by By Rich McKay and Tim Reid
Hunt, Texas (Reuters) -The fatalities through catastrophic floods in Texas reached a third day on Sunday, including 21 children, when the search for girls who were missing in a summer camp.
Larry Leitha, the sheriff of Kerr County in Texas Hill Country, the epicenter of flooding, said that the number of fatalities in Kerr County had reached 59, including the 21 children.
According to Leitha, 11 girls and a consultant stayed in a summer camp near the Guadalupe River, which on Friday, the US independence day, in a summer camp near the Guadalupe river that broke the banks.
An official from Travis County said that four people died of the floods there, did not take into account with 13, and the officials reported another death in Kendall County. The Burnet County’s office reported two deaths. A woman was found dead in her undertaking car in the city of San Angelo in Tom Green County, said the chief of police.
According to Leitha, there were 18 adults and four children who still go out in Kerr County. He did not say whether these 22 people were included in the number of death of 59.
Officials said on Saturday that more than 850 people had been saved, including some of the trees after a sudden storm was replaced up to 38 cm of rain in the region, about 85 miles northwest of San Antonio. It was unclear how many people were still missing in the area.
“Everyone in the community hurts,” Leitha told reporters.
The National Weather Service published flood warnings and advice for central texas, which should last until 4:15 p.m. local time (2115 GMT) as rain, which may make the rescue efforts more difficult.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency was activated on Sunday and uses resources for first aiders in Texas after President Donald Trump had given a large disaster declaration, the Ministry of Homeland Security said in a statement.
Helicopter and airplanes of the US coast guard help search and rescue efforts, said DHS.
Trump previously explained plans to scale the role of the federal government when reaction to natural disasters, and the states can be transported more of the stress themselves.
Some experts questioned whether the reductions of the Federator of the Trump administration, including the agency, which monitors the national weather service, led to a failure of the officials to precisely predict the seriousness of the floods and output appropriate warnings before the storm.
The management of Trump has supervised thousands of job cuts by the National Weather Service parenting agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and many weather offices understaffed, said former NOAA director Rick Spinrad.
He said he did not know whether these employees take into account the lack of warning for the extreme floods in Texas, but that they would inevitably impair the agency’s ability to provide precise and timely forecasts.
Kristi Noem, secretary of the home protection protection, which NOAA supervises, said that a “moderate” flood clock, which was published by the national weather service on Thursday, did not predict the extreme precipitation and said the Trump administration is working to improve the system.
The White House did not respond to a request for comments.
Joaquin Castro, a Democratic Congressman from Texas, told CNN’s “State of the Union” that fewer employees of the weather service could be dangerous.
“If you have fall floods, there is a risk that if you do not have the staff … to carry out this analysis that leads to a tragedy in the best way,” said Castro.
“Complete devastation”
The 11 missing girls and the consultant came from Camp Mystic Summer Camp, an almost centuries -old Christian girls’ warehouse, where 700 girls were resident at the time of the flood.
Katharine Somerville, a consultant on the Camp Mystic Cypress Lake side, on the higher soil than on the Guadalupe side, said her 13-year-old camper were afraid when her huts were harmful and lost power in the middle of the night.
“Our huts at the top of the hills were completely flooded with water. I mean, they saw the complete devastation, we never imagined that this could happen,” she said in an interview about Fox News on Sunday.
She said the campers in her care were on military trucks and evacuated, and that was all safe.
The catastrophe quickly developed on Friday morning when River’s waters drove onto the river water with a heavier than previously 9 meters.
One day after the disaster, the summer camp was a scene of devastation. In a cabin, the mud lines were at least 1.83 m from the ground. Bed frames, mattresses and personal hats were scattered inside. Some buildings had broken windows, one had a missing wall.
Somerville, who visited Camp Mystic as a child, praised the long -time Camp director Richard “Dick” Eastland, who, according to local media reports, died when he tried to save girls in the camp.
(Reporting by Sergio Flores in Hunt, Texas and Rich McKay in Atlanta; additional reporting by Marco Bello and Sandra Stojanovic in Comfort, Texas; Deborah Gembara in Washington;
