KERRVILLE, Texas — (AP) — Flash floods in Texas killed more than 100 people over the Fourth of July holiday weekend and left scores still missing, including girls attending a summer camp. The devastation along the Guadalupe River, outside of San Antonio, has drawn a massive search effort as officials face questions over their preparedness and the speed of their initial actions.
Here's what to know about the deadly flooding, the colossal weather system that drove it in and around Kerr County and efforts to identify victims:
The floods grew to their worst when many people were asleep.
The Texas Hill Country in the central part of the state is naturally prone to flash flooding due to the dry dirt-packed areas where the soil lets rain skid along the surface of the landscape instead of soaking it up. Friday's flash floods started with a particularly bad storm that dropped most of its 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain in the dark early morning hours.
After a flood watch notice midday Thursday, the National Weather Service office issued an urgent warning around 4 a.m. that raised the potential of catastrophic damage and a severe threat to human life. By at least 5:20 a.m., some in the Kerrville area say water levels were getting alarmingly high. The massive rain flowing down hills sent rushing water into the Guadalupe River, causing it to rise 26 feet (8 meters) in just 45 minutes.
In Kerr County, home to youth camps in the Texas Hill Country, searchers have found the bodies of 87 people, including 30 children, Sheriff Larry Leitha said Tuesday. Fatalities in nearby counties brought the total number of deaths so far to at least 107.
More than 160 people were believed to be missing, Gov. Greg Abbott said. He said many of those people were staying in the Texas Hill Country but did not register at a camp or hotel. The number of missing jumped after authorities set up a missing person hotline.
Search crews will not stop working until everyone is found, authorities said.
Five girls and one counselor were still unaccounted for at Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp along the river.
For past campers, the tragedy turned happy memories into grief.
Lt. Col. Ben Baker of the Texas Game Wardens said Tuesday that there had been more than 440 rescues of flood victims, though officials said the last live rescue was Friday. Baker said authorities had searched 26 miles (42 kilometers) of river.
Authorities were using dogs to help search through large piles of flood debris to find bodies.
“Specialized teams have to go in there layer by layer,” Baker said. “It’s extremely treacherous, time consuming. It's dirty work. The water is still there.”
AP photographers have captured the scale of the destruction and one of Texas' largest rescue and recovery efforts.
President Donald Trump said he plans to visit the flood zone Friday.
Survivors have described the floods as a "pitch black wall of death" and said they received no emergency warnings.
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, who lives along the Guadalupe River, said Saturday that " nobody saw this coming." Officials have referred to it as a "100-year-flood," meaning that the water levels were highly unlikely based on the historical record.
Local officials have known for decades, however, that flooding posed serious a risk in the region, and a county government report last year warned the threat was worsening.
Officials also determined that another flood was likely in the next year and that “future worst-case flood events” could be more severe than those of the past, according to the report.
Officials have come under scrutiny about why residents and youth summer camps along the river were not alerted sooner than 4 a.m. or told to evacuate.
Leitha said Tuesday that he wasn't notified of the flash flooding until between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. Friday. During a news conference, reporters pressed him about who was directing emergency operations before then, and he said he hadn't put together a timeline.
“That is not my priority,” he said. “There’s three priorities: that's locating the people out there, identifying and notifying the next of kin.”
Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said Monday that spotty cell service in some of the more isolated areas of Kerr County and cell towers that might have gone out of service during the weather could have hindered communication between authorities and the camps.
Kerr County officials said they had presented a proposal for a more robust flood warning system, similar to a tornado warning system, but that members of the public reeled at the cost.
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