Texas floods latest: as continuing bouts of heavy rain batter hard-hit areas: Rescue teams in central Texas are still scouring storm-ravaged terrain in search of survivors as the death toll from the recent catastrophic flooding has now climbed to at least 111 with 173 missing as full scale of the disaster becomes clear.
Most of the flooding victims were killed in Kerr County after the Guadalupe River rose around 27 feet in under an hour early on July 4, carrying off vehicles, RVs and lifting buildings from their foundations. As the river also rose around 27 feet at several other locations in a matter of hours a massive volume of water surged downstream toward Kerrville, a city of 24,000.
Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer camp on the riverbank, confirmed 27 girls and staff members had been killed with five campers and one counsellor still missing. Hundreds of emergency responders continued to search through debris with the flood's footprint stretching more than 100km.
State governor Greg Abbott told reporters at a press conference: “Know this: we will not stop until every missing person is accounted for,” he added. “There could very likely be more people added to the list.”
“Texas is grieving right now. The pain, the shock of what has transpired these last few days has broken the heart of our state," said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Cruz said he was heartbroken by the loss of children at Camp Mystic, describing it as "every parent’s nightmare."
There were about 700 children at the camp when relentless rain caused the nearby Guadalupe River to surge up to 27 feet in less than an hour on Friday, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said. Buildings, where some of the children slept, had broken windows and blown-out walls. Pink blankets and stuffed animals were strewn among the mud-covered debris.
As rescuers resumed searches for missing people by air, land, and water, there remained an ongoing a danger of "life-threatening flooding," according to officials. Warning the population in Central Texas that multiple flash flood warnings were still in place across the Hill Country as storms drenched the region, inundating roads and waterways.
Potent, slow-moving storms over central Texas have begun to trigger flooding in areas already hard-hit by the state. Forecasters with the National Weather Service have issued flash flood warnings and said that several more inches were expected to fall through the rest of the day. Drier weather is forecasted for the middle to end of the week.
Authorities have rescued over 850 people since the devastating flooding began last week, Cruz said at a news conference.
“One of the more devastating things about this event was that it was known risk,” said Jeremy Porter, head of climate implications at data provider First Street, in media interviews. “Camp Mystic was right on the edge of a Special Flood Hazard Area, as designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” Porter noted. First Street's models differ from FEMA's in that they incorporate the effects of extreme precipitation, which FEMA does not account for. First Street also uses climate-change models to extrapolate changing and challenging risk into the future.
Guadalupe River set a record high crest at Hunt
The Guadalupe River set a record high crest of 37.52 feet at Hunt, Texas, on July 4, the U.S. Geological Survey said. This broke the previous record of 36.60 feet, set on July 2, 1932. Hunt is about six miles from Camp Mystic, the site of some of the worst devastation.
According to the USGS, flood impacts of 32 feet or higher at that gage location will lead to "disastrous life-threatening flooding (that) puts water over the roads of lowest camps and resorts from the headwaters of the North and South Forks to below Comfort."
The Future
This, yet another disaster triggered by advancing climate change, yet another extreme weather event in an increasingly intensifying litany of global warming warnings. Ever more frequent heat waves now spawn biblical rainfall incidents that turn into torrents carrying all human life before them with simply unstoppable energy. Levels of destructive natural energy unleashed as the global climate reacts to the seemingly boundless fossil fuel burning pollution released into the Earth’s atmosphere. Compounded and exacerbated by the constant firing of artillery, drone and missile ordinance and carpet-bombing taking place in wars across the world, causing endless ignition of fire incidents and rubble raised dust from the incendiary demolition of large structures, heating up an already fragile atmosphere. As we look forward to a future of sweltering heat and torrential rain. Converting all that beautiful natural energy, supportive of so much life for so long, into a darker more destructive forces. Deny climate change and its disastrous effects at your peril, my friends and fellow Oraclers.
Redbeck
GLOBAL WARMING GLOBAL 
Guadalupe River Rising
Guadalupe River Flooding
Guadalupe River Search & Rescue
