Death toll rises to 80 in Texas floods as search for missing continues

Hundreds of searchers were combing wide swaths of central Texas on Sunday morning looking for any survivors of devastating floods, including girls still missing from a riverside summer camp, as the confirmed death toll climbed to at least 80 and forecasters warned that downpours would continue in areas already reeling.

Eleven campers and one counselor from Camp Mystic, the girls’ summer camp in Kerr County, remained missing Sunday, according to Larry Leitha, the county sheriff. The sheriff also said that 22 of those found dead had not yet been identified, including four children.

Forty-one people were still missing as of Sunday night.

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said late Saturday that the camp had been “horrendously ravaged” by flooding from the adjacent Guadalupe River in ways he had not seen in other natural disasters, and that the rushing waters had reached the tops of cabins. “We won’t stop until we find every girl who was in those cabins,” he said on social media.

Just before 7 p.m. local time, thunderstorms were bringing downpours of 2 to 4 inches to parts of Central Texas. Kerr County, where the flood toll has been highest, is seeing light rain, but the threat of heavier rain continues. The chance of thunderstorms continued across Hill Country through the evening hours, and the flood watch in the area was extended until 10 p.m. After sunset, the storms “should gradually dissipate,” said Constantine Pashos, a meteorologist at the Weather Service’s Austin/San Antonio office.

President Donald Trump said he was likely to visit Texas on Friday. “We wanted to leave a little time,” he told reporters Sunday night. “I would have done it today, but we’d just be in their way.”

Here’s what else to know:

Death toll: At least 80 of those killed in the floods, including at least 28 children, were in Kerr County, northwest of San Antonio. Elsewhere in Texas, four people were killed in Travis County, three in Burnet County, two in Kendall County, one in Tom Green County and one in Williamson County, authorities said. Dozens of people were still missing, including as many as 13 in Travis County, which includes Austin.

The victims: As the death toll rose, investigators were trying to identify victims. Among them were 8-year-old and 9-year-old campers, and a 27-year-old man who died trying to save his family by punching a window through their trailer so they could escape the rising waters.

An agonizing wait: The wait for news of the missing campers has been agonizing for the camp’s tight-knit community of parents and alumni.

Accountability questions: Crucial positions at the local offices of the weather service were unfilled, prompting some experts to question whether staffing shortages made it harder for the agency to coordinate with local emergency managers as floodwaters rose.

This article originally appeared in the New York Times.