The death toll from the catastrophic floods that hit the state of Texas in the United States has risen to 82, as the search for the missing continues and officials face questions over a failure to evacuate people in hard-hit Kerr County.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Sunday that at least 41 people remain unaccounted for across the southern state, three days after the deluge, and that more could be missing.
He promised authorities will continue to work around the clock to find the missing, and warned that additional rounds of heavy rains lasting into Tuesday could produce more life-threatening flooding.
In Kerr County, Sheriff Larry Leitha said on Sunday that searchers have found the bodies of 68 people, including 28 children, many of whom went missing from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp for girls.
Leitha said 10 more girls and a counsellor remain missing and pledged to keep searching until “everybody is found”.
President Donald Trump sent his condolences to the victims and said he would probably visit the area on Friday. His administration had been in touch with Abbott, he added.
“It’s a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible. So we say, ‘God bless all of the people that have gone through so much, and God bless… God bless the state of Texas’,” he told reporters as he left New Jersey.
The flooding occurred after the nearby Guadalupe River broke its banks after torrential rain fell in the central Texas area on Friday, the US Independence Day holiday.
Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd said the destruction killed three people in Burnet County, one in Tom Green County, five in Travis County and one in Williamson County.
Kidd said rescuers were evacuating people from more places along the river, “because we are worried about another wall of river coming down in those areas”, with rain continuing to fall on soil in the region already saturated from Friday’s rains.
Questions over preparedness
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was activated on Sunday and is deploying resources to first responders in Texas after Trump issued a major disaster declaration, the Department of Homeland Security said.
US coastguard helicopters and planes were aiding search and rescue efforts.
Freeman Martin, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said on Sunday that he expected to “see the death toll rise today and tomorrow”.
Authorities, meanwhile, have faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in an area long vulnerable to flooding, and whether enough preparations were made.
Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi, reporting from central Texas, said several communities along the Guadalupe River were evacuated after the National Weather Service sent out repeated warnings about the rising water levels, but not those in Kerr County.
“There are still no answers as to why those here weren’t alerted,” he said.
Rattansi said while Trump has activated FEMA assistance for Texas, the president had “made it clear in the past that he wants to phase out such aid, even once saying that if a state governor needs to ask for federal emergency help, perhaps they’re not up to the job”.
Trump, when asked by reporters whether he was still planning to phase out FEMA, said that it was something “we can talk about later, but right now, we are busy working”.
Rattansi also said that the Trump administration is phasing out “research and analysis of the changing climate because it feels it’s politicised and divisive”, even though “it’s exactly that sort of analysis that led to the warnings from the National Weather Service to municipal authorities to evacuate residents up and down the Guadalupe River”.
“Climate scientists have long warned that warmer air will hold more moisture and result in ever more intense storms,” he said. “Yet just as their predictions are being realised, federal resources to predict, mitigate and manage extreme weather events are at risk as never before.”
Rick Spinrad, a former director at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told Al Jazeera that less research will lead to less accurate predictions, making it harder for people to prepare.
“Without research, without staff to do the work, we can assume that the predictions, [for] hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, drought, wildfires, tsunamis, for that matter, are undoubtedly going to degrade, and that means that people’s ability to prepare for these storms will be compromised,” Spinrad said.
In February, the Trump administration announced cuts affecting the jobs of hundreds of staff at NOAA, including meteorologists at the National Weather Service.
Abbott, the Texas governor, declared Sunday a day of prayer for the state.
“I urge every Texan to join me in prayer this Sunday – for the lives lost, for those still missing, for the recovery of our communities, and for the safety of those on the front lines,” he said in a statement.
In Rome, Pope Leo XIV also offered special prayers for those affected by the disaster.
“I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were in summer camp, in the disaster caused by the flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas in the United States. We pray for them.”