The death toll from catastrophic flooding in Texas over the July Fourth weekend surpassed 100 on Monday as search-and-rescue teams continued to wade into swollen rivers and use heavy equipment to untangle trees as part of the massive search for missing people.
Authorities overseeing the search for flood victims said they will wait to address questions about weather warnings and why some summer camps did not evacuate ahead of the flooding that killed at least 104.
The officials spoke only hours after the operators of Camp Mystic, a century-old all-girls Christian summer camp in the Texas Hill Country, announced that they lost 27 campers and counselors to the floodwaters. Kerr County officials said Monday 10 campers and one counselor have still not been found.
Searchers have found the bodies of 84 people, including 28 children, in the county home to Camp Mystic and several other summer camps, officials said.
With additional rain on the way, more flooding still threatened saturated parts of central Texas. Authorities said the death toll was sure to rise.
The raging flash floods — among the nation’s worst in decades — slammed into camps and homes along the edge of the Guadalupe River before daybreak Friday, pulling sleeping people out of their cabins, tents and trailers and dragging them for miles past floating tree trunks and cars. Some survivors were found clinging to trees.
Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months of rain. Some residents said they never received any warnings.
US President Donald Trump, who signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County, said he plans to visit the state on Friday. He had said Sunday that he does not plan to rehire any of the federal meteorologists who were fired this year.
“This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it,” the president said.