More than 100 people have been confirmed dead in the floods that hit central Texas, as rescue crews continue searching for dozens still missing four days after the disaster.
In Kerr County, which was hit hardest, 84 victims have been recorded, including 28 children. In total, 104 people have died so far across the central part of the state.
Meanwhile, the White House rejected allegations that budget cuts to the National Weather Service (NWS) may have hindered the response to disasters in the United States.
“Texas is mourning”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott warned in a statement yesterday that there is still a threat of “severe rain capable of causing flooding,” amid ongoing efforts to locate the missing.
“Texas is mourning. The grief and shock we’ve experienced these past few days have broken our state’s heart,” commented Texas Senator Ted Cruz during a press conference.
Among the victims were 27 children and supervisors at a girls’ Christian camp, Camp Mystic, on the banks of the Guadalupe River, where 750 people were present, according to officials.
Trump to visit on Friday
U.S. President Donald Trump plans to visit the state on Friday (July 11), confirmed the White House, while also slamming those who criticize funding cuts to the National Weather Service, insisting that such criticisms undermine the credibility of forecasts and emergency alerts.
“To blame President Trump for the floods is a vile lie, totally senseless during this time of national mourning,” said White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt to reporters yesterday.
She insisted that the National Weather Service (NWS)—many of whose positions in Texas were reportedly vacant during the floods, according to the New York Times—had issued “forecasts and emergency warnings” with “accuracy” and “timeliness.”
Describing the floods as “a disaster the likes of which we haven’t seen in a hundred years,” President Trump declared a state of disaster over the weekend to make federal resources available to the region.
Search efforts continue
Over 400 search and rescue personnel, helicopters, and drones continue their work, according to authorities.
In the community of Hunt, near the camp, teams spent all day yesterday searching for the missing. Rescuers with boats and divers combed the river’s waters. Volunteers, some on horseback, searched the riverbanks, according to an AFP reporter.
After two days of desperate searching among uprooted trees and debris in the resort area, clinging to hope for a “miracle,” Michael McCown told AFP yesterday that his eight-year-old daughter, Linnie, had been found dead.
“Every parent’s nightmare”
“It’s every parent’s nightmare,” said Senator Cruz, whose children have been attending the camp for nearly a decade. Local residents complained over the weekend that they were not warned of the flood danger in a timely manner.
Following the disaster, Nicole Wilson—a mother from San Antonio who nearly sent her daughters to Camp Mystic but pulled them from another camp due to fears of flooding—launched an online petition asking the governor to install a modern siren alert system.
“If a siren had sounded even five minutes earlier, every one of those children could have been saved,” she told AFP.
The flash floods were caused by torrential rain early Friday morning, on the U.S. national holiday. The waters of the Guadalupe River rose by eight meters (26 feet) within 45 minutes.
Rainfall reached 300 millimeters (nearly 12 inches) per hour—about a third of the area’s annual average.
Although the river has returned to its banks, the destruction along its shores is immense.
Flood warnings remained in effect yesterday in some parts of central Texas until 7:00 p.m. local time (3:00 a.m. Greece time).
Flash floods, caused by intense rain falling on dry ground that can’t absorb large amounts of water, are not uncommon. However, according to the scientific community, human-driven climate change is making such events—floods, droughts, and heatwaves—more frequent and more extreme.
