New Texas flood threat halts search for victims of deadly July 4 flooding
On Sunday, emergency crews were forced to suspend research operations in Kerr County, Texas, while the region has reached the hardest by Catastrophic sudden flood Earlier, this month was faced with a renewed threat of floods.
Texas governor Greg Abbott said on Sunday afternoon that rescue operations were underway in the counties of San Saba, Lampaasas and Schleicher. Evacuations also continue in several counties in the center of Texas while the authorities monitor increasing water in Kerrville, the hardest city in the county of Kerr by the Destructive storms of July 4 This overflowed the Guadalupe river. Texas Rural and Inte Flood-Spone Country officials said that at least 161 people in the region remain missing and that the efforts to find them were underway.
The serious threat which takes place in the county of San Saba is along the San Saba river, another area known for flooding. The rains of this weekend-above the soil already soaked-had to raise the river over 30 inches. The river should increase more quickly and greater than that of July 4.
Kerrville police announced that ground research operations had been interrupted before 8 am on Sunday, due to the “danger of floods”.
“We will provide more information soon, but for the moment, all research teams must evacuate the corridor of the river until further notice. All the research parties of volunteers in the corridor of the Guadalupe river must take this warning into account,” wrote the police service in an article on social networks. “The potential of a lightning flood is high.”
The ministry also shared an emergency meteorological alert which warned against “a high probability of the Guadalupe river in Hunt reaching the stadium of floods today”. He urged people, equipment and vehicles to immediately move from water. Hunt was the particularly disastrous flood site early in the morning on July 4, the officials claiming that the river had swelled more than 20 feet in less than an hour and finally killed at least 103 people throughout the county, including dozens of children in a riverside summer camp called Mystic camp.
On Sunday morning, a lightning flood warning was issued for certain parts of Kerr county, as well as other pockets in the center of Texas. The Austin-San Antonio branch of the National Weather Service issued the warning while thunderstorms began to pour heavy rains into the region, and precipitation should continue at a rate of 1 to 2.5 inches per hour, according to the forecast bulletin. The meteorological service noted that the sudden floods were “in progress or which should start shortly”.
The warning was to expire at 12:15 p.m. local time.
“This is a dangerous and potentially fatal situation. Do not try to travel unless you run away from an area subject to floods or an evacuation order,” wrote the city of Kerrville in another position of social media, while the meteorological service has stressed that people should show serious caution around “low crossings”, which are small bridges Guadalupe river.
Kerr county officials said last week that the levels of levels were easily flooded, as they did in the morning of July 4, trapping people on small “islands” of dry land and making very difficult for emergency stakeholders to reach them.
Although the County of Kerr suffered the most tragedy following the flood more than a week ago, several other counties in the center of Texas also felt its impacts. Including Kerr County, the number of deaths in the whole state has increased to at least 129, and 166 others are not recorded, according to the latest information from local officials.
THE subsequent research Because those who lacked the debris were massive. Volunteers, drones and research dogs have joined the operation while the teams of local, state and federal agencies have surveyed on the ground, through water and the general costs in the air in the hope of discovering anyone who is still lost. Difficult times and hard terrains have intermittently complicated their efforts, officials said.
Friday, the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, again expanded his federal declaration on disasters to include more counties in danger by the floods.
contributed to this report.
