At least 24 people have died, and up to 25 girls from a children’s summer camp are missing after thunderstorms and torrential rain hit rural Texas on Friday.
Intense downpours triggered flash flooding and caused the Guadalupe River in south-central Texas to rise by a reported eight metres in less than an hour, engulfing Camp Mystic, a private Christian summer camp for girls.
The US National Weather Service declared a flash flood emergency for parts of Kerr County, about 105 kilometres north-west of San Antonio, after up to 30 centimetres of rain fell.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said search-and-rescue operations were continuing and that “limitless” resources would be devoted to the rescue effort.
At a news conference on Saturday AEST, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said 24 people were confirmed to have died in the floods. Authorities said 237 people had been rescued so far, including 167 by helicopter.
Officials said they were still searching for up to 25 missing girls from Camp Mystic, adding that they did not yet know how many people in total were unaccounted for from across the region.
Parents and families turned to social media to post desperate pleas for information about loved ones caught in the flood zone amid warnings of more heavy rain to come over the next 24 hours.
“The camp was completely destroyed,” said 13-year-old Elinor Lester, who was staying at the site. “A helicopter landed and started taking people away. It was really scary.”
Lester said a raging storm woke up her cabin about 1.30am, and when rescuers arrived, they tied a rope for the girls to hold as the children in her cabin walked across a bridge with floodwaters whipping around their calves and knees.
Camp Mystic said in an email to parents that if they had not been contacted directly, their child was accounted for.
Referring to the message at a news conference, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said: “That does not mean [the missing children] have been lost. They could be out of communication.”
In a statement from the camp read by Patrick, campsite staff said they had experienced “catastrophic levels of flooding” and that they have “no power, water or Wi-Fi”.
Patrick said the Guadalupe River had risen about eight metres in 45 minutes, and warned of the further risk of flooding in west and central Texas.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One at the end of a day of public events for the July 4 holiday, President Donald Trump described the floods as “shocking” and “terrible”.
“We’ll take care of them”, he said when asked about federal aid for the disaster.
The camp has been running for almost 100 years and attracts families from Texas and beyond, with the youngest campers entering in year 3. Its Instagram account features videos of large groups of girls taking part in dance performances this summer.
The area is home to several other summer camps, including Camp La Junta for boys, about 8 kilometres from Camp Mystic. The boys’ camp told families that all of its campers were safe and fed, but they could not be evacuated until about 7pm US Central Time on Friday (Saturday AEST).
“Everybody is doing everything in their power to get these kids out,” Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, the top elected local official, told a news briefing. He said scattered residential areas, recreational vehicle parks and campsites were the hardest hit.
One young girl wearing a Camp Mystic T-shirt stood in a puddle in her white socks, sobbing in her mother’s arms as she rubbed her hands together and watched the buses arrive.
Camp Mystic sits on a strip known as “flash flood alley”, said Austin Dickson, chief executive of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, a charity that is collecting donations to help with the disaster response.
“When it rains, water doesn’t soak into the soil,” Dickson said. “It rushes down the hill.”