Image source, Getty Images
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- Author, Redacción*
- Author's title, BBC News World
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An extensive rescue operation unfolds in Texas from Friday night, after torrential and sudden floods left at least 32 dead, 14 of them minors, and numerous missing girls in a Christian summer camp.
The Guadalupe River rose almost 8 meters in less than an hour and the subsequent flood took away mobile houses, vehicles and summer cabins where people spent the festive weekend on July 4, on the day of independence in the US.
Rescuer teams were looking for 27 girls who were among the 750 who attended the Camp Mystic Camp, on the outskirts of the town of Kerville, about 104 kilometers northwest of the city of San Antonio.
Many of those girls “are under 12 years,” according to Texas Vice Governor, Dan Patrick, BBC Radio 4.
Among the deceased there are 18 adults and 14 children, said the Sheriff of Kerr County, Larry L. Leitha, who added that from fatalities, five adults and three minors have not yet been identified.
Texas governor Greg Abbott, reported on Saturday that the authorities rescued more than 850 people and that rescue efforts will continue to find the whereabouts of all victims.
Image source, Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP Vía Getty Images
The Secretary of National Security, Kristi Noem, said that local lifeguards are the most indicated to act because they know the area, but that the federal government was on their way to provide the maximum possible support.
Rescue operations “will not stop until each of the people has been found”; Leitha declared.
The state of emergency has been declared in several counties where numerous roads have been razed and the telephone lines are falling.
President Donald Trump called the “shocking” and “terrible” tragedy while the White House promised additional assistance.
The images show the deep waters flooding bridges and water swirls rolling along the roads.
Image source, Getty Images
Texas Vice Governor Dan Patrick, explained that “in a matter of 45 minutes, the Guadalupe River rose 26 feet (about 8 meters) and was a destructive flood, taking properties and sadly lives.”
He also informed the parents that, if they had not been contacted, their daughters had been counted safely.
“That does not mean that (missing girls) have been lost. They could be incommunicado,” Patrick explained.
The authorities affirm that search and rescue operations, in which helicopters, drones and boats participate, will continue until they are reasoned.
The camp said they have no electricity, water or Wi-Fi, and added that “the road was razed, so we have difficulty receiving more help.”
Camp Mystic, from which 27 girls have disappeared, is a Christian summer camp for girls that has almost a century old and is located on the banks of the Guadalupe River.
Directed by generations of the same family since the 1930s, the camp website is presented as a place for girls to grow “spiritually” in a “healthy” Christian environment to develop outstanding personal qualities and self -esteem. “
On Friday morning, sudden floods in the state of Texas generated disaster statements for the regions of Hill Country and the Concho Valley.
Image source, Getty Images
Kerr County official, Judge Rob Kelly, was questioned at a press conference about why the camps along the Guadalupe River were not evacuated in advance.
“We didn't know that this flood came. They have the security, nobody knew that this type of flood came,” Kelly said.
He explained that “we do not have an alert system” in the region. Kelly added that what happened on Friday exceeded the floods of 1987, which were collected from 10 teenagers who was traveling aboard the bus of a religious camp near the town of Comfort, south of Kerr County.
Image source, Reuters
According to CBS, the BBC associated chain in the US, the Texas Emergency Management Division had multiple meetings on Thursday to prepare, but officials pointed out that the National Meteorological Service “did not predict the amount of rain we saw.”
The original forecasts indicated up to 20cm of rain.
The authorities said they were still worried over time, warning that “if they do not live in the area, they do not come.”
The Texas County Sheriff's office advised residents near the streams and the Guadalupe River to move to higher lands.
Meanwhile, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz said that President Trump had “committed to giving everything Texas needs.”
*With information from Angelica Casas from San Antonio, Texas, and Nadine Yousif, from BBC News.
Image source, Getty Images
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