Mortal floods. At least 70 people died in serious floods that arrived in Texas on Friday in the United States on Friday. While more than 11 children are missing, research continues tirelessly.
• Ray floods caused by torrential rains
During the night of this Friday, July 4, on the day of the American national holidays, Flores Rains fell in the center of Texas, towards Kerr County. The remains of the tropical storm Barry emerged from the Gulf of Mexico and lifted the waters of the Guadalupe River of eight meters in just 45 minutes. Suddenly almost 300 millimeters fell per hour of rain (300 liters of water per m2), a third of the average annual precipitation.
The Guadalupe River has reached, towards the Hunt community, its second registered, says the municipality of Kerville on Facebook citing the National Meteorological Service, the National Meteorological Service.
According to an official of the city in the city, Dalton Rice, the water has reached in certain areas “the level of a centenary flood”, an flood that has one of every 100 risk every year.
• Almost 70 dead, including 21 children
The results of these floods now approach 70 dead. For Kerr County, the most affected, “we have identified 59 deaths”, 38 adults and 21 children, said Sheriff, Larry Lethia, at a press conference, emphasizing that this report should increase even more in the next few hours.
“We are witnessing the discovery of bodies everywhere,” said the administrative manager of the city of Kerville, Dalton Rice.
There were nine deaths in neighboring counties.
• A dozen children participating in a missing summer camp
The hills that border the Guadalupe River, in the center of Texas, are dotted with summer camps or even camp lands. This Friday, some 750 boys participated in a Christian summer camp for girls on the river. 11 children of this camp are still missing, as well as an instructor.
“The camp was completely destroyed. It was really scary,” said Elinor Lester, 13, who participated in this vacation camp and was evacuated at night by helicopter while the water climbed into his villa.
Floods have given way to a desolation landscape. Within the bungalows that welcomed the girls, the ground is covered with mud, the covers and mattresses were overturned to the ground and broken windows testify the violence of the waves. In the camp, dozens of cars are stranded, some trapped in the trees and the vegetation torn.
“This camp, as well as the river that borders it, were terribly devastated, since I have never seen it during a natural disaster,” he said in unknown Texas Greg Abbott governor after going to the scene.
“We will not stop until we have found all the girls in these villas,” he said.
The owner and director of the “Mystic Camp” is among the dead and the manager of another vacation camp located nearby.
• Intense research since Friday
Since Friday, air, land and aquatic teams have been rummaging in the waters of Guadalupe in search of survivors and bodies. “There are currently more than 400 rescuers from more than 20 agencies deployed in the county,” Sheriff Lethia said Sunday.
“The rescue teams worked during the night,” Kerville police said on Facebook.
Up to 14 helicopters have been deployed, while the Texas National Guard and the Coast Guard sent reinforcements.
According to a CNN journalist on the site who works for BFMTV, intense efforts are made to clean the debris that dirty the river banks. Cinofilo teams also mobilize.
President Donald Trump, who sent his Minister of Internal Security, Kristi Noem in the place on the site on Saturday, announced in his Truth social network that “he signed a disaster statement for Kerr County” to guarantee the help of all the necessary means. The state of natural disaster had been declared Friday by the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott.
• A threat of “persistent” sudden floods “
Meteorological services maintain their flood alert to 19 hours, local time (Monday at 2 in the morning, Paris time).
“The thunderstorms can be formed at any time in the region. (…) With low altitude winds, all the thunderstorms that will be developed will move very slowly, which will lead to heavy rains in the same areas for a relatively long period,” says the National Meteorological Service in its place.
These rains would lead to “a threat of sudden floods”, especially due to “soil saturation and abundant humidity.”
Sudden floods, caused by torrential rains that dry soil cannot absorb, are not uncommon. But according to the scientific community, climate change caused by human activity has made meteorological events more frequent and more intense, such as floods, droughts and heat waves.
In mid -June, 13 people had perished due to floods in San Antonio, not far from the affected area on Friday, after torrential rains.
Source: BFM TV
