Texas Flash Floods Turn Deadly

I am a bit surprised that there are camps near rivers.
The second most deadly flash flood in the nation's history occurred along a creek, not even a river. Water came down multiple canyons and built up behind something--per wikipedia, a steam laundry that had been built across the creek. When the blockage failed, the water barreled into town with the force of a large river. About 250 people died in a community of roughly a thousand. Riders on horseback managed to warn the citizens of the next two communities down the creek and save the people in those towns. (Though some people there later died of typhoid due to unsanitary water conditions caused by the flooding).

In the 60s & 70s, multiple flood-control studies were done; and a concrete dam was built in the early 80s to prevent a similar event along that creek.
 
Saw some footage of the Guadalupe river, the devastation, and a few interviews on msnbc. The flooding looks scary.

I am trying to stay away from politics. Will check out the PI for any related discussion.
 
And because we need uplifting news:

 
An alert sounded on my phone from the WSJ. They are reporting 109 confirmed dead and Abbott said there were still 161 missing in Kerr County alone. I'm not sure they have numbers calculated elsewhere. I do hope some people are fine but just cut off from normal communication. How awful for the families still waiting for news about their loved ones.
 
An alert sounded on my phone from the WSJ. They are reporting 109 confirmed dead and Abbott said there were still 161 missing in Kerr County alone. I'm not sure they have numbers calculated elsewhere. I do hope some people are fine but just cut off from normal communication. How awful for the families still waiting for news about their loved ones.
During the press conference earlier today, Abbott said they've set up a hotline for people to report potentially missing people because they really just aren't certain how many people were camping in the area this past weekend who are unaccounted for still. :(
 
This is so sad, my condolences to anyone suffering a loss.

Locating a camp on the oxbow of a river seems odd IMHO. The loss of life during this event seems totally preventable with today's knowledge, equipment, etc to predict beforehand and to evacuate those in danger......hopefully, a post incident review will be done to find out the root cause and provide recommendations going forward. Hopefully such a review can be done without political pressure but with current admin, not sure.
 
This morning's update is grim - now 176 missing, however the death toll has risen to 191.
119, I think. Rather than 191?

It feels so strange, doesn't it? That both numbers are going up. During the first couple days, yes, I would expect the number of missing to be incomplete. But after that, I'd expect the number of missing to drop as the dead are found and living were confirmed. Instead, it seems the number of missing was woefully underestimated and so both numbers have continued to rise. Just a terrible tragedy, plausibly to become the second worst death toll from a flash flood in U.S. history and the worst in over 135 years.
 
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119, I think. Rather than 191?

It feels so strange, doesn't it? That both numbers are going up. During the first couple days, yes, I would expect the number of missing to be incomplete. But after that, I'd expect the number of missing to drop as the dead are found and living were confirmed. Instead, it seems the number of missing was woefully underestimated and so both numbers have continued to rise. Just a terrible tragedy, plausibly to become the second worst death toll from a flash flood in U.S. history and the worst in over 135 years.
I suspect many families had not reported their missing relatives early on, because they may not have tried to contact them, and/or didn’t know that they may have been impacted. May be the phone/cell services had broken down.

I am afraid the relatives of the missing ones may not get the news they are hoping for, but one has to keep hoping, no matter how agonizing it can be.

In rare cases miracles have happened but it is unlikely that there will be that many. :(

This is so heart breaking! I do have relatives in/near Austin but I know that area was not impacted. It’s the rural part of the hill country that was.

Donations are coming in, to help them rebuild.
 
I suspect many families had not reported their missing relatives early on, because they may not have tried to contact them, and/or didn’t know that they may have been impacted. May be the phone/cell services had broken down.
I assume families both a. tried to contact them and b. that services were down. It's just that in the natural disaster scenarios I recall (local wildfires), the names of people who couldn't be reached went onto the missing list early and then came down as people were able to make contact. In this case, it seems like the missing from Camp Mystic were reported immediately but not names from the rest of the region.
 
119, I think. Rather than 191?

It feels so strange, doesn't it? That both numbers are going up. During the first couple days, yes, I would expect the number of missing to be incomplete. But after that, I'd expect the number of missing to drop as the dead are found and living were confirmed. Instead, it seems the number of missing was woefully underestimated and so both numbers have continued to rise. Just a terrible tragedy, plausibly to become the second worst death toll from a flash flood in U.S. history and the worst in over 135 years.
Coworker in TX says they let fireworks off over this river so when this storm hit there were numerous people camping, or in RVs and various riverfront vacation rentals that aren't normally in this area.
 
173 missing in New Mexico because of flooding.

 
The missing referred to in that video caption are from the Texas flooding. Fortunately the NM flood was far less deadly.

It's the summer of floods as another catastrophic flood surges in New Mexico. This as 173 people are still missing following the deadly Texas floods.
 

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