The death toll from flash floods that rampaged through Central Texas rose to at least 67 on Sunday as rescuers maneuvering through challenging terrain found more bodies and continued their desperate search for many others, including 11 missing girls from a summer camp.
Searchers in Kerr County have found 16 bodies since Saturday afternoon, bringing the total number of dead there to 59, said Sheriff Larry Leitha. The dead included 21 children, he said.
He pledged to keep searching in that Hill Country region until “everybody is found” from Friday’s flash floods.
Four deaths also were reported in Travis County, three in Burnet and 1 in Kendall.
Rescuers dealt with broken trees, overturned cars and muck-filled debris in the difficult task to find survivors. Authorities still have not said how many people were missing beyond the 11 children and a camp counselor from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp.
Families were allowed to look around the camp Sunday morning while nearby crews operating heavy equipment pulled tree trunks and tangled branches out of the water as they searched along a riverbank. Thunder rumbled from a new storm.
A woman and a teenage girl, both wearing rubber waders, briefly went inside one of the cabins, which stood next to a pile of of soaked mattresses, a storage trunk and clothes. At one point, the pair doubled over, sobbing before they embraced.
With each passing hour, the outlook of finding more survivors became even more bleak. Volunteers and some families of the missing who drove to the disaster zone searched the riverbanks despite being asked not to do so.
Authorities faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in area long vulnerable to flooding and whether enough preparations were made.
The destructive, fast-moving waters rose 26 feet (8 meters) on the river in only 45 minutes before daybreak Friday, washing away homes and vehicles. The danger was not over as flash flood watches…