VALLEY FIREFIGHTERS RESPOND TO FLOODING TRAGEDY IN CENTRAL TEXAS

Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, on Saturday. The camp has been run by the same family for almost a century.Credit...Carter Johnston for The New York Times

New York Times Staff

Various Sources

The search for those who were swept away by devastating floods in Central Texas grew increasingly desperate as the death toll jumped to 52 on Saturday night and the likelihood of finding more survivors appeared to diminish.

In Kerr County, where waterways gorged by thunderstorms tore through a Christian girls’ camp, trapped families inside trailer homes and swept people into the currents, the authorities said that some two dozen campers remained unaccounted for, and that there was “no cap” to the broader tally of the missing. 

State and local officials said the search was now a race against time, but they refused to relinquish their hope that more survivors would be found.

(The Brownsville Fire Department has joined emergency response convoys heading north to assist Texas communities impacted by widespread flooding. According to a post from the department, firefighters are en route and prepared to provide support wherever needed. The deployment is part of a larger statewide effort to respond to severe weather that has caused extensive damage and displacement across several regions. Officials say the team is equipped and trained to handle flood-related emergencies and is committed to helping fellow Texans during this time of crisis. Source: Brownsville Fire Department)

(Fire departments across the Rio Grande Valley have sent firefighters and other staff to assist in the rescue and recovery efforts going on in the Texas Hill Country. According to McAllen Fire Chief Juan Gloria, the McAllen Fire Department has sent three firefighters as part of a Texas A&M Task Force 1 water board squad.

Brownsville Major John Cowen announced on social media, the Brownsville Fire Department will also be sending aid.

“The City of Brownsville is also contributing to the response. Yesterday afternoon, a crew of three along with an ambulance and a strike team leader was deployed to support the ongoing rescue and recovery efforts,” Cowen said.”

Roxanne Lerma, a City of Edinburg spokesperson, told ValleyCentral that the Edinburg Fire Department deployed two firefighters to Central Texas as part of Texas A&M Task Force 1, supporting the state’s response to ongoing flood recovery efforts.)

The flooding threat from slow-moving thunderstorms in Central Texas is expected to continue overnight. Six million people there remain under flood watches until Sunday afternoon or evening. An additional two to four inches of rain are possible across the Hill Country, with pockets of up to 10 inches, and excess runoff may cause flash flooding in low-lying areas, the National Weather Service said.

Crucial positions at the local offices of the National Weather Service were unfilled as severe rainfall inundated parts of Central Texas on Friday morning, prompting some experts to question whether staffing shortages made it harder for the forecasting agency to coordinate with local emergency managers as floodwaters rose.

Texas officials appeared to blame the Weather Service for issuing forecasts on Wednesday that underestimated how much rain was coming. But former Weather Service officials said the forecasts were as good as could be expected, given the enormous levels of rainfall and the storm’s unusually abrupt escalation.

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said late Saturday that the girls’ camp and an adjacent river had been “horrendously ravaged in ways unlike I’ve seen in any natural disaster,” and that rushing waters had reached the tops of cabins.

“We won’t stop until we find every girl who was in those cabins,” he said on social media.

As the death toll continued to climb, investigators were trying to identify victims. Among them were 8-year-old and 9-year-old campers, and a 27-year-old man who died trying to save his family by punching a window through their trailer so they could escape the rising waters.

Most of the deaths occurred in Kerr County, an area northwest of San Antonio that has experienced the worst of the flooding. Officials said that 43 people had died; 15 were children. Elsewhere in the state, four people were killed in Travis County, three in Burnet County, one in Kendall County and one in Tom Green County, the authorities said. Thirteen people were also missing in Travis County, which includes Austin.

Here’s what we’re covering:

• Victims: Officials are still identifying those who were killed, but early portraits of some of them have emerged. Here’s what we know about some of them ›

• An agonizing wait: Many of the missing are girls who were at Camp Mystic, the Christian summer camp in Kerr County, when the floods hit. Stories of rescues have begun trickling in, but many parents are still anxiously waiting for news. Read more ›

• Beauty and danger: Kerr County is in a part of Texas known as the Hill Country, where many residents have been lured by natural splendor and a rustic vibe. But the region has also become known as “Flash Flood Alley.” Read more ›

• A harrowing rescue: A 70-year-old man in Center Point, Texas, helped rescue a young woman sitting in a tree above dangerous floodwaters on Friday. She had been camping at a site 20 miles up the river when she was suddenly swept away and carried downstream. Read more ›

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