Death toll in huge Texas flood exceeds 50

No relief in sight as more rains to come

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More than 50 people have died and dozens of children are missing in Texas Hill Country after catastrophic flooding, leaving officials struggling to explain if they had done enough to warn people of the fast-rising waters.

At least 27 campers from Camp Mystic, an all-girls summer camp along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, remain unaccounted for, officials said at a briefing. They said they are maintaining that number even as more bodies were discovered. Of the dead in Kerr County, 28 were adults and 15 were children. At least eight others have died in nearby counties.

Authorities are warning the casualty count will climb as more rain is forecast, increasing the risk of further flash floods in the coming days. Officials declined to give a figure for the total number of people missing, in part because so many visitors came to the area to camp during the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

The flood took Texas officials by surprise. Thunderstorms, combined with the remnants of short-lived Tropical Storm Barry, produced much more rain than had been forecast.

“This is the most dangerous river valley in the United States. And we deal with floods on a regular basis,” Kerr County Judge Robert Kelly told reporters. “We had no reason to believe that this was going to be anything like what's happened here. None whatsoever.”

The Guadalupe River surged eight metres in just 45 minutes, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said at a briefing on Friday. The National Weather Service had predicted only 7.5-15cm in the area.