Texas Flood Rescue Teams continued searching for more than 160 missing people as Death toll climb

The discovery of people’s score is still missing Central Texas devastated after flash flood On Tuesday, on Tuesday, the fifth day spread as the toll of death continued to grow.

at least 110 people are confirmed And more than 160 people are unaware, the Texas Gove Greg Abbott said during a news conference on Tuesday afternoon. After the horrific weekend storm, rescue operations were going on to find anyone lost in the debris, causing the huge Gwadalup river to reach nearly influenced levels.

In Ker County alone, 161 people are known for disappearing, said Abbott, and at least 12 people are missing in other parts of the state.

President Trump has signed a federal disaster declaration at Abbott’s request, which has been allowed Federal emergency management agency To press your teams to support local rescue and recovery efforts to press on those operations. Officials said the ongoing storms have made special challenging efforts, but the National Meteorological Service forecast indicated that the conditions would end on Tuesday.

Camp Mystic Tragedy

Kerrt, west of the County-Austin, bore the flaws of the state capital-Apada, located in the flood-prone mountain country. One big Most deaths Kerr was in county.

In Camp Mystic, a summer camp of a girl with cabins on the banks of the river in a rural part of Ker County near Hunt, At least 27 campers and consultants Camps and living camps were described as “horrific floods”. Some survivors said that they woke up in the water race through the windows. Ker County Sheriff Larry Litha said on Tuesday that the crew continued the search for five missing campers and a counselor of Camp Mistic.

Abbott said on Tuesday that even a child associated with the camp is missing.

Hundreds of rescue teams including teams of local, state and federal agencies, as well as teams of volunteers, are involved in search, Texas game warden Ben Baker said during a news conference on Tuesday.

Baker told a reporter, “Whenever you look at human life, it is very sad. But to see a child in that loss of life, it is extremely tragic,” Baker told a reporter who asked about the effects on the mental health of the rescue team.

Abbott said that he was on Tuesday, Robert F., Health and Human Services Secretary. A text message was received from Kennedy Junior, stating that the Department of Health and Human Services is ready to declare a public health emergency for Texas Hill Country Flood.

“This will make it easier for health care and mental health providers to help the region from outside the state and help from telemedicine,” said Abbott.

26 feet of water rises from the Guadalup River

According to officials, a missing person was found alive in Ker County on Friday. But search staff continued to survey Mile of Guadalup River Baker told reporters that in the hope of finding other people, who were lost in floods, told reporters.

The river moves through an area of ​​about 230 miles that sits between Austin and San Antonio, which begins in Ker County and ends with the Gulf Coast. This is the surname of “Flash Flood Ale” as the area makes it unsafe for floods.

Five other Texas Counties officials have also confirmed the flood deaths: Travis County, including Austin, as well as Burnett, Kendall, Williamson and Tom Green County.

During the early hours of Friday morning, the Gwadalup River in Hunt in Ker County, Rose up to about 26 feet -Mote the height of a two-storey building-during 45 minutes, Texas Lieutenant village. Dan Patrick said during a news conference on Friday.

Camp Mystic was “devastated terriblely destroyed,” Abbott wrote in a social media post after going to the site, with about 750 children after the flood.

Investigation on weather forecasts

Is the community in the way of flood Got adequate warning Heavy investigation has been done and it is a matter of ongoing debate. During his Tuesday’s news conference, the Ker County officials refused to respond to the inquiry of reporters on the matter.

Some have questioned if Trump administration cut national weather service earlier this year And its original agency, National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, potentially prevented local forecasting offices to prevent the public from adequately preparing for the flood limit.

Mr. Trump and his team have repeatedly rejected any suggestion that federal firing affected the forecast or emergency preparations in front of the flood.

A CBS news analysis He found 22 warnings The National Weather Service was released from the service to Ker County for storm and flash flooding, which led to an increase in the language over time. But some local residents said that they did not receive an emergency alert on their phone nor did they understand how serious the situation had really become until this happened.

San Antonio and San Angelo Weather Service offices issued warnings for flood affected areas. Union officials representing the National Weather Service Workers told CBS News that there are 23 meteorologists employees among the offices, which have 10 vacancies simultaneously.

In San Antonio, the office is recalling a warning coordination meteorologist, an important role that is essentially planning to contact between forecasts and emergency management agencies in the field how information about an extreme weather phenomenon will be broadcast to the public, and what steps will be taken to save them.

Nim Kid, head of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, said his office received a forecast on Wednesday that predicted several inches of rain, but “The amount of rain falling at this specific location was not in any of those forecasts.”

The city manager of Kerville in Ker County, Dalton Rice, said during the same briefing that the storm had “dumped more rainfall than being predicted.”

Ker County Judge Rob Kelly said that there is no “warning system for the weather” in his area, which people could not be as ready as they could. County officials did earlier Discussed a public alarm system But due to the cost, it did not proceed with it. Former Commissioner of Ker County Tom Mozar told CBS News that the county had applied for a grant in the past for the construction of the system but the application was not approved.

“If they cannot take the risk of doing so, let us do it.” “We have a special session starting from two weeks from today, and I think we can take it and do some other things of these siren financing. … If there was a siren, maybe people would have encouraged people to say, ‘Oh, we have a big disaster like five minutes.”

When asked about the emergency warning on Tuesday, Abbott said that everything will be discussed in the state legislature session.

He said, “We are going to address every aspect of this storm, to ensure that we are going to implement systems that are necessary to prevent such deadly flood incidents in the future,” he asked reporters.