Texas officials grilled about emergency alerts before deadly floods as searches continue

Hope of finding survivors of the catastrophic flooding in Texas dimmed Tuesday, a day after the death toll surpassed 100, as crews kept up the search for people missing in the aftermath.

The search efforts benefited from improving weather. The storms that battered the Hill Country for the past four days began to lighten up, although isolated pockets of heavy rain were still possible.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott planned to make another visit Tuesday to Camp Mystic, the century-old all-girls Christian summer camp where at least 27 campers and counsellors died during the flash floods.

Officials said Tuesday that five campers and one counsellor have still not been found.

A wall of water slammed into camps and homes along the edge of the Guadalupe River before daybreak Friday, pulling people out of their cabins, tents and trailers and dragging them for kilometres past floating tree trunks and cars. Some survivors were found clinging to trees.

WATCH | Owner describes chaotic rescue as floodwaters rushed into RV park:

‘Throw me your baby’: Texas RV park owner describes flood rescue attempt

Lorena Guillen, owner of the Blue Oak RV Park in Kerrville, Texas, tells The National’s guest host, Christine Birak, about her efforts to help people trapped at the park as a flash flood rushed in.

Questions are mounting about what, if any, actions local officials took to warn campers and residents who were spending the July Fourth holiday weekend in the scenic area long known to locals as “flash flood alley.”

At another public briefing Tuesday, officials in hard-hit Kerr County faced repeated questions about what preparations and warnings were made as forecasters warned of life-threatening conditions.

“We will get answers. Right now, all of our resources are focused to recovery,” said Lt.-Col. Ben Baker of the Texas Game Wardens.

Some camps were aware of the dangers and monitoring the weather. At least one moved several hundred campers to higher ground before the floods. But many were caught by surprise.

Searchers in Kerry County have found the bodies of 87 people, including 30 children, officials said Tuesday. The county is home to Camp Mystic and several other summer camps near the river.

Nineteen deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, local officials said.

WATCH | Former camper at Camp Mystic describes ‘unimaginable’ tragedy:

‘It’s unthinkable what has happened,’ says former Camp Mystic attendee

Olivia Marrus, a former camper at Camp Mystic, says the news of the flooding in Texas has been ‘hard to watch.’ The owners of the all-girls Christian camp in Kerr County confirmed early Monday that more than two dozen of their campers and counsellors had died in the catastrophic flood that swept the area.

Among those confirmed dead were eight-year-old sisters from Dallas who were at Camp Mystic and a former soccer coach and his wife who were staying at a riverfront home. Their daughters were still missing.

Elizabeth Lester, a mother of children who were at Camp Mystic and nearby Camp La Junta during the flood, said her young son had to swim out a cabin window to escape. Her daughter fled up the hillside as floodwaters whipped against her legs. Both survived.

Search and rescue teams used heavy equipment to untangle trees and move large rocks as part of the massive search for missing people. Hundreds of volunteers have shown up to help with one of the largest rescue operations in Texas history.

Piles of twisted trees sprinkled with mattresses, refrigerators and coolers littered the riverbanks.