Houston: At least six people were killed and an unknown number of children from summer camps along the Guadalupe River went missing during the major flash flooding caused by heavy rain overnight in central Texas, authorities said.
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly confirmed the toll, but did not reveal the victims’ identities, Xinhua news agency reported.
Further details would not be released until families were notified, according to the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office.
“We can’t say for sure that they’re all accounted for. We know that there are some missing,” Kelly said during a briefing on Friday morning.
The area has multiple summer camps along the river, including Camp Mystic, a camp for girls, which issued a statement on Friday morning, saying the parents of the missing children had been notified.
If a parent has not been contacted, their child is accounted for, the camp said.
Several other camps along the river have issued statements, saying all children had been accounted for, NBC News reported.
Kelly said the county did not have a related warning system to alert residents or campers.
The Houston Fire Department is assisting first responders nearly 300 miles away in Kerr County as rescues are underway in high flood waters.
Four members from the Tactical Deployment Unit and an engine will assist first responders, while another three firefighters will help the Texas A&M Task Force One.
“As we so often see help from around the state come to Houston when we face floods, we are proud to be able to support others in their time of need,” Houston Fire Chief Thomas Munoz said on Friday.
At about 4 a.m. local time, the National Weather Service upgraded its flash flood warning, which allows wireless emergency alerts to be sent to cell phones for residents and campers along the river, the NBC News report said.
The service also warned that a “large and deadly flood wave” was moving down the Guadalupe River.
The Guadalupe River in Kerr County rose from 7.5 feet (about 2.3 metres) to nearly 30 feet overnight and is expected to crest at 34 feet in Spring Branch on Friday afternoon, the service said.
Cars, campers and mobile homes were swept away as the section of the Guadalupe River surged in the county, online videos showed.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on X that the state is “surging all available resources” to respond to the flooding.
“The immediate priority is saving lives,” the Governor said.
More than half a million people in central Texas were still under flash flood warnings as of Friday afternoon.
(IANS)
