Kerrville.- The death toll from the
floods in south-central Texas has risen to 52, according to reports this Saturday from authorities in several communities affected by the catastrophe, the first of which was Kerr County, east of the city of San Antonio.
Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha Jr. said the number of recovered bodies has risen to 43, including 28 adults and 15 children, following the devastation caused by the Guadalupe River’s strong rise on Friday.
Authorities from other nearby communities have also reported fatalities: 3 in Burnet County, 1 in Kendall County, 1 in Tom Green County, and 4 in Travis County.
Sheriff Leitha Jr., of Kerr, explained that hundreds of emergency workers remain in the flooded areas and the work is still of “search and rescue”, so he asked the population to send information about their missing relatives with their last known location.
Worst floods since 1987
Kerrville City Manager in Kerr County, Dalton Rice, explained that these are the worst floods in the area since 1987, predicted that the death toll will rise, and convened conferences for Sunday morning and afternoon.
Rice reported that “hundreds” of people who were in camps in the area have been rescued, about 800 in total, and are being cared for in local shelters.
However, he stated that the 27 missing people, girls and monitors, who were staying at the Mystic Christian camp for girls, located on the banks of the Guadalupe near the town of Hunt, are still missing.
Without an exact figure for the missing
Local authorities did not want to specify an exact number of missing persons due to the large number of people from outside the region who were visiting and camping in the area for the July 4th festivities.
The National Weather Service explained that in a period of just 12 hours on Friday, more than 30 centimeters of precipitation accumulated, which raised the flow of the Guadalupe, near Hunt, to its second highest recorded level, with 9.9 meters in height.
Rice told people who have gone to the authorities offering to help to go to their “local area” and try to collect “debris in buckets and garbage bags”, but be careful because there are still “very dangerous conditions”.
He also anticipated that the city would be supplied with water from wells during the coming weeks to avoid contaminated water due to debris carried in the flood, such as gasoline and other chemicals.
