Emergency crews were forced to suspend search operations in Kerr County, Texas, on Sunday, as the area hit hardest by catastrophic flash flooding earlier this month faced a renewed flood threat. Officials in Texas’ rural and flood-prone Hill Country have said at least 161 people from the area remain missing in the aftermath of destructive July 4 storms that caused the Guadalupe River to overflow, and efforts to find them are ongoing.
Police in Kerrville, a Kerr County city, announced that ground search operations had been paused before 8 a.m. local time Sunday due to “flood danger.”
“We will provide more information soon but for now, all search crews need to evacuate the river corridor until further notice. Any volunteer search parties in the Guadalupe River corridor need to heed this warning,” the police department wrote in a social media post. “The potential for a flash flood is high.”
The department also shared an emergency weather alert that warned of “a high probability of the Guadalupe River at Hunt reaching flood stage today.” It urged people, equipment and vehicles to move away from the water immediately. Hunt was the site of particularly disastrous flooding early in the morning on July 4, with officials saying the river swelled more than 20 feet in less than an hour and ultimately killed at least 103 people countywide, including dozens of children at a riverside summer camp called Camp Mystic.
A flash flood warning was issued for parts of Kerr County on Sunday morning, along with other pockets of Central Texas. The Austin-San Antonio branch of the National Weather Service issued the warning as thunderstorms began to dump heavy rain over the area, and rainfall was expected to continue at a rate of 1 to 2.5 inches per hour, according to the forecast bulletin. The Weather Service noted that flash flooding was “ongoing or expected to begin shortly.”
The warning was due to expire at 12:15 p.m. local time.
“This is a dangerous and life-threatening situation. Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order,” the city of Kerrville wrote in another social media post, while the Weather Service emphasized that people should exercise serious caution around “low water crossings,” which are small bridges built close to the surface of the Guadalupe River.
Kerr County officials said last week that the crossings easily flood, as they did on the morning of July 4, trapping people on small “islands” of dry land and making it very difficult for emergency responders to reach them.
Although Kerr County suffered the most tragedy as a result of the inundation more than a week ago, several other counties across Central Texas felt its impacts, too. Including Kerr County, the death toll statewide has grown to at least 129, and 166 more are unaccounted for, according to the latest information from local officials.
The subsequent search for those missing among the debris has been massive. Volunteers, drones and search dogs joined the operation as crews from local, state and federal agencies probed on the ground, through the water and overhead in the air in hopes of uncovering anyone still lost. Difficult weather and harsh terrain have intermittently complicated their efforts, officials said.
On Friday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott again expanded his federal disaster declaration to include more counties imperiled by the flooding.
