- Ten campers, an advisor is still missing in summer camp
- Disaster declared, activated fresh federal funds and free up resources.
- President Trump contests the notion that Job Cuts contributed to disaster.
The death toll from catastrophic floods in Texas rose to more than 100 on Monday as rescuers continued their gloomy search for people who were swept away by torrents of water.
Among the dead were at least 27 girls and advisers who stayed in a youth summer camp on a river when the disaster hit the fourth of July weekend.
Forecasts have warned of more flooding when rain falls on saturated grounds, which complicates the recovery effort involving helicopters, boats and dogs as the number of victims is expected to rise quietly.
President Donald Trump plans to visit Texas on Friday, the White House said as it threw critics who claimed his cuts to weather agencies had weakened warning systems.
“To accuse President Trump of these floods is a depraved lie, and it serves no purpose in this time of national grief,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told journalists on Monday.
She said the National Weather Service, as the New York Times reported, had several key roles in Texas, which were unspoken before the floods, issued “timely and precise forecasts and warnings.”
Trump has described the floods that hit in the early hours of Friday as a “100-year-old disaster” that “no one expected.”
The president, who previously said that disaster relief should be handled at the state level, has signed a major disaster declaration that activates fresh federal funds and releases resources.
Tragedy
Kerr County in central Texas has been most severely affected by the counties destroyed by the floods, with 56 adults and 28 children killed, according to the local lens office.
They include the 27 who had stayed at Camp Mystic, a Christian camp with all girls who housed about 750 people when the flood water hit.
Lejre is a beloved tradition during the long American summer vacation, where children often stay in forests, parks and other rural areas.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz described them as a chance to get “Lifetime friends – and suddenly it turns to tragedy.”
In a scary view of the power of nature, the rain-waters reached the Guadalupe River Treetops and the roofs of the cabins when girls at the camp slept.
Carpets, teddy bears and other belongings were cocked in mud. Windows in the cabins were crushed, apparently by the power of water.
Volunteers helped search through waste from the river with some motivated by personal connections to the victims.
“We help the parents of two of the missing children,” Louis Deppe told 62, to AFP. “The last message they got was ‘we were washed away’ and the phone was died.”
Months of rain fell in a few hours on Thursday night to Friday, and the rain has continued in bouts since then.
Guadalupe rose about 26 feet (eight meters)-more than a two-story building-in just 45 minutes.
Flash flooding that occurs when the soil is unable to absorb stormy rainfall is not unusual in this region of the south and central Texas, known in general as “flash flooding path.”
Human -run climate change has made extreme weather events such as flooding, drought and heat waves more frequently and more intense in recent years.
