Authorities in Texas express grave concern that the number of victims from the catastrophic floods that struck the state on Independence Day (July 4) will increase further, as the death toll already exceeds 110 and 173 people remain missing. Rescue operations continued throughout Wednesday, while hopes of finding survivors are dramatically diminishing almost a week after the disaster.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott stated that the number of missing persons will likely increase, as new reports from relatives and neighbors continue to arrive. In Kerr County alone, 161 people are missing, while another 12 have been reported missing in other areas of the state.
“Our number 1 duty is to find every person who is missing,” Governor Abbott emphasized via X.
In total and as of this stage, 119 deaths have been recorded due to the floods in Texas, according to local authorities. Kerr County, which suffered the heaviest blow, mourns 95 deaths, including 36 children, according to Sheriff Larry Litha. Among them are 27 children and counselors from a Christian organization’s girls camp, Camp Mystic, on the banks of the Guadalupe River. There were 750 people there when the tragedy unfolded.
Five campers and a supervisor continued to be missing yesterday, according to Sheriff Litha, who also added that another child, outside those at the camp, is also missing.
Texas floods: “Battle” to find the missing
Over 2,000 members of rescue teams, police officers and specialists have been deployed to the disaster site. Helicopters, drones and teams with specially trained dogs have also been participating in search operations for days. Emphasizing the difficult conditions in which rescue teams are working, through mud, uprooted vegetation and debris, Kerrville police officer Jonathan Lam said that hundreds of people were saved and that the situation could be “much” worse.
Police officers went “door-to-door” and “woke people up” in the early hours of Friday, in some cases “pulled them out of windows,” as their homes or mobile homes had already flooded, he explained.
President Donald Trump is expected in the state tomorrow, Friday, accompanied by his wife Melania.
On Monday, the White House blasted criticism that budget and staffing cuts to the national weather service reduced the accuracy and reliability of forecasts and emergency warning bulletins. In press conferences the day before yesterday and yesterday, local officials generally preferred to avoid giving clear answers to questions about the speed of warnings. But Sheriff Litha acknowledged that they should “be answered.”
The flash floods due to torrential rains in central Texas occurred early Friday morning, when the waters of the Guadalupe River swelled by eight meters in just 45 minutes.
Rainfall reached 300 millimeters per hour, one-third of the average annual precipitation.
Flash floods, caused by torrential rains on dried soil that cannot absorb such large amounts of water, are not a rare phenomenon.
However, according to the scientific community, human-induced climate change makes phenomena such as floods, droughts and heat waves more frequent and intense.
The tragedy occurred in a part of Texas that experiences “both extremes of the climate change spectrum,” as “droughts have become more extreme” and “when rains come, they are more intense and there is an increased likelihood of flash floods,” meteorologist Cel Winkley explained to the French Press Agency.
In neighboring New Mexico, torrential rains caused flooding at a mountain station in Ruidoso, resulting in the deaths of at least 3 people.
