Texas floods: At least 75 dead in single county after flash floods, officials say as more rain expected
Cruz says Texas will ‘come through’ as he brings briefing to an endpublished at 16:39 British Summer Time
Cruz adds that “nothing will fill the voids in thesemums and dads’ hearts”, and stresses that now is the time “to reach out,support each other”.
“Texas will come through”, he adds, as he bringsthe news briefing to an end.
Many areas have bad or no phone signal, Rice says, as he warns of scammerspublished at 16:38 British Summer Time
Rice says a lot of the areas that were hit have bad or no mobile(cell) phone service.
On the missing people, he says they know about those unaccountedfor from the summer camps, but there are people outside of the camps who may bemissing that they don’t yet know about.
He also talks about scammers who he says have been reachingout to victims’ families, and asking for money in exchange for their children,who they claim to have.
“It is absolutely heart-breaking”, he says.
Kerrville city manager warns of speed of flash floodspublished at 16:32 British Summer Time
Kerrville city manager Dalton Rice says evacuations are a”delicate balance”.
Evacuations done too late can risk putting vehicles into lowwater areas, which can then “make it even more challenging”, he says,before adding that flash floods can happen “very quickly”.
Senator asked about Doge cuts to National Weather Servicepublished at 16:30 British Summer Time
Texas Senator Ted Cruz is now asked about the times the alertswere sent out and about Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) cuts – the effort led by X owner Elon Musk – tothe National Weather Service.
The senator again mentions “partisan fingerpointing”, and says some people have said that cuts to the NationalWeather Service led to a lack of warnings.
“I think that’s contradicted by the facts,” hesays.
“The National Weather Service here,” he says, had”three additional people working that night.”
Officials now taking questions, Cruz asked if there was a need for better warningspublished at 16:26 British Summer Time
The officials are now taking questions from reporters.
Asked about warning systems and whether there was a need forbetter warnings, Cruz answers “this is not a time for partisan fingerpointing and attacks.”
He adds that after the ongoing search and rescue operationis over there “will naturally be a period of retrospection.”
Trump tells senator – ‘anything Texas needs, the answer is yes’published at 16:24 British Summer Time
Cruz says he has spoken to President Trump, who told himthat anything Texas needs “the answer is yes”.
The senator says search and rescue operations are the firststage and that rebuilding – which follows – will take longer.
On the grieving friends and neighbours who lost children, hesays they will need a lot of support, prayers and “holding them while theyweep.”
Cruz recalls story of camp counsellor who held up mattresses to save livespublished at 16:22 British Summer Time
Senator Cruz is now speaking of moments of heroism thathelped save many young lives.
He recalls how he heard a story of a camp counsellor whoheld up mattresses with campers on top as rising waters reached thecounsellor’s neck.
Cruz calls camp losses ‘every parent’s nightmare’published at 16:15 British Summer Time
Image source, Reuters
We’re now hearing from Texas senator Ted Cruz, who says:”Texas is grieving right now.”
He speaks of the little girls lost at Camp Mystic, describingthe situation as “every parent’s nightmare.”
Cruz says he has spoken to a number of parents over the lastfew days who have been asking him if he knows where their daughters are.
He says “the pain and agony of not knowing your child’swhereabouts, it’s the worst thing imaginable.”
Every foot, every bend will be searched Kerrville mayor sayspublished at 16:13 British Summer Time
It’s now Kerrville mayor Joe Herring’s turn to speak.
“This will be a rough week,” he warns, but addsthat authorities remain hopeful, and “every foot, every bend” will besearched.
No estimate on when power will be restored, says Ricepublished at 16:12 British Summer Time
Rice continues saying some 40 power lines are down, withinfrastructure in the area also damaged.
He adds that although additional personnel have been broughtin for repairs, they do not have an estimated time on when power will berestored.
Kerville city manager says expected bad weather could complicate searchpublished at 16:12 British Summer Time
Image source, Reuters
Moving on to Kerrville city manager Dalton Rice now, who says”this is a massive field” and search and rescue operations continue.
Rice says they are facing a lot of challenges with terrainand water and warns that expected bad weather could further complicate things.
Ten campers and one counsellor from Camp Mystic remain unaccounted forpublished at 16:08 British Summer Time
Leitha goes on to say that 75 bodies have been recovered inthe county, including 48 adults and 27 children.
Of these, he says, 15 adult and nine children’s bodies are still pendingidentification, and adds that ten campers and one counsellor from Camp Mystic remainunaccounted for.
Search and rescue operations are ongoing, sheriff sayspublished at 16:07 British Summer Time
The news conference has started and Kerr County sheriffLarry Leitha is speaking.
He says search and rescue operations are ongoing, and theyare using local, state and national assets, including hundreds of trained firstresponders.
You can follow along by pressing watch live atthe top of this page.
Kerr County officials due to speak to media shortlypublished at 15:56 British Summer Time
Officials from Kerr County, Texas are due to hold a newsconference shortly. We are expecting to hear from them at 11:00 EDT (16:00BST).
We will bring you the top lines from the briefing, which youwill be able to watch live at the top of this page.
Homeland security secretary not aware of breakdown in flood warning systemspublished at 15:47 British Summer Time
Image source, Getty Images
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says she is not aware of any breakdown in emergency warning systems in relation to the Texas floods.
Asked on Fox News’s Fox & Friends today whether there was any specific breakdown in this case, Noem says: “Not that we found so far.”
“The National Weather Service put out the alerts when they received them and, unfortunately, in many places in our country we have flash floods like this that do occur, and the notification was proactive and out there,” she says.
“Would everybody like more time? Absolutely. So many situations when we see terrible events like this and these natural weather disasters, more notification is always extremely helpful.”
Noem adds that the National Weather Service under US President Donald Trump “has been working to put in new technology and a new system because it has been neglected for years”.
“It’s an ancient system that needed to be upgraded and so President Trump recognised that right away and got to work on it when he came into office in January but that installation is not complete and that technology isn’t fully installed.”
Where casualties have been reported across central Texaspublished at 15:38 British Summer Time
More than 80 people have been confirmed dead across central Texas following Friday’s flash flooding.
The worst hit area is Kerr County, with 68 fatalities confirmed, including 28 children, the BBC’s US partner, CBS News, reports.
The county is home to Camp Mystic, a girls’ summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River, which has said it is “grieving the loss of 27 campers and counsellors”.
Elsewhere across central Texas, there have been six confirmed casualties in Travis County, which is home to state capital Austin, three casualties have been confirmed in Burnet, two in both Kendall and Williamson, and one Tom Green County, according to CBS.
Locals work together to help the communitypublished at 15:27 British Summer Time
As we often see in times of hardship and tragedy, people come together to help where they can.
In Texas, many volunteers are handing out food, clean water and donated clothes to those who need it.
Many have also volunteered – in trucks and on horseback – in the search for survivors and victims.
Image source, Brandon Bell/Getty Images
A volunteer in Center Point, Kerr County
Image source, Reuters
In Kerrville, a family set up a tent in a parking lot to hand out water and food
Image source, Jim Vondruska/Getty Images
Clothes for those in need hang on pews at the Hunt Baptist Church
Image source, Jim Vondruska/Getty Images
Volunteers sort out thousands of items of donated food, nappies, toilet paper and other essentials
Multiple factors contributed to these devastating floodspublished at 15:02 British Summer Time
Matt Taylor
BBC Weather
Several factors came together to create the devastating outcomewe saw in Texas last week.
First there was the weather patterns at the time.
The remnantsof an ex-tropical storm had become embedded within a broader area of veryunstable air within the region. Unstable air is air which has the ability torise rapidly to form large storm clouds.
Tropical Storm Barry, that caused flooding across the YucatanPeninsula in Mexico a week earlier, had tracked across the Gulf of Mexico to decayover north-east Mexico. This had meant there was already large supply ofmoisture in the atmosphere.
Wind patterns across the region at the time alsoresulted in a flow of humid, moisture-laden air from Gulf too.
The next factor was the geography and topography of the area: Kerr County, where the worst of the floods occurred, is a hillier area which forced moisture-ladenair upwards helping to build huge storm clouds.
The ones that formed over the area were so large they effectively becametheir own weather system, producing huge amounts of rain over a larger area.
It was slow-moving, adding to the rain totals and creating furtherthunderstorms along a zone that continued to affect the area containing theGuadalupe River.
Watch: Timelapse shows how suddenly Texas flood waters rosepublished at 14:56 British Summer Time
More than 80 people have been confirmed dead and dozens are missing following flash floods in central Texas on Friday.
The video below shows how the water level of the Llano River in Kingsland, Texas rapidly increased.
What early warnings did flood-hit Texas receive?published at 14:48 British Summer Time
Image source, Reuters
With the death toll in Texas exceeding 80 people, questions are being raised about whether adequate flood warnings were provided and why people weren’t evacuated ahead of the deluge.
In the space of 45 minutes in the early hours of Friday morning, the Guadalupe River rose by 26ft (8m), causing it to burst its banks.
By then there had been several flood warnings issued, including from the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) and the National Weather Service (NWS).
The NWS has said it was heartbroken at the loss following the floods, but that it did all it could, conducting briefings on Thursday and issuing a flood watch warning that afternoon.
People have reported receiving text message alerts on their mobile phones early on Friday morning, warning them of flooding. Some residents told the New York Times, external they did not understand the seriousness of them and others said they never received any at all.
Before the tragedy, there had also been concerns over the Trump administration’s budget cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – the government agency that operates the NWS.
Read more about what flood warnings were issued and when in our news story.
