Teams walked along wet river edges to fly across central Texas on Monday but could not find any hope to salvage those stranded in the fast flood. This has taken between 96 and 100 lives—and mostly of kids. Just three days after an intense downpour transformed the Guadalupe River into a rushing, deadly torrent, 27 girls and their leaders from a Christian summer camp were reported to have died in the flood.
Ten girls and one leader remained missing, said officials on Monday. Search teams were digging through piles of mud and trash under the threat of more rain and storms. Most of the victims came from near Kerrville or Camp Mystic, places infamous for flash floods.
A minimum of 104 people were reported dead from the floods. There were discussions regarding why state and local agencies had not taken warning systems for impending flash floods seriously. Why there was no preemptive alarm system in place, which could have potentially mitigated damage, was also hotly debated. During his Monday briefing, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said local authorities would be assisted by the state in funding an alarm system by next summer.
For some, hope remained that the missing individuals could still be alive, but as time progressed, the likelihood of recovery diminished. "This will be a hard week," remarked Kerrville's Mayor Joe Herring Jr. during the Monday briefing. Knowing how old Camp Mystic was, many people found it shocking that such a historic landmark was right at the center of the flood.
On Monday, a drone hit a search helicopter in a no-fly zone over Kerr County's flood area. The copter had to land right away. No one got hurt, but the helicopter can't fly now, said the local sheriff's office.
The area is at high risk of more floods since the ground is wet and there's a lot of trash near the river. The state crisis team warned last Thursday, before the July 4 holiday, about possible quick floods in central Texas, as per weather reports. However, double the expected rain fell at two parts of the Guadalupe River, making all that water rush into one path in Kerrville, said City Manager Dalton Rice.
Rice said no one saw it coming, and it all happened in just two hours. There was no time to get people out safely without putting them at more risk. People in places that flood a lot, like the Guadalupe River area, have to weigh the risk of getting it wrong against not wanting to make a false alarm, he said.
Even so, a group of scientists from Europe said that changes in the climate are making the weather warmer and wetter, which means big rain and floods are more likely now. Leaders in Kerr County thought about putting in a flood-warning system eight years back but stopped when it got too expensive after they didn't get the $1 million grant they needed for it.