At least 82 people are dead and at least 41 more are missing after devastating flash floods slammed Texas Hill Country, with water rescues taking place along the Guadalupe River, which rose rapidly early Friday morning to the height of a two-story building. Almost a dozen are still missing from Camp Mystic in Kerr County, a children’s summer camp, officials said Sunday.
Of the fatalities so far, 68 have occurred in Kerr County, its sheriff, Larry Leitha, said at a news conference Sunday afternoon — an increase from 43 deaths reported the previous night. The dead include 40 adults and 28 children, with 18 of the adults and 10 of the children unidentified.
At least 10 Camp Mystic campers are missing, along with one counselor, Leitha told reporters. This is the first solid number officials have provided regarding campers who remain unaccounted for, after estimating Saturday that it could be as high as 27. There were about 750 children at Camp Mystic when the floods hit, the sheriff said earlier.
President Trump signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County on Sunday morning, at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s request. On Saturday, Abbott said he visited the summer camp for the first time, calling the scene “horrendously ravaged” in a social media post.
“Today I visited Camp Mystic. It, and the river running beside it, were horrendously ravaged in ways unlike I’ve seen in any natural disaster,” Abbott wrote. “The height the rushing water reached to the top of cabins was shocking. We won’t stop until we find every girl who was in those cabins. “
The governor said at a briefing Sunday afternoon that operations would continue around the clock to search for anyone affected by the deadly storm. In addition to the dead, officials have not been able to account for 41 people in various parts of the state, according to Abbott, who noted that figure may underrepresent how many people are truly missing.
“Especially in the Kerrville area, there were so many people camping out near the river, people in RVs and things like that,” he said. “There are people that are not known, confirmed missing because we do not know yet who they are.”
Abbott said searches will persist throughout the Guadalupe River system in hopes of locating anyone else and asked the public to contact local officials with information about friends or relatives believed lost.