Death toll now 24 in Guadalupe River floods. Search continues for more than 20 girls still missing.

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Rescuers raced against the clock overnight in their frantic search for more than 20 missing girls from a private Christian camp and anyone else who may have survived the deadly, unprecedented, and catastrophic floods when the Guadalupe River burst its banks in Kerr County. The floods claimed at least 24 lives.

Forecasters warned more rain was coming to the region, nicknamed “flash flood alley.” Additional rainfall may only worsen a mass casualty event that swept away entire buildings and sent cars swirling through the gray and brown waters.

The state deployed hundreds of search and rescue personnel and more than dozen helicopters into the inundated region, with a focus on boys and girls summer camps, parks, and low-lying subdivisions. On Friday evening, Gen. Thomas Suelzer, commander of the Texas Military Department, reported 237 people were rescued.

Officials warned people along the Guadalupe River between Comfort and Canyon Lake to evacuate through Saturday morning as debris-filled floodwaters flowed downstream. They warned campers and others anywhere between Comfort and Canyon Lake to stay away from the river. They also asked residents to not fly drones over the area.

A somber assemblage of Texas National Guard commanders, state troopers, and emergency management joined Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Friday night in a livestreamed update. Abbott stressed that Texas would send all its resources to aid the rescuers.

“So many people have been swept up into an extraordinary catastrophe. It needs God, but it also needs a robust response by the state and local governments and by people who live in these communities impacted by this,” the governor said.

Abbott continued: “[The rescues] will continue in the darkness of night. They will be taking place when the sun rises in the morning. They will be nonstop seeking to find everybody who is unaccounted for. We will stop at nothing to ensure that every asset and person and plane and whatever is needed is going to be involved in the process of rescuing every last person and assure everybody involved in this is going to be fully accounted for.”

He signed a disaster declaration for Kerr and 13 other counties impacted by Friday’s flooding, enabling them to access state resources for the emergency operations.

At the press conference, state and local officials updated the number of fatalities but did not have new information on the missing girls, who were from Camp Mystic, which contained about 750 campers. Officials said earlier on Friday that some of those campers may be stranded and unable to call for help.

Reunifications and shelters

Reunification centers in Kerrville were set up at these locations:

• Arcadia Live Theater — 717 Water St, Kerrville, TX 78028
• Ingram Elementary School — 125 Brave Run W, Ingram, Texas, 78025

Shelters for those displaced by the flooding have been set up in Kerrville at:

• First United Methodist Church — 321 Thompson Drive Kerrville, TX 78028
• Calvary Temple Church — 3000 Loop 534 Kerrville, TX 78028
• Notre Dame Catholic Church — 929 Main Street Notre Dame Catholic Church Kerrville, TX 78028
• Schreiner University — Event Center, 2100 Memorial Boulevard

Authorities also advised people to call the Red Cross at 800-733-2767 if they were trying to locate a loved one.

But not all of Friday saw tragedy and uncertainty. By Friday evening, some children were back in their relieved families’ arms. Sympathetic people on social media also shared fragments of information or photos of dazed and nervous children safely gathered in rooms, like a fire station, awaiting reunion with their loved ones.

Camp Mystic

Camp Mystic is an all-girls summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River.

Its website explained that ‘Doc’ Stewart, a coach at the University of Texas at Austin, established the camp in 1926. Agnes Stacy sent her daughter to the camp in 1933, and six years later she and her husband bought it.

The U.S. government leased the camp as a rehab center for aviator veterans from 1944 to 1945.

Dick and Tweety Eastland own and are the current executive directors of the camp, which they’ve enjoyed since 1974. Its Facebook page explained that “Each summer, Mystic challenges its campers to meet the Mystic ideals: 1. Be a better person for being at Mystic; 2. Let Mystic bring out the best in them; 3. Grow spiritually”

‘There was not a lot to absorb it.’

Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice asked residents to conserve water because floodwaters affected the city’s surface water source.

“We are operating off well water currently,” he explained. “We do encourage everybody to exercise extreme conservation. We are currently not in a boil water notice, but that could change.”

Both Kerrville and Kerr County issued disaster declarations.

Patrick said in a press conference earlier on Friday that the river rose quick after a foot of rain fell on some spots. “That river rose 26 feet in 45 minutes,” he said. “It was a dry bed. It had been dry. There was not a lot to absorb it. It went down the rocks, and it was a destructive flood.”

The National Weather Service (NWS) said most of the floodwaters will flow into Canyon Lake and should not affect potential water recreation in New Braunfels. As of Friday afternoon, Canyon Lake was approximately 46% full.

“Currently, Canyon Lake has a lot of storage capacity,” explained Meteorologist Jason Runyan. “It’s at pretty low levels, so the lake can take all this rainfall without having to release it farther downstream into New Braunfels, so no additional big rise is expected from this heavy rainfall into New Braunfels.”

Patrick was confident the dam at Canyon Lake could withstand the influx of floodwaters. He explained that the Army Corps of Engineers would monitor the structure.

Patrick also said that he was in contact with the Trump administration, and he was reassured that Texas would receive all necessary assistance.

Rescue operations

Texas game wardens were among the search and rescue teams conducting rescue operations across the region.

“Our Aviation Unit and rescue swimmers are assisting from the air, while the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Program provides live aerial feed to our emergency management partners at the State Emergency Operations Center, which is now operating at an escalated response level,” officials said in a post on social media.

Bexar County and the San Antonio Fire Department both sent personnel and equipment to Kerr County to assist operations.

“First responders from Bexar County Emergency Services Districts 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 11, and 12 have been mobilized, bringing ambulances, rescue teams, drones, and boats equipped with trained Swiftwater Rescue Technicians,” officials explained in a statement.

The San Antonio Fire Department dispatched its AMBUS — an ambulance bus and emergency medical technicians.

Preparation before the storm

Kerrville city officials pushed back against criticism on Friday afternoon that more could have been done to evacuate before the flood hit the region, known as Flash Flood Alley.

Rice, the Kerrville city manager, told reporters the flooding situation evolved quickly. He said the north and south fork that feed into the Guadalupe River reached peaks at about 3:30 on Friday morning.

“I was on the river trail at that time and everything was fine,” he explained. “Within an hour [or] two hour period, the water was up almost to the bridge.”

Rice said the city had crews out early in the morning to prepare for the Fourth of July celebration, and they were also caught off guard.

“Despite flood warnings, despite everything that was going on, there were some things that happened very fast,” he added.

When asked if a warning system was in effect Thursday night when the flooding started. Rob Kelly, the Kerr County judge, said, “We do not have a warning system on the river. … We didn’t know this flood was coming. Rest assured, no one knew this kind of flood was coming. We have floods all the time.”

He also said that “this is the most dangerous river valley in the United States” but that county officials had “no reason to believe that this was going to be anything like what’s happened here. None whatsoever.”

The NWS had estimated on Thursday that the region might see five to seven inches of rain with the possibility of storm clusters forming over the region. However, the area ended up seeing more than a foot of rain.

How it happened

Runyan, the meteorologist with the NWS, explained the storms were the result of two different factors:

“The first being some high amounts of moisture for this time of year — some near records of moisture — vertically into the atmosphere. The second were the remnants of a midlevel disturbance from what used to be Tropical Storm Barry. So a combination of that disturbance and these record levels of moisture have led to the very heavy rainfall, especially over Kerr County.”

All that rainfall from overnight and early morning drained into the Guadalupe River Basin. He said it started up by the headwaters near Hunt, Texas, in western Kerr County and “traveled downstream through Kerrville where it crested” and then traveled toward Comfort.

“We saw some pretty sharp and steep rises on the river,” he added, “in some cases rivaling the 1987 flood, the famous 1987 flood.” The 1987 flood dropped 11 inches of rain, and 10 teenagers died when their church bus ran into flood waters.

Friday’s floods, Runyan said, were so high and forceful that some of the river instrumentation and gauges were affected or washed out. “So it’s a pretty catastrophic type flood wave coming down the Guadalupe River.”

Because of the damaged river gauges, it may take the U.S. Geological Survey a few days to get accurate data on how high the river crested in the Hunt and Kerrville area.

He said some parts of the Hill Country were placed under a rare flash flood emergency, which is different from a flash flood warning.

“Typically most people are familiar with flash flood warnings,” he said. “Our typical flash flood warnings are when we expect imminent flooding in areas — rises and streams and creeks that go over low water crossing.”

Flash flood emergencies, Runyan explained, are “saved for days where we’re expecting catastrophic type damage or widespread damage or even loss of life.”

The flash flood emergency expired at 2 p.m.

The days ahead

The NWS warned more rain may fall on the region on Saturday. There was a moderate chance for more rain for the Hill Country, including Kerr County, and in San Antonio through Saturday.

Floodwaters were expected to cross over the U.S. 281 bridges at Spring Branch late Friday night.

The National Weather Service reported an upper level disturbance that produced Friday’s flooding is falling apart as it pushes to the southeast across South Texas.

The weather system is expected to also move faster than it was on Friday, reducing the potential for additional flooding.

Forecasters said sunnier skies should return by Sunday.

This is a developing story that will be updated.