Flood death toll rises to 49 in Texas, 27 kids still missing

Houston: Severe flooding across central Texas has killed at least 49 people and left dozens missing, local authorities said over the weekend, as rescue operations continued across several counties.

In Kerr County, at least 43 people, including 28 adults and 15 kids, were confirmed dead after torrential rains triggered flash floods early Friday morning, the county’s Sheriff Larry Leitha said at a news conference.

Another 27 children were still unaccounted for, most of them from Camp Mystic, a private Christian summer camp for girls along the Guadalupe River, said Dalton Rice, the city manager of Kerrville. The camp typically hosts around 750 children each year, Xinhua news agency reported.

“We’ve been rescuing people out of these camps by the hundreds all day,” Rice said.

In Travis County, four people were confirmed dead and 13 others were reported missing, local broadcaster KXAN-TV reported, citing the county judge, Andy Brown.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered condolences to the US Government and the bereaved families earlier on Saturday.

“Deeply saddened to learn about loss of lives, especially children in the devastating floods in Texas. Our condolences to the US Government and the bereaved families,” PM Modi wrote in a post on X.

In Burnet County, rescue efforts were ongoing as of Saturday afternoon. The sheriff’s office confirmed two fatalities and said two others remained missing.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Saturday signed an expanded disaster declaration to include six more counties in central Texas, raising the total number of counties hit by flash flooding to 20.

The Guadalupe River in Kerr County saw its water levels rise from 7.5 feet (2.3 metres) to a staggering 29.5 feet (9 metres) within just three hours early Friday morning, reaching the second-highest level on record, according to the US National Weather Service (NWS).

Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, said Friday that the NWS’s earlier forecast had underestimated the amount of rainfall that contributed to the catastrophic flooding in the region.

Texas has already experienced several severe flooding incidents this year, and the United States as a whole saw a record number of flash flood emergencies in 2024, according to AccuWeather.

IANS