Texas floods | At least 24 dead and 237 survivors

(Kerrville) Torrential rains equivalent to several months of precipitation fell in a few hours in the region of Texas Hill Country, killing at least 24 people in floods.

The research continued during the night from Friday to Saturday to find many people who are missing, including around twenty young girls from a summer camp.

The destructive force of rapid rising waters just before dawn Friday won the houses and vehicles. There have been hundreds of rescues around the county of Kerr, including at least 167 by helicopter, according to the authorities. The total number of missing was not known, but the sheriff said that between 23 and 25 of them were girls who had attended the Mystic camp, a Christian summer camp along the Guadeloupe river.

On social networks, parents and families have published desperate calls to obtain information on their relatives taken in the flooded area.

“The camp has been completely destroyed,” said Elinor Lester, 13 years old, one of the hundreds of campers from the Mystic camp. “A helicopter landed and started to evacuate people. It was really frightening, ”she said.

The child said that a unleashed storm woke him around 1:30 am Friday morning, and when the rescuers arrived, they tied a rope so that the girls hold it while they crossed the bridge with flood waters to the knees.

The flood in the middle of the night of July 4 took by surprise many campers and residents. The officials defended their preparations in the event of extreme weather conditions and their response, but they said that they did not expect such an intense downpour which would be, in fact, the equivalent of several months of rain for the region.

A forecast of the national weather service this week announced an accumulation of 76 to 152 millimeters of rain, said Nim Kidd, the chief of the emergency management division of Texas.

At a press conference late Friday, Kerr’s county sheriff Larry Leitha confirmed the dead of 24 people, specifying that 237 other people had been rescued so far.

Helicopters and drones have notably been used in research and rescue operations.

A river gauge in Hunt recorded a 6.7 -meter elevation from the water level in the space of two hours, said Bob Fogarty, meteorologist at the Austin/San Antonio office of the National Meteorological Service. The gauge has stopped operating after saving a 9 meter of water level.

“Water moves so quickly that you will not recognize how intense the situation is before being flooded,” said Fogarty.

On the Facebook page of the Kerr County Sheriff’s Bureau, people have published photos of dear beings asking for help to find them.

At least 400 people were mobilized for research, according to the Lieutenant-Governor of Texas, Dan Patrick. Nine rescue teams, 14 helicopters and 12 drones were among the research teams, who rescued some survivors who were hung on trees.

The area is known as the “lightning flood alley” due to the thin hills’ floor layer, said Austin Dickson, CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, which amasses donations to help the non -profit organizations to respond to the disaster.

“When it rains, the water does not enter the ground,” said Dickson, specifying that the water “rushes at the bottom of the hill”.

The river tourism industry is a key part of Hill Country’s economy. The summer camps are well known and they attract children from all over the country, according to Mr. Dickson.

“It is generally a very quiet river with clear, truly magnificent blue water, which has attracted people for generations,” said Austin Dickson.

With the collaboration of Fingerhut to monks, Iowa, as well as journalists from the Associated Press Adrian Sanz in Memphis, Tennessee, Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City, John O’Connor in Springfield, Illinois, and Susan Haigh in Norwich, Connecticut.