Texas Hill Country was beset by death and disaster Friday after multiple fatalities were reported from months worth of heavy rain that fell in a matter of hours, leaving search teams to conduct boat rescues as fast-moving water threatened riverfront communities and children's summer camps.
As much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) of heavy rain poured down in just a few hours overnight in central Kerr County, causing flash flooding of the Guadalupe River.
Teams conducted dozens of rescues, and the emergency response continued as an unknown number of people remained unaccounted for. People with children and relatives at area summer camps pleaded for information about their loved ones endangered by the flooding.
Judge Rob Kelly, the chief elected official in the county, confirmed fatalities from the flooding and dozens of water rescues so far. He said he was advised not to cite specific numbers and said authorities are still working to identify those whose lives were lost.
“Most of them, we don’t know who they are,” Kelly said during a news conference. “One of them was completely naked, he didn’t have any ID on him at all. We’re trying to get the identity of these folks, but we don’t have it yet.”
One family survives a terrifying ordeal
Erin Burgess’ home sits directly across from the river in the Bumble Bee Hills neighborhood, west of Ingram. When she woke up to thunder at 3:30 a.m. Friday morning, “it was raining pretty heavy, but no big deal,” she said.
Just 20 minutes later, Burgess said water was coming in through the walls and rushing through the front and back doors. She described an agonizing hour clinging to a tree and waiting for the water to recede enough that they were able to walk up the hill to a neighbor's.
“My son and I floated to a tree where we hung onto it, and my boyfriend and my dog floated away. He was lost for a while, but we found them,” she said, becoming emotional.
Of her 19-year-old son, Burgess said: “Thankfully he’s over 6 feet tall. That’s the only thing that saved me, was hanging on to him.”
A flood watch issued Thursday afternoon estimated isolated amounts up to 7 inches (17 centimeters) of rising water. That shifted to a flood warning for at least 30,000 people overnight.
When asked about the suddenness of the flash flooding, Kelly said “we do not have a warning system” and that “we didn’t know this flood was coming,” even as local reporters pointed to the warnings and pushed him for answers about why more precautions weren’t taken.
“Rest assured, no one knew this kind of flood was coming,” he said. “We have floods all the time. This is the most dangerous river valley in the United States.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the state was providing resources to Hill Country communities dealing with the flooding, including in Kerrville, Ingram and Hunt.
The Texas Hill Country, a scenic and rocky gateway to booming vineyards and vacation rentals, begins west of the state capital and is a popular outdoor summer getaway. Parts of the region are prone to flash flooding.
Dozens of people posted on Facebook asking for any information on their children, nieces and nephews attending one of the many camps in the area, or family members that went camping during the holiday weekend.
Ingram Fire Department posted a photo of a statement from Camp Mystic, saying the private Christian summer camp for girls experienced “catastrophic level floods.” Parents with a daughter not accounted for were directly contacted, the camp said.
Another camp on the river located east of Hunt, Camp Waldemar, said in an Instagram post that “we are all safe and sound.”
The Guadalupe’s river gauge at the unincorporated community of Hunt, where the river forks, recorded a 22 foot rise (6.7 meters) in just about two hours, according to Bob Fogarty, meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Austin/San Antonio office. Fogarty said the gauge failed after recording a level of 29 and a half feet (9 meters).
“This is the kind of thing that will catch you unaware,” Fogarty said. “The water’s moving so fast, you’re not going to recognize how bad it is until it’s on top of you.”
New Jersey also sees deaths due to severe weather
Meanwhile, strong thunderstorms were being blamed for at least three deaths in central New Jersey, including two men in Plainfield who died after a tree fell onto a vehicle they were traveling in during the height of a storm there, according to a city Facebook post.
The men were ages 79 and 25, officials said. They were not immediately publicly identified.
“Our hearts are heavy today,” Mayor Adrian O. Mapp said in a statement. “This tragedy is a sobering reminder of the power of nature and the fragility of life.”
The city canceled its planned July Fourth parade, concert and fireworks show. Mapp said the “devastating” storms had left “deep scars and widespread damage” in the community of more than 54,000 people and it was a time to “regroup and focus all of our energy on recovery.”
Continuing power outages and downed trees were reported Friday throughout southern New England, where some communities received large amounts of hail. There were reports of cars skidding off the road in northeastern Connecticut.
Hannah Fingerhut, The Associated Press
