Death toll rises to 24 after flood in Texas sweeps through summer camp
發佈日期: 2025-07-05 19:39
TVB News
At least 24 people are dead after a flash flood in Texas.
The Guadalupe River rose three storeys in about an hour and burst its banks.
A summer camp was taking place along the waterway. Children are among the dead and dozens are missing. Water submerging tree trunks.
The Guadalupe River reaching a depth of nearly eight metre in about an hour. Three storeys of water crashing through a normally dry area.
The level almost up to the cars on the flyover with reports that elsewhere, roads and vehicles were swept away. The deadly destruction being compared to a tsunami.
As the Guadelupe burst its bank, a Fourth of July summer camp for 750 girls was taking place on the river bank.
The torrent came at 1:30 a.m. Many in the camp were asleep and swept away. Some are dead, many are missing.
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly says: "There's a lot of discussion about casualties, how many fatalities. A lot of discussion about how many people are missing. And I've been advised not to use any numbers. But suffice it to say, this has been a very devastating and deadly flood."
Three months of rain dropped in one evening. Twelve inches or nearly 30 centimetres of rainfall in a few hours. The river went from 3 feet to 30 feet deep. Experts say it's improbable to predict and impossible to stop.
The City Manager of Kerrville says: "This is not like a hurricane where you're planning weeks in advance, you know, it hit, it hit hard. And things like this happen in a very strategic, very isolated area. And when those two things converged, you had what happened today. So this happened within less than a two-hour span very, very quickly."
As some parents anxiously waited for news from Camp Mystic, some children were seen returning.
Young survivors in shock wander back from the Christian gathering, some unclear what had happened..
Parents trying to comfort them with friends missing. Others were taken to hospital.
Helicopters flew in to pluck people out of the water and rescue some others who'd managed to scurry up trees.
Such was the speed and force of the water surge the helicopters could not arrive quickly enough to save some.
Some were swept into the river naked and had no identification, so officials say they have to by fingerprinted in the morgue for identification purposes.
As the wait goes on for some in Kerr County, in other areas of Texas Hill Country, its a clean-up operation.
Water gushed into Erin Burgess's home. She could do little to stop it. Lounges and hallways ankle deep in sludge in a matter of minutes.
One mobile home, nearly washed away completely, leaning precariously against a tree.
