(Kerville, Texas) inflated by the rain, the Guadalupe river came out of its bed and swept a summer camp and its surroundings, killing at least 24 dead and triggering frantic research to find children and others missing on Friday in the center of Texas.
In the middle of the afternoon Friday, around twenty adolescent girls, who stayed in a holiday camp located on the edge of the river, in Hunt, lacked the call, according to the lieutenant-government of the state, Dan Patrick.
Using 14 helicopters, hundreds of emergency services were looking for missing people, while the ground teams were trying to navigate the flooded roads. The authorities warned that the death toll was likely to increase.
“It will be an event involving a large number of victims,” said Freeman F. Martin, director of the Texas Public Security Department.
Some of the children of the Mystic camp, a Christian girl camp, were able to be rescued during the day, but it was difficult to bring them together with their parents, because many roads were impassable.
On social networks and by text, parents circulated photos of disappeared and exchanged full of hope on spectacular rescues: young girls hanging on trees or floating downstream from the river to a camp for boys about 8 km away.
Photo Michel Fortier, Associated Press
Kerrville firefighter patrolling the banks devastated by the floods
“I know there are anxious parents who look at, who want information,” said Patrick. We have the best rescue and intervention teams in the world. »»
Governor Greg Abbott called on the National Guard. Internal security secretary Kristi Noem has deployed the American Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a spokesperson for social networks wrote.
“We were swept away and I lost it”
In Kerrville, some survivors of the floods have gathered in the activity center of a church.
Brian Eads, 52, hoped to obtain information on his wife, Katherine, after the flood had ravaged their caravan around 3:30 a.m.
“I don’t know if she got out,” said Eads. We were both swept away and I lost it. »»
The couple was awakened by the tumultuous waters and managed to escape with a man driving a recreational vehicle. But the water caught up with them a few meters away and the vehicle engine stopped, said Eads.
His wife and were swept away underwater. He tried to swim towards his wife’s voice, but lost it when he was hit in the head by debris. He survived by clinging to a tree and returned to firm land.
Photo Eric Gay, Associated Press
A man observes the destruction left by the passage of a sudden flood of the Guadalupe river on Friday.
According to the national meteorological service, it fell just under 40 cm of rain in certain regions. In Hunt, where the Guadalupe made a fork, it fell more than 17 cm of rain Thursday and Friday, the most important precipitation that this region has known since the early 1990s.
The level of the Guadalupe is thus mounted at an alarming speed in Hunt, going from 2 meters to midnight at more than 9 meters at 4 a.m., the second level never reached, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The river could have displayed an even higher level, but the flood flooded the instrument used to measure the water level, which ceased to issue at 4:35 a.m. local time.
Photo Eric Gay, Associated Press
On the edge of a road near Kerville, a gauge used to measure the floods indicates that the water rises to one and a half foot.
Throughout the region, torrential rains have led to evacuation orders and rescues on the water while the river came out of its bed.
Kerrville police said on social networks that she worked with local firefighters to evacuate residents, noting that “many roads and streets are flooded in town”.
Dan Patrick, the lieutenant of the state, asked residents of the region not to approach flooded areas. He notably recommended not to use drones or personal helicopters to participate in rescue operations, as this could endanger emergency staff.
Concern and reunion
In Ingram primary school, a family reunification site, people hoped to find members of their missing family, including young girls from the Mystic camp. About 750 girls were in this camp this week, Patrick said.
The camp said he participated in research and rescue operations, but that he had neither electricity, water nor Wi-Fi and that he had trouble obtaining additional help because a neighboring highway had been swept away by waters.
Photo Carter Johnston, The New York Times
According to the weather service in the United States, it fell just under 400 mm of rain in certain regions of Texas.
In the middle of the afternoon, the rescue teams began to transport some of the missing girls to school. A man saw his daughter sitting on the passenger seat of an emergency vehicle and rushed to her smiling.
A delighted grandmother told that her granddaughter had been saved while she was in a tree. She said she was happy that she was found, but she worried about other missing children.
Randy Bush, 59, said he had not heard from his fiancée, Charlotte Buff, 55, since Thursday evening. He had sought it in a local Walmart which also served as a regrouping center.
“I have no idea what happened to him,” he said.
Mme Buff lives in a park of recreational vehicles in the Kerrville region. As soon as Mr. Bush has heard of the floods, he rushed to the place, but he was blocked by road closings and emergency vehicles.
“When I was there this morning, helicopters were rescuing in the water,” said Bush.
“From what I saw, the park had disappeared,” he added while he was heading for school. “There was only water. It looked like there was nothing left. »»
Another camp is waiting to be evacuated
Betty Gerlach, whose 14-year-old grandson is a camper at Camp La Junta, the boys’ camp approximately 8 km from the Mystic camp, reported that the camp had informed the families that all the campers were safe and that they had been fed. But an evacuation plan was still under development, and it was not planned that it begins before Friday evening.
The camp asked families outside the state, Houston and the Dallas-Fort Worth region to start directing to the region. On the other hand, the families of the neighboring cities of Austin and San Antonio have been asked to “stay there for the moment”, so as not to engorge the roads.
Several buildings of the camp having been swept away by the floods, the camper took refuge in two small huts while waiting to be evacuated, said Mme Gerlach.
Kerrville canceled its celebrations of July 4, which attract thousands of festival -goers every year. In a press release published on Instagram, the organizers of the party offered the Arcadia Live as shelter theater.
The Guadalupe, which originates in the county of Hill and leads to the Gulf of Mexico, is a popular summer destination for rafting, tubing and campsite.
This article was originally published in the New York Times.
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The camp “should have been aware”, deplores a mother
Photo Carter Johnston, The New York Times
Serena Hanni Aldrich is the mother of two children who were rescued at the Mystic camp on Friday.
Her children seemed to be full of enthusiasm and happy when they went up in a large white van Friday evening outside a primary school used as a grouping center for parents whose children had been saved from the Mystic camp, overwhelmed by waters during the night.
But the mother, Serena Hanor Aldrich, warned that it was impossible to know how they would be affected by the tragedy that could wrap the Mystic camp, a Christian retreat in the center of Texas.
Mme Aldrich, a lawyer in San Antonio, said that her two daughters, aged 9 and 12, had not said much about what they had endured and that she did not want to put pressure on them. But she had a few words for camp officials, where around twenty out of 750 camper were still missing on Friday evening.
“They should have monitored the DEXAS emergency management division and the county of Kerr,” she said, referring to the authorities who had warned of possible sudden floods. “They published information yesterday (Thursday) morning. They should have been aware of the situation. »»
The eldest daughter of Mme Aldrich was in a section of the camp called “Senior Hill”, and his younger daughter in a rather flat section, when the camper and a instructor were forced to find a higher ground to escape the rise in waters which invaded the campsite.
“They went down when the water withdrew,” said Mr.me Aldrich. They then reached one of the buildings that were no longer flooded. They stayed up there for two hours. »»
The girls were finally transported by bus to another camp, then brought to the reunification center located in a primary school in Ingram.
Mme Aldrich said that she had been informed that her two daughters had been found earlier on Friday, but that she was desperate to see them in person.
This good news was tempered by the uncertainty that reigned around it. “There are still campers who are missing. »»
When she walked away from the shelter, his eldest daughter said to him: “All my things are muddy”.
“I replied:” Oh, I don’t care, “said Mr.me Aldrich.
Edgar Sandoval, The New York Times
This article was first published in the New York Times.
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