Kerrville, Texas (AP) – The number of deaths from floods that fell across the Central Texas increased to at least 67, as rescuers through difficult terrain found more bodies and continued to search for many others, including 11 missing girls from a summer camp.
Sherif Larry La Betha said that researchers in the province of Kiir had found 16 bodies since Saturday afternoon, which led to the total number of deaths there to 59. He said that the dead included 21 children.
He pledged to continue searching in the Hill Rifi area until “everyone was found” from Flash floods on Friday.
Four deaths were also reported in Travis Province, three in Burant and 1 in Kendall.
Rescuers deal with broken trees, transported cars and wreckage full of exit on the difficult task of finding survivors. The authorities have not yet said the number of people who were missing after 11 children and a camp consultant from Mystic camp, a Christian summer camp.
Families were allowed to look around the camp on Sunday morning, while nearby crews that manage heavy equipment withdrew tree trunks and interlocking branches from the water while searching along the river bank. Thunder thunder from a new storm.
A teenage woman and girl, both wearing rubber properties, went shortly to one of the cabins, which were standing next to a pile of crucified ranks, storage trunk and clothes. At one point, the husband doubles, and he cries before embracing it.
With every hour, expectations to find more survivors have become more dark. The volunteers and some missing families who traveled to the disaster area searched the banks of the river despite their demand not to do so.
The authorities have faced increasing questions about whether sufficient warnings were issued in the area vulnerable to floods for a long time and whether the preparations are sufficient.
The destroyed rapidly 26 feet (8 meters) water rose on the river in just 45 minutes before Friday, washing homes and vehicles. The danger did not end with the valid Flash Flood watches and more rains fell in central Texas on Sunday.
Researchers used helicopters, boats and drones to search for victims and save people who were cut off in trees and from isolated camps through washed roads. Officials said more than 850 people were rescued in the first 36 hours.
Prayers in Texas – and from the Vatican
The governor of the state, Greg Abbott, pledged that the authorities would work around the clock and said that the new areas were searched with a decline in water. On Sunday, the day of prayer for the state was announced.
He said in a statement, “I urge all Texas to join me in prayer this Sunday – because the lost spirits, for those who are still missing, in order to restore our societies, and for security on the front lines.”
In Rome, Pope Liu fourteenth provided special prayers for those who touched the disaster. The first American Pope in history in English spoke at the end of Sunday, “I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families that we lost our loved ones, especially their daughters who were in the summer camp, in the catastrophe caused by the flood of the Guadalpe River in Texas in the United States.”
The hills move along the Guadalobi River with the youth camps dating back to a century where generations of families came to swim and enjoy the open air. The region is especially popular around the Independence Day, which makes it difficult to know the number of missing persons.
“We do not even want to start appreciation at this time,” said Dalton Rice, director of the city of Kerville on Saturday.
A terrible escape from flood water
The survivors shared terrifying stories about getting away and clinging to trees while exciting flood water was carrying trees and cars behind them. Others fled to the headlines inside their homes, and the water would not reach them.
In CAMP Mystic, a cabin filled with girls detained with a rope involved by rescuers walking through a bridge with water wandering around their legs.
Among those confirmed, she was a 8 -year -old girl from Mountain Brock, Alabama, she was in Mestic camp, and another camp manager on the road.
Local population knows that the “Flash Flood” area, but the flood in the middle of the night discovered many camp and residents despite the presence of warnings.
The warnings came before the disaster
On Thursday, the National Weather Service advised potential floods and then sent a series of failed flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before the issuance of emergency cases in the floods – a rare alert that comes to an imminent danger.
In the MO-Ranch camp in the Hunt community, officials were watching the weather and chose to transport several hundred of the camp and attendees at a youth conference in the church to a higher land. In nearby camps, Rio Vista and Sierra Vista, the organizers also stated on social media that they were watching the weather a day before ending their second summer session on Thursday.
Elected authorities and officials said that they do not expect such intense heavy rains, which is equivalent to rain from the most famous in the region.
The American MP, who includes his area in the destroyed area, has acknowledged that there will be a secondary guess and the formation of the fingers while people are looking for someone who blames him.
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Cortez mentioned from Hunt, Texas, and Seeweer from Tolido, Ohio. The Associated Press Susan Haig in Hartford, Connecticut, Susan Monteoya Brian contributed in Bouquerk, New Mexico, and Nicole Winfield in Rome.