The death toll from catastrophic floods in Texas reached at least 78 on Sunday, including 28 children, as the search for girls missing from a summer camp continued and fears of more flooding prompted evacuations of volunteer responders.
Larry Leitha, sheriff of Kerr County in Texas Hill Country, said 68 people had died in flooding in his county, the epicentre of the flooding, among them 28 children. Texas governor Greg Abbott, speaking at a press conference on Sunday afternoon, said another 10 died elsewhere in Texas and confirmed 41 were missing.
US President Donald Trump sent his condolences to the victims and said he would probably visit the area on Friday. His administration had been in touch with Abbott, he added.
"It's a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible. God bless all the people who have gone through so much, and God bless the state of Texas," he told reporters as he left New Jersey.
Among the most devastating impacts of the flooding occurred at Camp Mystic summer camp, a nearly century-old Christian girls camp where 10 campers and one counselor were missing, according to Leitha.
"It was nothing short of horrific to see what those young children went through," said Abbott, who noted he toured the area on Saturday and pledged to continue efforts to locate the missing.
The flooding occurred after the nearby Guadalupe River broke its banks after torrential rain fell in the central Texas area on Friday, the US Independence Day holiday.
Texas division of emergency management chief Nim Kidd said the destruction killed three people in Burnet County, one in Tom Green County, five in Travis County and one in Williamson County.
"You will see the death toll rise today and tomorrow," Freeman Martin, director of the Texas department of public safety, said on Sunday.
Officials said on Saturday more than 850 people had been rescued, including some clinging to trees, after a sudden storm dumped up to 38cm of rain across the region, about 140km northwest of San Antonio.
Kidd said he was receiving unconfirmed reports of "an additional wall of water" flowing down creeks in the Guadalupe River shed as rain continued to fall on soil in the region saturated from Friday's rains.
"We’re evacuating parts of the river because we are worried about another wall of river coming down in the areas," he said, referencing volunteers from outside the area seeking to help locate victims.
The federal emergency management agency (Fema) was activated on Sunday and is deploying resources to first responders in Texas after Trump issued a major disaster declaration, the department of homeland security said. US coast guard helicopters and planes were aiding search and rescue efforts.
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.
Trump's administration has overseen thousands of job cuts from the weather Service's parent agency, the national oceanic and atmospheric administration (NOAA), leaving many weather offices understaffed, said former NOAA director Rick Spinrad.
Spinrad said he did not know if the staff cuts factored into the lack of advance warning for the extreme Texas flooding, but they would inevitably degrade the agency's ability to deliver accurate and timely forecasts.
Trump pushed back when asked on Sunday if federal government cuts hobbled the disaster response or left key job vacancies at the national weather service under his oversight.
"That water situation was the Biden setup," he said, referencing his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden.
"But I wouldn't blame Biden for it either. I would say this is a 100-year catastrophe."
He declined to answer a question about Fema, saying only: "They're working, so we'll leave it at that."
Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees Fema and NOAA, said a "moderate" flood watch issued on Thursday by the national weather service had not accurately predicted the extreme rainfall and said the Trump administration was working to upgrade the system.
Joaquin Castro, a Democratic congressman from Texas, told CNN's State of the Union programme that fewer personnel at the weather service could be dangerous.
"When you have flash flooding, there's a risk that if you don't have the personnel to do the analysis, do the predictions in the best way, it could lead to tragedy," Castro said.
Katharine Somerville, a counselor on the Cypress Lake side of Camp Mystic, on higher ground than the Guadalupe River side, said her 13-year-old campers were scared as their cabins sustained damage and lost power in the middle of the night.
"Our cabins at the top of hills were completely flooded with water. You have seen the complete devastation. We never even imagined this could happen," Somerville said in an interview on Fox News on Sunday.
She said the campers in her care were put on military trucks and evacuated, and all were safe.
The disaster unfolded rapidly on Friday morning as heavier than forecast rain drove river waters rapidly to as high as 9m.
A day after the disaster struck, the summer camp, where 700 girls were in residence at the time of the flooding, was a scene of devastation. Inside one cabin, mud lines indicating how high the water had risen were at least 1.83 m from the floor. Bed frames, mattresses and personal belongings caked with mud were scattered inside. Some buildings had broken windows, one had a missing wall.
Reuters
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