The Dallas Morning News
(TNS)
DALLAS — As the death toll continues to mount in Central Texas following historic and catastrophic flooding, officials and communities across the state were mobilizing relief efforts and finding ways to honor the victims who were killed or remained unaccounted for.
Dallas city officials ordered flags at all city facilities to be lowered to half-staff through Wednesday in memory of the victims, according to a city spokesperson.
As of Sunday night, there were at least 82 confirmed fatalities with the majority of them reported in Kerr County, which has reported 68 deaths from the storm.
Among Kerr County’s confirmed dead are at least 28 children. The missing campers were from Camp Mystic, a riverside Christian camp for girls in the small town of Hunt.
During an afternoon news conference, Gov. Greg Abbott and other officials said Sunday that there were 41 people confirmed to be unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing.
The state and local officials said that an ongoing search and rescue effort is underway, with emergency responders using boats, drones, helicopters, and horses to comb the battered, ragged Hill Country area.
Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Hunt, is one of the areas with fatalities.
Ten campers and one counselor from the camp remain unaccounted for, and the camp’s longtime director, Richard “Dick” Eastland, was confirmed among the dead after reportedly losing his life while trying to save the girls under his care.
The camp, which had just begun its second four-week session, was forced to evacuate Friday overnight all 750 children, as floodwaters surged.
State and federal authorities have mobilized significant resources to the region.
President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration Sunday for Kerr County, activating the Federal Emergency Management Agency to Texas.
Trump said he would likely visit Friday.
“I would have done it today, but we’d just be in their way,” he told reporters before boarding Air Force One back to Washington after spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. “It’s a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible.”
Crews from FEMA, the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection have joined local teams in the search for missing residents and children from nearby camps.
As of Sunday night, a large swath of communities in Central Texas were under evacuation orders as new flood warnings were issued because of lingering rains..
In Kerr County, 28 of the bodies recovered remain unidentified, and the Texas Rangers are collecting DNA from victims and family members.
The unidentified remains are being flown to the University of North Texas’ Center for Human Identification in Fort Worth for rapid analysis, with officials promising answers “in hours, not days.”
Families from across Texas and beyond are awaiting news, as officials warn that the death toll is expected to rise.
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