Death toll from Texas floods rises to 82
Al Jazeera :
The death toll from the catastrophic floods that hit the state of Texas in the United States has risen to 82, as the search for the missing continues and officials face questions over a failure to evacuate people in hard-hit Kerr County.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Sunday that at least 41 people remain unaccounted for across the southern state, three days after the deluge, and that more could be missing.
He promised authorities will continue to work around the clock to find the missing, and warned that additional rounds of heavy rains lasting into Tuesday could produce more life-threatening flooding.
In Kerr County, Sheriff Larry Leitha said on Sunday that searchers have found the bodies of 68 people, including 28 children, many of whom went missing from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp for girls.
Leitha said 10 more girls and a counsellor remain missing and pledged to keep searching until “everybody is found”.
President Donald Trump sent his condolences to the victims and said he would probably visit the area on Friday. His administration had been in touch with Abbott, he added.
“It’s a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible. So we say, ‘God bless all of the people that have gone through so much, and God bless… God bless the state of Texas’,” he told reporters as he left New Jersey.
The flooding occurred after the nearby Guadalupe River broke its banks after torrential rain fell in the central Texas area on Friday, the US Independence Day holiday.
Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd said the destruction killed three people in Burnet County, one in Tom Green County, five in Travis County and one in Williamson County.
Kidd said rescuers were evacuating people from more places along the river, “because we are worried about another wall of river coming down in those areas”, with rain continuing to fall on soil in the region already saturated from Friday’s rains.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was activated on Sunday and is deploying resources to first responders in Texas after Trump issued a major disaster declaration, the Department of Homeland Security said.
US coastguard helicopters and planes were aiding search and rescue efforts.
Freeman Martin, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said on Sunday that he expected to “see the death toll rise today and tomorrow”.
Authorities, meanwhile, have faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in an area long vulnerable to flooding, and whether enough preparations were made.