24 dead in Texas floods; 2 dozen girls missing

Torrential rains unleashed flash floods along the Guadalupe River in Texas on Friday, killing at least 24 people as rescue teams scrambled to save dozens of victims trapped by high water or reported missing in the disaster, local officials said.

- Reuters

Among the missing were 23 to 25 people listed as unaccounted for at an all-girls Christian summer camp located on the banks of the rain-engorged Guadalupe, authorities said.

At a news conference late on Friday, almost 18 hours after the July Fourth crisis began, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said search-and-rescue operations would press on through the night and into on Saturday.

Abbott said resources devoted to the effort would be “limitless.”

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One at the end of a day of public events, President Donald Trump said “we'll take care of them,” when asked about federal aid for the disaster.

The US National Weather Service declared a flash flood emergency for parts of Kerr County in south-central Texas Hill Country, about 105 km northwest of San Antonio, following thunderstorms that dumped as much as a foot of rain.

Dalton Rice, city manager for Kerrville, the county seat, told reporters the extreme flooding struck before dawn with little or no warning, precluding authorities from issuing advance evacuation orders as the Guadalupe swiftly rose above major flood stage. “This happened very quickly, over a very short period of time that could not be predicted, even with radar,” Rice said. “This happened within less than a two-hour span.”