San Francisco Frontiers - Fears grow that Texas floods death toll could surge

More than 170 people remain unaccounted for after the flash flooding on the Fourth of July holiday, a tragedy that shocked many Americans.

After torrents of river water roared through several Texas counties -- some striking in the middle of the night -- rescuers still worked to find bodies and any survivors as state Governor Greg Abbott warned that the final toll was not yet known.

Officials in Kerr County, the epicenter of the flooding, on Wednesday confirmed 161 people were known to be missing in the county. Twelve others remain unaccounted for elsewhere in the state.

"There very likely could be more added to that list," Abbott said Tuesday, later posting on X: "Right now, our #1 job is to find every single missing person."

Kerr County, part of a Hill Country region in central Texas known as "Flash Flood Alley," suffered the most damage, with at least 95 fatalities including 36 children, Sheriff Larry Leitha told reporters.

Among them are at least 27 girls and counselors at a summer camp on the Guadalupe River when it burst its banks early Friday.

Five campers and one counselor from Camp Mystic were still missing as of Wednesday, plus another child not associated with the camp, Leitha said.

Elsewhere in the state, there have been at least 15 fatalities, according to Abbott.

More than 2,000 rescue personnel, police and experts have descended on the flood zone in what Leitha described as an "all hands on deck" operation.

Ben Baker, with the Texas Game Wardens, said search and rescue efforts involving helicopters, drones and dogs were difficult because of the water, mud and debris.

"When we're trying to make these recoveries, these large piles can be very obstructive, and to get in deep into these piles, it's very hazardous," Baker said.

Kerrville police officer Jonathan Lamb spoke of heroic rescues by authorities and volunteers who evacuated hundreds of people from their homes or vehicles.

Officers went "door to door, waking people up" in Kerr County early Friday and in some cases "pulling them out of windows" of flooding homes and trailers, Lamb told reporters.

The tragedy, "as horrific as it is, could have been so much worse," he added.

The National Weather Service (NWS) has forecast scattered storms on Wednesday in the Hill Country, including isolated pockets of heavy rain.

In the neighboring state of New Mexico, flash flooding left three people dead Tuesday in Ruidoso, the village website said in a statement, adding the Ruidoso River rose to a record-breaking 20 feet (six meters).

- Bodies in the mud -

In the Texas town of Hunt, an AFP team saw recovery workers combing through piles of debris with helicopters flying overhead.

Javier Torres, 24, was digging through mud as he searched for his grandmother, after having located the body of his grandfather.

He also discovered the bodies of two children, apparently washed up by the river.

President Donald Trump is due to visit Texas on Friday with First Lady Melania Trump.

"We brought in a lot of helicopters from all over... They were real pros, and they were responsible for pulling out a lot of people," Trump said.

Meanwhile, questions intensified over whether Trump's government funding cuts had weakened warning systems, and over the handling of the rescue operation.

During sometimes tense news conferences Tuesday and Wednesday, officials skirted questions on the speed of the emergency response.

"There's going to be an after-action" review of what happened, Sheriff Leitha said, adding "those questions need to be answered."

But officials stressed that the focus now was on locating the missing and reuniting families.

Shel Winkley, a weather expert at the Climate Central research group, blamed the extent of the disaster on geography and exceptional drought, when dry soil absorbs less rainfall.

"This part of Texas, at least in the Kerr County flood specifically, was in an extreme to exceptional drought.... We know that since May, temperatures have been above average," Winkley told reporters.

M.Hill--SFF