Torrential rains unleashed flash floods along the Guadalupe River in Texas on Friday, killing at least 24 people as rescue teams scrambled to save dozens of victims trapped by high water or reported missing in the disaster, local officials said.
Among the missing were 23 to 25 people listed as unaccounted for at an all-girls Christian summer camp located on the banks of the rain-engorged Guadalupe, authorities said.
The region was beset by death and disaster on Friday after months’ worth of heavy rain fell in a matter of hours, leaving search teams to conduct boat and helicopter rescues in the fast-moving water that overtook riverfront communities and children’s summer camps.
The US National Weather Service declared a flash flood emergency for parts of Kerr county, located in south-central Texas Hill Country, following the heavy downpours.
Kerr county sheriff Larry Leitha said at least 24 fatalities have been confirmed from what his office called the “catastrophic flooding”.
Earlier, at a news conference on Friday afternoon, Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick said 23 children from Camp Mystic, a private Christian summer camp for girls, were unaccounted for of 750 who were staying there at the time.
He asked people to stay away from the area, saying the Texas division of emergency management had 14 helicopters and hundreds of emergency workers involved in search-and-rescue operations.
Patrick said emergency crews had recovered between six and 10 bodies. “Some are adults, some are children. At this point, we don’t know where they all came from.”
Patrick said Donald Trump had been informed of the situation and responded: “Whatever we need, we can have.”
A hundred troopers would also take part in the search and rescue, a Texas official said.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One at the end of a day of public events, Trump said “we’ll take care of them,” when asked about federal aid for the disaster.
The region was inundated when five to 10in of rain fell overnight as part of an intense, slow-moving storm across Kerr and Kendall counties. The runoff from parched land caused the Guadalupe River to crest at one of its highest-ever peaks, with water levels in Kerrville rising more than 22ft in just a few hours overnight.
Teams have conducted dozens of rescues as the emergency response continued and an unknown number of people remained unaccounted for. The state senator Pete Flores said: “We are in search-and-rescue mode, and we know that these first 24 hours are very important.”
More rain is expected in the state, including around Waco, and flooding is anticipated downriver from Kerr county.
Dalton Rice, city manager for Kerrville, the county seat, told reporters the extreme flooding struck with little to no advance warning, precluding authorities from issuing any evacuation orders.
“This happened very quickly, over a very short period of time, that could not be predicted, even with the radar,” Rice said. “This happened within less than a two-hour span.”
Of particular concern are more than a dozen summer camps dotted in the rural region that would now be filled with kids.
The Texas Hill Country, a scenic and rocky gateway to booming vineyards and vacation rentals, begins west of the state capital and is a popular outdoor summer getaway. Parts of the region are prone to flash flooding.
Dozens of people posted on Facebook asking for any information about their children, nieces and nephews attending one of the many camps in the area, or family members who had gone camping during the holiday weekend.
The Ingram fire department posted a photo of a statement from Camp Mystic, saying the camp experienced “catastrophic level floods”. Parents with a daughter not accounted for had been directly contacted, the camp said.
“We are working with search and rescue currently,” the camp said in its communication. “The highway has washed away so we are struggling to get more help. Please continue to pray and send any help if you have contacts to do so.”
Authorities have urged people to exercise caution and avoid driving on water-covered roads as the extreme conditions continue. “Conditions are life-threatening! DO NOT go out onto the roads,” the National Weather Service in San Angelo urged on Friday morning. “Expect roads washed out and rapid rises on rivers and creeks.”
The sheriff’s office added that “the entire county is an extremely active scene. Residents are encouraged to shelter in place and not attempt travel. Those near creeks, streams, and the Guadalupe River should immediately move to higher ground.”
The rains come after a long drought in the region that has left the soil bone-dry, increasing the chances of runoff leading to flash flooding.
Erin Burgess, a resident of the Bumble Bee Hills neighborhood west of Ingram, recounted her harrowing survival ordeal to the Associated Press. She said she woke up to thunder at 3.30am Friday morning, and “it was raining pretty heavy, but no big deal”.
Just 20 minutes later, Burgess said, water was coming in through the walls and rushing through the front and back doors. She described an agonizing hour clinging to a tree and waiting for the water to recede enough that she was able to walk up the hill to a neighbor’s.
“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 6ft tall. That’s the only thing that saved me, was hanging on to him.”
The rains in central Texas are expected to continue until later Friday.
Strong storms are also being blamed for at least three deaths in central New Jersey, including two men in Plainfield who died after a tree fell on to a vehicle they were traveling in during the height of the storm, according to a city Facebook post. The men were aged 79 and 25, officials said. They were not immediately publicly identified. Fourth of July celebrations were cancelled, the city said, “out of good conscience”.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed reporting