At least 24 people are dead after three straight days of heavy rainfall in Central Texas led to “catastrophic” flooding.
Children are among those dead as the search continues for 23 campers from a summer camp, Camp Mystic, in the area.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has taken on the duties of acting governor, said at first “20-some” girls attending the camp were unaccounted for, later saying the figure was “about 23.”
At a news conference late Friday Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said 24 people had been killed. Authorities said 237 people had been rescued so far.
“This is a mass casualty event,” said Freeman Martin, Texas’ director of public safety, said at a news conference.
Gov. Greg Abbott called it an “extraordinary catastrophe,” and said that search and rescue missions will continue through the night.
“They will continue in the darkness of night, they will be taking place when the sun rises in the morning. They will be non-stop,” Abbott said at a press conference in Kerrville on Friday night.
Between 23 and 25 people from Camp Mystic are unaccounted for, Kerr County Sheriff Larry L. Leitha Jr. said.
Leitha said that the confirmed deaths in the county were 24, up from the 13 that he reported earlier in the day.
Texas Director of Public Safety Col. Freeman Martin called the disaster “a mass casualty event.”
The Department of Homeland Security said the U.S. Coast Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency has been activated.
Patrick said he contacted President Donald Trump.
“They could be in a tree. They could be out of communication,” he said. “We’re praying for all of those missing to be found alive. We’re doing everything we can to get in there,” Patrick said.
“We lost everything. A lot of people lost everything,” one survivor told San Antonio affiliate WOAI in Kerrville. “Nobody expected this,” he said.
