Workers and volunteers will scour riverbanks and dig through debris in Central Texas once again on Monday as their search for missing flood victims resumes after heavy rainfall slowed their efforts.
Additional flooding remains a threat, though warnings in many areas affected by the July 4 floods were downgraded late on Sunday.
Roughly 170 people are unaccounted for from the floods, which killed at least 132 people. The search effort, spanning a stretch of more than 100 miles along the Guadalupe River, continues as residents mourn their neighbors at funerals, return to devastated properties and begin to ponder what comes next.
For families of the missing, the wait for any news becomes more agonizing by the day. But officials said they would continue searching until every victim was found.
Here is what we know about the floods.
Most of the deaths were in Kerr County.
As of Monday morning, at least 132 people had been killed in the catastrophic deluge. A majority were in Kerr County, a part of the Texas Hill Country northwest of San Antonio. The death toll in the county rose to 106 — 70 adults and 36 children — on Sunday, and officials reported 161 people still missing.
The dead included several girls as young as 8 who had been at Camp Mystic, a summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River with more than 750 attendees; 27 campers and staff members were reported dead there. Dick Eastland, the camp’s longtime director, was among those killed.
Many of the cabins at the camp were in designated flood zones, and some in areas deemed “extremely hazardous.”
Floodwaters rose swiftly on July 4.
Early on July 3, the National Weather Service issued a broad flood watch for south-central Texas, including Kerr County. As rivers in the region began to rise the next morning because of heavy rain, the agency upgraded its warnings.
The most urgent alert, sent just after 4 a.m., warned of a “particularly dangerous situation” and urged residents and campers to seek higher ground. Within about 90 minutes, the Guadalupe River had swelled from three feet to 34 feet, according to a river gauge near the town of Comfort, Texas.
The downpour continued over the weekend as emergency response teams searched for survivors.
Why didn’t the flood victims have more warning?
Flooding has long been a threat in Central Texas, an area often referred to as Flash Flood Alley, and the Guadalupe River Basin in particular is one of the most dangerous regions for flash flooding in the United States. Climate change has also intensified and increased the frequency of extreme weather.
So why didn’t the Weather Service send its urgent alert sooner? Some experts say that staffing shortages at the agency may have challenged forecasters’ ability to coordinate responses with local emergency management offices.
Gov. Greg Abbott has added flood warning systems to the agenda for a special legislative session scheduled for later this month.
In Kerr County, officials faced questions this week about the lack of warning sirens and other elements of their disaster response. County officials said a full review would be needed before answering questions about preparation and the timing of alerts.
“If improvements need to be made, improvements will be made,” Sheriff Larry Leitha said.
Kerr County officials contemplated installing a flood warning system along the Guadalupe River eight years ago but ultimately rejected the idea, deeming it too expensive. So when catastrophic floodwaters surged over the July 4 weekend, there were no sirens or early flood monitors. Text alerts came late for some residents and were dismissed or not seen by others.
Mr. Abbott has dismissed calls for an investigation into the response, saying the demands were the “words of losers” and likening reviewing the disaster to focusing on failure in football.
On a visit to the flood sites on Friday, President Trump batted away suggestions that there was something lacking in how authorities handled the tragedy, calling a local reporter who questioned whether the warning system was sufficient “an evil person.”
In recent months, Mr. Trump repeatedly had suggested that the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be dissolved as part of the cuts to the federal work force. But after the floods in Texas, Mr. Trump and his aides have moved away from that position, emphasizing instead their plans to overhaul the agency instead.
A separate question involving FEMA emerged when records in the years before the flood showed that the agency had approved a series of appeals by Camp Mystic that removed many of the camp’s buildings from official federal flood zones.
Camp Mystic has not responded to questions about its flood assessments.
Portraits of the dead have emerged.
Although the authorities have not released a complete list, some of the victims have been identified by family members.
Among them were Jeff Wilson, a longtime high school teacher in suburban Houston who was camping near the Guadalupe River with his wife; Tanya Burwick, 62, who was driving to work in San Angelo when her vehicle was caught in rising floodwaters; Blair and Brooke Harber, two young sisters who were staying in a cabin along the Guadalupe that was washed away; Bobby, Amanda and Bailey Martin, a father, mother and son who were camping by the river; and Ella Cahill, a student at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Sonia A. Rao, Neil Vigdor, Soumya Karlamangla, Tyler Pager, Edgar Sandoval, Victor Mather, Adeel Hassan, Chris Hippensteel, Shawn McCreesh, Luke Broadwater, Mike Baker and Bernard Mokam contributed reporting.
Yan Zhuang is a Times reporter in Seoul who covers breaking news.
Pooja Salhotra covers breaking news across the United States.
Mark Walker is an investigative reporter for The Times focused on transportation. He is based in Washington.
The post What We Know About the Floods in Central Texas appeared first on New York Times.
