(Hunt, Texas) The devastating floods having ravaged Texas in the south of the United States, left more than 100 dead, according to a new assessment announced on Monday by the local authorities.
Kerr’s only county, the hardest hit, counts 84 victims, including 28 children.
“Texas is in mourning. The pain, the shock of what has happened in recent days have broken the heart of our state, “said Texan Senator Ted Cruz at a press conference.
Among the victims are 27 children and monitors of the Christian holiday camp for camp girls, on the banks of the Guadalupe river, which hosted some 750 people, announced its officials.
President Donald Trump plans to go there on Friday, confirmed the White House, criticizing the criticisms that the budget cuts in national weather services have informed the reliability of forecasts and alerts.
Photo Ronaldo Schemidt, agency France-Presse
A view of a damaged building and trees fallen to the Mystic Camp in Hunt, Texas, July 7, 2025
“Keeping President Trump responsible for these floods is an odious lie, which makes no sense in this national mourning period,” spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on Monday.
She said that the American weather services (NWS) – of which several posts in Texas were vacant during the floods, according to the New York Times – had issued “forecasts and alerts both precise and in due time”.
” Nightmare ”
Believing that the floods were “a disaster as we have not seen in 100 years”, Donald Trump signed a disaster declaration during the weekend in order to provide Texas with the means of the federal government.
More than 400 rescuers as well as helicopters and drones participate in research, the authorities said.
In the locality of Hunt, near Camp Mystic, the rescue teams attempted all day on Monday to find the missing bodies. Boat rescuers and divers rummage the waters of the river, while volunteers patronize the banks, noted an AFP journalist.
Photo Ronaldo Schemidt, agency France-Presse
A rescue team is looking for people along the Guadalupe river near the Mystic camp in Hunt, on July 7, 2025.
After two days of research in the middle of the uprooted trees and the rubble of the holiday center, hoping until the end “a miracle”, Michael McCown confirmed on Monday to AFP that his eight -year -old daughter, Linnie, had died.
“This is the nightmare of all parents,” said senator Ted Cruz, whose children have been attending this camp for ten years.
Alert siren
Residents of the area complained over the weekend of not having been warned early in the risk of floods.
After the disaster, Nicole Wilson, a mother residing in San Antonio, who almost sent her daughters to the Mistic camp, launched a petition asking the Governor of the State to approve the establishment of a more modern alert network.
Photo Sergio Flores, Reuters
Part of the highway 1340 is covered by the Guadalupe river following floods in the county of Kerr, on July 7, 2025.
“A siren triggered, just five minutes, could have saved each of these children,” she told AFP.
The sudden floods were caused by torrential rains in the center of the state very early on Friday, the day of the American national holiday, which raised the waters of the Guadalupe of eight meters in just 45 minutes.
It suddenly fell nearly 300 millimeters/rain, a third of the average annual precipitation.
Photo Marco Bello, Reuters
A man participated in recovery operations after the floods in Hunt, on July 7, 2025.
The Guadalupe river has found its bed, but the shores still offered a desolation show.
Flood alerts were still in effect in certain sectors of the center of Texas until 7 p.m. local time on Monday (GMT midnight).
Sudden floods, caused by torrential rains that the dry soil cannot absorb, are not uncommon. But according to the scientific community, climate change caused by human activity has made meteorological events more frequent and more intense such as floods, droughts and heat waves.
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