Hundreds of people have been reportedly missing after the deadly Texas flood. Most of them were found to be safe
DALLAS (AP) – Texas official Labour has been responsible for more than 160 people initially caused by more than 160 people along the Guadalupe River after the deadly fourth flood in July, and finally concluded that most were safe and only three people have not been found.
“Most of them are tourists entering towns and returning home without reporting them there,” Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said at a special meeting in the county commissioner’s court, calling the process “a hard effort.”
Flash floods killed at least 135 people in Texas, most of which were in Kerr County, on the Guadalupe River, destructive, fast-moving water rose 26 feet (8 meters) to wash buildings and vehicles around 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of the area.
The sharp revision of the number of missing officers in Kerr County officials on Saturday was followed by a familiar pattern of often chaotic massive disasters. Hundreds of people were reportedly missing in the first few days after the flooding via telephone hotline and email address, which initiated an “exhaustive effort” by investigators to verify everyone’s condition.
“We understand the key to accurately reporting this information – not only for affected families, but for the integrity of the entire emergency response,” Lamb said.
Sharp swings follow disaster
It is not uncommon to dramatically change the number of people lost after the disaster.
For example, it was eventually found that the death toll from the Maui fire in 2023 was just over 100, far below the 1,100 initially worried about missing.
In 2017, a wildfire in the Northern California wine country killed more than 20 people, but most of the 100 people initially reported missing were safe.
The wildfires in 2018 largely destroyed California town paradise, eventually killing nearly 100 people, although Butte County investigators once had more than 3,000 names that were not held responsible early in the disaster. When the list was published in local newspapers, the names were weakened and many realized for the first time that officials were looking for them.
Visitors and campers report missing
Texas’s Mountain Country is a popular tourist destination where campers look for attractions along the Guadalupe River in a rolling landscape.
Vacation cottages, RV parks and youth campgrounds fill Kerr County’s river banks and hills, including Mystery Camp, a century-old Christian summer camp for girls, with at least 27 campers and counselors dying in the flood.
Experts say the flood is much worse than the 100-year activity envisioned by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and acts so quickly late at night that it fell into many off-guard measures in Kerr County, which lacks a warning system.
Tracking Missing
In a July 14 press conference, Texas Governor Greg Abbott reduced the number of still-defused jobs in the state to about 100 and suggested that it would be difficult to fix that number. In the days after the flood, officials placed the missing numbers in about 170 across the state, with only about 10 from Kerr County alone.
Campers, residents or people who register at RV parks or hotels are more likely to consider, Abbott said. Others may be missing by friends, family or colleagues.
In Travis County, including Austin, the flood killed at least 10 people. A person is still on their missing list, but may be removed if they can verify sightings on that person.
Kristen Dark, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office, said investigators work on the list of missing persons and dead “just like we’ll encounter any other case.” For example, if someone reports that they haven’t seen a neighbor, deputies may first contact their neighbor’s employer and family.
“They use a variety of different ways to see if they can find out that the person is not seen, or that the person is still alive, and that’s where they are.”
____
Austin’s Associated Press writer Nadia Lathan contributed to the report.
