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The search for survivors from the deadly Texas flash floods has continued into its fourth day, as authorities warned of further adverse weather in the area and the death toll topped 80 people.
Camp Mystic, the Christian summer girls camp that was inundated by floodwaters, on Monday said in its first public statement since the disaster struck that 27 campers and counsellors had died, describing it as an “unimaginable tragedy”.
“Texas is grieving right now,” said Ted Cruz, the state’s Republican senator.
Torrential downpours began in central Texas on Friday and continued through the July 4 holiday weekend, claiming the lives of 75 people in Kerr County and 12 more in another five of the 20 counties affected.
In the early morning hours of Friday, the Guadalupe River that runs through the Hill Country in central Texas rose by 26ft (8 metres) in 45 minutes, bursting its banks and sweeping everything in its path downriver.
“Reuniting the families remain our highest priority,” said Kerr County sheriff Larry Leitha on Monday.
Authorities have not cited a figure for the total number of missing persons because so many people were camping along the river for the holiday weekend. Kerrville city manager Dalton Rice would only say “a lot” were missing. Camp Mystic still had 10 campers and one counsellor missing.
“This is one of the worst disasters in this area in a very long time,” Rice said.
The search and rescue efforts in the area were complicated by downed power lines, fallen trees, impassable roads and assorted building debris. The search area has been divided into grids that take one to three hours per 1.2 mile segment to search.
Rice said: “These areas take a lot of time to get out to. A lot of those areas don’t have cell service.”
More rain continued to fall in the area. The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for Hill Country and the interstate highway 35 corridor through 7pm local time on Monday. Slow moving thunderstorms were “ongoing”, dropping more than 3 inches of rain an hour, and were expected to continue through the early afternoon, according to a special update from the Weather Prediction Center.
Concerns have been raised about whether enough advance warning was given to locals ahead of the rain’s arrival late last week.
The NWS issued a flood watch for the area on Thursday at about 1pm local time, with the first flash flood warning for Kerr County issued in the early hours of Friday when many were asleep.
Initial forecasts from the NWS predicted 4 inches to 8 inches of rain for Hill Country. The area received as much as 15 inches of rain in the deluge.
Donald Trump’s administration has slashed thousands of jobs from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the agency that oversees the NWS, leading to questions about whether staff shortages had resulted in a lack of adequate warnings.
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