Houston: Severe flooding across central Texas has left at least 49 people dead and dozens still missing, local authorities confirmed over the weekend, as massive rescue operations continue across several affected counties.
In Kerr County, the worst-hit region, 43 fatalities have been reported, including 28 adults and 15 children, following torrential rains that triggered flash floods early Friday morning. Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha confirmed the toll during a press briefing.
Among the missing are 27 children, most of them campers at Camp Mystic, a private Christian summer camp for girls located along the Guadalupe River. The camp usually accommodates around 750 children every year, according to Dalton Rice, the city manager of Kerrville.
“We’ve been rescuing people out of these camps by the hundreds all day,” Rice said, highlighting the scale of the emergency response.
In Travis County, four people have been confirmed dead while 13 others remain missing, according to county judge Andy Brown, as reported by local broadcaster KXAN-TV.
Meanwhile, in Burnet County, the local sheriff’s office confirmed two fatalities, with two additional individuals still unaccounted for. Search and rescue efforts were ongoing as of Saturday afternoon.
The situation has prompted Texas Governor Greg Abbott to expand the state's disaster declaration on Saturday, adding six more counties, bringing the total number of affected counties under emergency status to 20.
A major factor in the flooding was the dramatic rise of the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, where water levels surged from 7.5 feet (2.3 metres) to 29.5 feet (9 metres) within just three hours early Friday morning. The US National Weather Service (NWS) confirmed that this marked the second-highest river level on record for the region.
Nim Kidd, Chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, noted that the NWS had underestimated the rainfall intensity, which contributed significantly to the scale of the disaster.
This event adds to a series of severe flood incidents that Texas has faced in 2024. The United States as a whole has already recorded a historic number of flash flood emergencies this year, according to AccuWeather.
Expressing solidarity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended condolences to the US Government and grieving families on Saturday.
“Deeply saddened to learn about loss of lives, especially children, in the devastating floods in Texas. Our condolences to the US Government and the bereaved families,” he wrote in a post on X.
With IANS inputs