Search teams are using helicopters, boats and drones to look for victims in flash floods that have torn across central Texas since the at the start of the July Fourth weekend. At least 70 people have died and many more are still missing, including at least 11 girls from a summer camp.
At the center of the tragedy is the scenic Texas Hill Country, where volunteers and some families of the missing have searched the riverbanks despite being asked not to do so. Authorities in surrounding areas closer to Austin, the state capital, have also recovered victims from floodwaters.
Here’s a look at the known toll of dead and missing.
Texas Hill Country
Flash floods striking with the force to rip away concrete slabs and giant trees tore across Guadalupe River banks dotted with children’s camps and campgrounds.
Kerr County authorities had confirmed at least 59 deaths as of Sunday and said they had no way to total the number of missing across the county, the hardest-hit by the floods.
Among Kerr County’s confirmed dead are at least 21 children. The missing campers were from Camp Mystic, a riverside Christian camp for girls in Hunt, Texas.
Travis County
Four people were confirmed killed, as flash floods along creeks carried away homes, trailers, cars and people in the northwest portion of the county.
Travis County Judge Andy Brown, the top executive of the county, said Sunday that some 50 people have been rescued by helicopter, in boats, and on foot. They’ve also sent resources to Kerr County, knowing that it was harder hit. While a flood watch remains in effect, officials say they have neutralized the initial emergency.
“Now we’re going to be moving into recovery,” said Eric Carter, chief Emergency Management Coordinator for Travis County.
Burnet County
Authorities in the largely rural county, which borders Travis County, reported three dead and five people missing in floodwaters that surged out of Cow Creek and other waterways.
Other victims
Two deaths were reported in Kendall County, and there was one death each in Tom Green and Williamson counties.
In Williamson County, in the north suburbs of Austin, the U.S. military at nearby Fort Hood helped evacuate 16 people people from a home for disabled children, County Judge Steve Snell said. The victim in Tom Green County was a woman whose body was found outside her submerged car in the city of San Angelo.
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