Discovery of victims slows nearly a week after the Texas floods
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
By Talya Minsberg and Pooja Salhotra
Daily updates on devastating floods in the Texas Hill Country have usually come with a grim tally — the rising death toll. But on Thursday, a police officer said that number hadn’t changed overnight.
That sent a grim message in its own way. With no new victims found, officials suggested that the difficult search for the missing and agonizing wait for those who lost a loved one could stretch even longer.
The number of missing in Kerr County, the region hit hardest by the catastrophic floods that swept away cabins, RV parks and homes on July 4, remains at 161 for a third straight day, Officer Jonathan Lamb with the police department in Kerrville said at a Thursday news conference. The death toll remains at 96 there and 120 across the state.
The slowing pace of discovery comes despite the efforts of more than 2,100 emergency workers, including 10 specially trained teams from different states. They have brought hundreds of thousands of pounds of equipment, dogs trained to locate victims or detect human remains, and horses to help reach areas that are unreachable by car.
But still, the response effort continues to expand, Lamb said, “as the mission becomes more technical.”
Lamb also said that a disaster recovery center had been set up in Kerrville by the state of Texas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration. Some FEMA officials had previously expressed surprise that the agency had not dispatched a larger team to Texas sooner.
The floods are among the deadliest U.S. disasters for children in decades. In just Kerr County, 36 children were killed, many from Camp Mystic, a century-old Christian summer camp for girls. There are still five girls and one counselor from the camp who are unaccounted for, Lamb said at the news conference.
Outside of Kerr County, at least seven people were killed in Travis County, eight in Kendall County, five in Burnet County, three in Williamson County and one in Tom Green County. It is unclear how many people are missing statewide. Gov. Greg Abbott last provided a statewide update Tuesday, when he said 173 people remained unaccounted for.
State and local officials have faced an onslaught of questions about the lack of warning sirens along the banks of the Guadalupe River, an area known as “Flash Flood Alley,” and whether more could have been done to prepare for the floods. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said flood-warning signs might have saved lives and needed to be in place by next summer.
Many officials have declined to go into specifics about the warning systems and preparations.
On Thursday, Lamb was asked if the inability of police radios to communicate directly with county radios might have hampered rescue or recovery efforts, a question he could not answer at the time.
Local officials have said they would conduct an extensive review of their preparations and response to the flood. “If improvements need to be made, improvements will be made,” Sheriff Larry Leitha of Kerr County said during a Wednesday news conference.
Abbott has called on state lawmakers to improve how the state prepares for and responds to the floods in the upcoming special session this month. He asked lawmakers to consider policies that would improve early warning systems and strengthen emergency communications in flood-prone areas.
But lawmakers also plan to address a range of other issues, such as regulating intoxicating hemp products and cutting property taxes. Abbott has also called on lawmakers to redraw the state’s congressional maps at President Donald Trump’s request.