At least 161 people are still missing after the devastating floods in the US state of Texas last Friday. This was reported by the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, on Tuesday. This is the first time that more clarity has been given about the number of missing persons.
These are 161 missing persons from Kerr County, says Abbott. People are also still missing in other districts, but it is unclear exactly how many. Among the 161 missing are five girls from summer camp Camp Mystic and a camp counselor. Search and rescue operations are continuing.
So far, 109 people have died in the floods. 94 of them come from the Kerrville region, 15 others come from other parts of Texas. Among the dead are 27 participants from Camp Mystic. It is not known how many children are involved.
The Guadalupe River burst its banks rapidly on the night of Thursday to Friday after heavy rainfall. The Texas Hill Country region is known as the area in the United States with the greatest risk of flooding. Many Americans were on vacation in the region for the celebration of national independence day.
Authorities warned of flood danger in advance, ‘but knew nothing about the scale’
After the floods, many Texans wondered why they had not been warned earlier. Some local residents only received an emergency message on their phone when the roads around their house were already under water.
Governor Abbott says on Tuesday that the Texas authorities had been warned a few days in advance of possible flooding. But “we didn’t know how big the storm would be,” he says. No one knew that this would lead to a “9-meter-high tsunami wall of water,” he says.
When the governor was asked who was responsible for the disaster, he said he did not want to point fingers. “That is a word choice of losers. Winners talk about solutions. Texas is all about solutions.”