recently retired storm specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
On July 4, rain was falling at 3-4 inches per hour, with some locations recording a deluge of up to 7 inches of rain in just three hours, the National Weather Service said.
Terrain and timing were the biggest factors in the storms, said Gerard and Victor Murphy, a recently retired National Weather Service meteorologist in Texas.
Prophetic Link:
“While appearing to the children of men as a great physician who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now he is at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He sweeps away the ripening harvest, and famine and distress follow. He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous. Destruction will be upon both man and beast.” Great Controversy, 589
Comments