Texas flood death toll rises to 109, over 180 missing

The death toll from the flash flood on July 4, which devastated parts of central Texas Hill Country in the US, rose to at least 109 people on Tuesday, many of them children, as search teams moved through piles of debris looking for dozens of people still considered missing, writes UNN with reference to Reuters.

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According to data released by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, authorities are searching for more than 180 people whose fate remained unknown days after one of the deadliest floods in the US in recent decades.

The bulk of the fatalities and the search for other victims were concentrated in Kerr County and the county seat of Kerrville, a city of 25,000 residents that turned into a disaster zone when torrential rains hit the region last Friday, flooding the Guadalupe River basin.

As of Tuesday, 94 flood victims' bodies had been found in Kerr County alone, approximately one-third of whom were children, Abbott said.

Among the dead in Kerr County are 27 people from Camp Mystic, a nearly century-old Christian summer camp for girls on the banks of the Guadalupe near the town of Hunt. The camp director also died.

Five girls and a camp counselor were still considered missing on Tuesday, Abbott said, along with another child not associated with the camp.

As of Tuesday, the governor said, 15 more flood-related deaths had been confirmed in the Texas Hill Country, known as "flash flood alley," bringing the total death toll to 109. According to local sheriffs and media, the flood death toll outside Kerr County is 22.

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But authorities said they were preparing for the death toll to rise as the water recedes and the search for victims intensifies.

Law enforcement compiled a list of 161 people "known to be missing" in Kerr County alone, Abbott said.

He said 12 more people were missing elsewhere in the flood zone as a whole, in the sprawling area northwest of San Antonio.

Due to intermittent thunderstorms and heavy rains, rescue teams from federal agencies, neighboring states, and Mexico joined forces in the search for the missing, although hope of finding more survivors faded over time. The last victim was found alive in Kerr County last Friday, the publication writes.

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Last Friday, less than an hour before dawn, more than 30 cm of rain fell in the region, causing a torrent of water to rush into the Guadalupe, claiming dozens of lives and leaving behind piles of debris, uprooted trees, and overturned cars.

Authorities have faced questions for days about whether they could have warned residents in flood-prone areas earlier.

Ahead of last Thursday's disaster, according to forecasts from the US National Weather Service, the State Emergency Management Agency warned that some areas of central Texas faced a threat of flash floods.

However, according to city manager Dalton Rice, twice as much rain fell on the two branches of the Guadalupe, located just above their confluence, than was forecast. All the water poured into the single river channel where it flows through Kerrville.

Rice stated that the consequences were unpredictable and everything happened in just two hours, leaving too little time for a precautionary mass evacuation without risking endangering even more people.

Scientists said that extreme floods are becoming more frequent as climate change leads to warmer and wetter weather in Texas and other parts of the US.

Abbott announced that a special session of the Texas legislature would be held later this month to investigate emergency response actions and secure funding for disaster relief.

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