KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Crews searched through the dark early Saturday for two dozen children from a girls camp and many others still missing after a wall of water rushed down a river in the Texas Hill Country during a powerful storm that killed at least 24 people. The death toll was certain to rise.
The destructive fast-moving waters along the Guadalupe River rose 26 feet (8 meters) in just 45 minutes before dawn Friday, washing away homes and vehicles. The danger was not over as more heavy rains were expected Saturday and flash flood warnings and flood watches remained in effect for parts of central Texas.
Searchers used helicopters and drones to look for victims and rescue people stranded. The total number of missing was not known but one sheriff said about 24 of them were girls who had been attending Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp along the river.
Frantic parents and families posted photos of missing loved ones and pleas for information.
“The camp was completely destroyed,” said Elinor Lester, 13, one of hundreds of campers at Camp Mystic. “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 floodwaters whipping around their legs, she said.
At a news conference late Friday, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said 24 people were confirmed dead. Authorities said about 240 people had been recued.
The flooding in the middle of the night on the Fourth of July holiday caught many residents, campers and officials by surprise. Officials defended their preparations for severe weather and their response but said they had not expected such an intense downpour that was, in effect, the equivalent of months' worth of rain for the area.
One National Weather Service forecast this week had called for only between three and six inches (76 to 152 millimeters) of rain, said Nim Kidd, the chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
“It did not predict the amount of rain that we saw,” he said.
Helicopters, drones used in frantic search for missing
One river gauge near Camp Mystic recorded a 22 foot rise (6.7 meters) in about two hours, said Bob Fogarty, meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Austin/San Antonio office. The gauge failed after recording a level of 29 and a half feet (9 meters).
“The water’s moving so fast, you’re not going to recognize how bad it is until it’s on top of you,” Fogarty said.
On the Kerr County sheriff's office Facebook page, people posted pictures of loved ones and begged for help finding them.
At least 400 people were on the ground helping in the response, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said. Rescue teams, helicopters and drones were being used, with some people being rescued from trees.
‘Pitch black wall of death’
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 directly across from the river, she said. She described an agonizing hour clinging to a tree and waiting for the water to recede enough to walk up the hill to a neighbor's home.
“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.
Of her 19-year-old son, Burgess said: “Thankfully he’s over 6 feet tall. That’s the only thing that saved me, was hanging on to him.”
Matthew Stone, 44, of Kerrville, said police came knocking on doors but that he had received no warning on his phone.
“We got no emergency alert. There was nothing," Stone said. Then "a pitch black wall of death.”
‘I was scared to death’
At a reunification center set up in Ingram, families cried and cheered as loved ones got off vehicles loaded with evacuees. Two soldiers carried an older woman who could not get down a ladder. Behind her, a woman clutched a small white dog.
Later, a girl in a white “Camp Mystic” T-shirt and white socks stood in a puddle, sobbing in her mother’s arms.
Barry Adelman, 54, said water pushed everyone in his three-story house into the attic, including his 94-year-old grandmother and 9-year-old grandson. The water started coming through the attic floor before finally receding.
“I was horrified,” he said. “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.”
‘No one knew this kind of flood was coming’
The forecast had called for rain, with a flood watch upgraded to a warning overnight for at least 30,000 people.
The lieutenant governor noted that 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.”
Asked about how people were notified in Kerr County so that they could get to safety, Judge Rob Kelly, the county's chief elected official, said: “We do not have a warning system.”
When reporters pushed on why more precautions weren't taken, Kelly said: “Rest assured, no one knew this kind of flood was coming.”
Popular tourism area prone to flooding
The area is known as “flash flood alley” because of the hills’ thin layer of soil, said Austin Dickson, CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, which was collecting donations to help nonprofits responding to the disaster.
“When it rains, water doesn’t soak into the soil,” Dickson said. “It rushes down the hill.”
River tourism industry is a key part of the Hill Country economy. Well-known, century-old summer camps bring in kids from all over the country, Dickson said.
“It’s generally a very tranquil river with really beautiful clear blue water that people have been attracted to for generations,” Dickson said.
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Fingerhut reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press reporters Adrian Sanz in Memphis, Tennessee, Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City, John O'Connor in Springfield, Illinois, and Susan Haigh in Norwich, Connecticut, also contributed.
