Texas Gov. Greg Abbott warned of another round of intense rain that could lead to flash flooding.
Two days after catastrophic flash floods raged through central Texas, at least 82 people, including 28 children, have been confirmed dead, more than 40 remain missing, and rescuers continue to search through a devastating landscape of overturned cars and mud-filled debris for potential survivors.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday warned of another round of intense rain that is expected to descend upon the Lone Star State and lead to potential flash flooding.
Ten girls from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp along a river in Kerr County, remain missing.
Abbott said in a news conference in Austin, Texas, on July 6 that at least 41 people are unaccounted for across the state, in all the areas affected by flooding.
“There are people who are missing, who are not … confirmed missing because we don’t yet know who they are,” he said. “We will maintain our ongoing search throughout the entire river system to find anybody who may be missing.”
He asked anybody who may suspect a person they know to be missing in Kerr County to reach out to local officials with that person’s identification and other concrete information.
Meanwhile, Col. Freeman Martin of the Texas Department of Public Safety elaborated on the work being done to identify those who have already been found.
“We have some unidentified individuals at the funeral home—adults and juveniles. The Texas Rangers are collecting DNA from family members and from the deceased victims, we’re flying those to the University of North Texas in Dallas, and we will have answers with rapid DNA in hours, not days, to get some closure and information back to these families,” he said.
As for the current number of fatalities, local authorities announced that the death toll has risen to 78 people: 68 confirmed deaths in Kerr County as of the afternoon, and the others from elsewhere in Texas.
Abbott, Martin, and other authorities at the news conference affirmed that as other parts of the state prepare for more heavy rain and flash flooding, it would not diminish ongoing recovery efforts in and around Kerr County.
“We’re not taking away from any resources from Kerrville to pre-stage here,” Martin said. “We’re pulling from south Texas, West Texas, and north Texas into central Texas to prepare for our emergency response.”
During a news conference on the morning of July 6, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said local, state, and federal authorities have deployed more than 400 first responders to central Texas.
By Jacob Burg
