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“The camp was completely destroyed,” said Elinor Lester, 13, one of hundreds of campers. “A helicopter landed and started taking people away. It was really scary.”
A raging storm woke up her cabin just after midnight Friday, and when rescuers arrived, they tied a rope for the girls to hold as they walked across a bridge with water whipping around their legs, she said.
Officials comb through the banks of the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area.Credit: AP
Frantic parents and families posted photos of missing loved ones and pleas for information.
On Saturday, the camp was mostly deserted. Helicopters roared above as a few people looked at the damage, including a pickup truck tossed onto its side and a building missing its entire front wall.
Among those confirmed dead was the director of a camp just up the road from Camp Mystic.
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The flooding in the middle of the night caught many residents, campers and officials by surprise in the Hill Country, which sits northwest of San Antonio.
AccuWeather said the private forecasting company and the National Weather Service sent warnings about potential flash flooding hours before the devastation.
“These warnings should have provided officials with ample time to evacuate camps such as Camp Mystic and get people to safety,” AccuWeather said in a statement that called the Hill Country one of the most flash-flood-prone areas of the US because of its terrain and many water crossings.
Officials defended their actions while saying they had not expected such an intense downpour that was the equivalent of months’ worth of rain for the area.
One National Weather Service forecast earlier in the week “did not predict the amount of rain that we saw,” said Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
Families are reunited at a reunification centre in Ingram, Texas.Credit: AP
Helicopters, drones used in frantic search for missing
Search crews were facing harsh conditions while “looking in every possible location,” Rice said.
Authorities said about 850 people had been rescued. US Coast Guard helicopters were flying in to assist.
One reunification centre at an elementary school was mostly quiet on Saturday after taking in hundreds of evacuees the day before.
“We still have people coming here looking for their loved ones. We’ve had a little success, but not much,” said Bobby Templeton, superintendent of Ingram Independent School District.
President Donald Trump said that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was travelling to Texas and his administration was working with officials on the ground.
“Melania and I are praying for all of the families impacted by this horrible tragedy,” Trump said in a statement on his social media network.
Residents clung to trees, fled to attics
In Ingram, Erin Burgess woke to thunder and rain in the middle of the night Friday. Just 20 minutes later, water was pouring into her home, she said. She described an agonising hour clinging to a tree with her teenage son.
“My son and I floated to a tree where we hung onto it, and my boyfriend and my dog floated away. He was lost for a while, but we found them,” she said.
Debris sit on a bridge over the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area.Credit: AP
Barry Adelman said water pushed everyone in his three-story house into the attic, including his 94-year-old grandmother and nine-year-old grandson.
“I was having to look at my grandson in the face and tell him everything was going to be OK, but inside I was scared to death,” he said.
Local resident know it as “flash flood alley.”
“When it rains, water doesn’t soak into the soil,” said Austin Dickson, CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, which was collecting donations. “It rushes down the hill.”
‘No one knew this kind of flood was coming’
The forecast for the weekend had called for rain, with a flood watch upgraded to a warning overnight Friday for at least 30,000 people. Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said the potential for heavy rain and flooding covered a large area.
“Everything was done to give them a heads-up that you could have heavy rain, and we’re not exactly sure where it’s going to land,” Patrick said. “Obviously as it got dark last night, we got into the wee morning of the hours, that’s when the storm started to zero in.”
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, the county’s chief elected official, said: “We do not have a warning system.”
When pushed on why more precautions weren’t taken, Kelly said no one knew this kind of flood was coming.
AP
