In the hours in south-central Texas, heavy rains worth several months fell, killing at least 13 people and leaving more than 20 girls attending summer camps as the search team conducted boat and helicopter rescues in a fast-moving flood.
Desperate provocation Social media as loved ones seek any information about people struggling with floods.
Texas Lieutenant. Dan Patrick said so far six to ten bodies have been found in the crazy search for victims. Meanwhile, at a press conference held simultaneously, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha reported 13 deaths in the flood.
In the middle of Kerr County, as much as 25 cm of heavy rain poured down in just a few hours, causing mountain flooding on the Guadalupe River and causing desperate pleas to obtain information about the disappearance.
“Some are adults, some are children,” Patrick said. “Again, we don't know where these bodies come from.”
The team conducted dozens of rescues, responding urgently to continue searching for missing persons, including those at the summer camp.
“I asked the people in Texas to do some serious prayers this afternoon. Praying with kindness, we found these young girls.”
Judge Rob Kelly, chief officer of Kyle County, confirmed the number of floods and dozens of water deaths so far. He said he was advised not to quote specific numbers and said authorities are still working to identify the dead.
“Most of the people, we don't know who they are,” he said in a press conference.
Water comes in from the wall
Erin Burgess' house sits directly across the river near Bumble Bee Hills, west of Ingram in Kerr County.
When she woke up at 3:30 a.m. local time, “it’s raining, but it’s no big deal.”
Just 20 minutes later, Burgess said the water came in through the wall and rushed through the front and back doors. She described a painful hour clinging to the trees, waiting for the water to recede so that they were able to walk the mountain to the neighbor's mountain.
“My son and my son floated in a tree, our boyfriend and my dog floated for a while. He got lost for a while, but we found them,” she said. She became excited.
“Thankfully, he is six feet tall. That's the only thing that saved me is to hang on him,” Burgess said in her 19-year-old son.
Flood surveillance released Thursday afternoon estimates the amount of isolated water up to 17 cm. This turned to a flood warning of at least 30,000 people overnight.
Asked about the suddenness of the flash flood, Kelly said “we don’t have a warning system” and “we don’t know the flood is coming”, even as local journalists pointed out the warning and pushed him with answers about why not take more precautions.
“No one knows this…come”
“Don't worry, no one knows this kind of flood is coming,” he said. “We have floods all the time. This is the most dangerous valley in the United States.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the state is providing resources to communities dealing with floods.
The affected area is a scenic area known as the Texas Hill country and is a popular outdoor summer resort just west of the state capital. Flash torrents are prone to occur in parts of the region.
