The lifeguards searched a landscape of mangrove -trees devastation, annulled the cars and waste full on Saturday in an increasingly bleak mission to locate survivors, including 27 girls who have not been seen since their camp was beaten with a wall of water in a historical flood.
The Kerr County flood killed at least 43 people, including 15 children, and at least eight people died in the nearby counties.
Authorities have not yet said how many people lacked beyond the children of Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp along a river in the Kerr county where most of the dead were recovered.
The rapid destructive waters raised 8 meters to the Guadalupe River in just 45 minutes before Friday of the day, washing houses and vehicles. The danger was not completed, as the rains continued to beat the communities outside San Antonio on Saturday, and Flash warnings and watches remained in force.
The search engines used helicopters, ships and drones to search for victims and rescue people stuck in trees and from campsolated camps on laundry.
Governor Greg Abbott pledged that authorities would work throughout the day, saying that new areas were sought as water. Stated a day of prayer on Sunday for the state.
“I urge all jeans to join -my lives this Sunday, for lost lives, for those who still disappear, for the recovery of our communities and the safety of those in the first lines,” a statement said.
Authorities were under scrutiny as to whether the camps and residents in long floods vulnerable to the floods received a proper warning and if they were made enough.
The hills of the Guadalupe river, in the center of Texas, are splashed with youth camps and campsites of the century where generations of families have come to swim and enjoy the outdoors. The area is especially popular during the fourth July holidays, which makes it difficult to know how many are missing.
“We don’t even want to start loving at the moment,” said Kerrville City Dalton Rice’s manager before.
Raging Storm arrived at the camp at midnight
“The camp was completely destroyed,” said Elinor Lester, 13, one of the hundreds of campers. “A helicopter landed and began to take away people. It was really scary.”
The furious storm, fed by an incredible amount of moisture, woke up his cabin just after midnight on Friday. When the lifeguards arrived, they tied a rope for the girls to hold as they walked on a bridge with the water that beat their legs, he said.
Fathers and frantic families published photos of dear people and reasons for information.
Among the confirmed dead was an 8 -year -old girl from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who was at Camp Mystica, and the director of another camp on the road.
The flood at midnight surprised many residents, campers and officials.
Accuweather said that the private forecasting company and the National Meteorological Service sent warnings on possible flood floods hours before.
“These warnings should have provided officials for a wide time to evacuate camps like Camp Mystic and to make people safe,” Acuweather said in a statement. He called the country’s hill one of the most prone parts of the flashes of the United States due to its land and many water crossings.
In the Hunt Community Mo-Ranch camp, officials had been watching the weather and chose to move hundreds of campers and attendees at a youth conference on a higher ground. In the nearby fields Rio Vista and Sierra Vista, the organizers had also mentioned on social networks who were watching the time the day before fighting the second summer session on Thursday.
Authorities and elected officials have said that they did not expect such intense decrease, the equivalent of the rain of months for the area.
U.S. representative Chip Roy, whose district includes the devastated area, called it a century flood, and acknowledged that there would be a second and a finger score, as people are looking for someone to blame.
Helicopters and drones used in frantic search
The search crews were facing harsh conditions as they “looked at every possible locations,” said Rice.
Officials said that more than 850 people had been rescued in the last 36 hours and that there were heroic efforts in the camps to save the children.
The Secretary of National Security, Kristi Noem, arrived and pledged that the Trump administration would use all available resources. The helicopters and planes of the Coast Guard were helping to ensure that the operations can continue in the dark.
A reunification center in a primary school was mostly quiet after taking hundreds of evacuees the day before.
“We still have people who come here in search of their loved ones. We have had a small success, but not much,” said Bobby Templeon, Superintendent of the Independent School District of Ingram.
People clung to the trees and fled to the attic
In Ingram, Erin Burgess woke up in the thunder and rain in the middle of the night. He said that only 20 minutes later, Water was poured into his house. He described an agonic hour that clung to a tree with his teenage son.
“My son and I floated to a tree where we hung him, and my boyfriend and my dog floated. He was lost for a while, but we found them,” he said.
Barry Adelman said that Water pushed everyone to his three -story house in the attic, including his 94 -year -old grandmother and his 9 -year -old grandson.
“I had to look at my grandson on my face and say,” everything would be fine, but inside I was afraid of death, “he said.
The locals know the place as “Alley Flash Flood”.
“When it rains, Water does not soak in the ground,” Austin Dickson, CEO of the Texas Hill Country Foundation Community, said. “It rushes on the hill.”
“No one saw that”
The weekend forecast had called for rain, with a flood clock updated to a warning on Friday night for at least 30,000 people.
“We know we have rains. We know that the river increases. But no one saw it,” said Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, the head of the county’s election.
The county had considered a flood warning system on the river similar to a tornado warning siren about six or seven years ago, but Kelly said that the idea never left the ground and that the cost would have been a problem.
Kelly said he was bewildered by seeing his body bags at the funeral home and devastation on the ground during a helicopter tour.
“The rescue has disappeared as well as you can expect. Now the time is coming for recovery,” he said. “And this will be a long and difficult task for us.”
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