1 of 2 | An aerial view shows the extent of Guadalupe River flooding near Kerrville, Texas, on Saturday. The death toll has risen to 118, with 172 missing. Photo via U.S. Coast Guard/UPI | License Photo
July 9 (UPI) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday ordered state legislators to convene a special session on Monday as the death toll rose to at least 120 people and 172 reported missing in Fourth of July flooding in theHill Country.
It’s the deadliest flash flood in the United States since 1976 in Thompson Canyon, Colo., when 144 people were killed, according to the Weather Channel. In 1972, 238 died in flooding in Black Hills, S.D.
Kerr County has the most fatalities with 96, including 36 children, and 161 missing, CNN reported. One of the dead was a 20-month-old Austin boy who died after his family’s home was inundated by water from the Guadalupe River, which runs 230 miles between Austin and San Antonio.
At least 27 of those fatalities were children and counselors at Camp Mystic, a girls Christian camp along the Guadalupe River, which swelled to 20 feet.
Among the missing are five campers and one counselor from Camp Mystic, officials said.
Travis County has the next-highest number of flood casualties with seven killed and 10 missing, and Kendall County has eight reported fatalities with none missing, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
Other counties with flood casualties are Burnet, with five dead and one missing; Williamson, with three dead and one missing; and Tom Green, with one fatality and none missing.
The area is known as “flash flood alley” because the area can become inundated due to the terrain.
“The hearts of our fellow Texans are breaking every single day because of what people in this community and the surrounding area are going through,” Abbott said.
He ordered flags to be held at half-mast until Monday.
The special session ordered by Abbott that day includes giving attention to flood warning systems, emergency communications and relief funding for Hill Country flood victims and affected communities in central Texas.
“There is more work to be done, particularly in the aftermath of the devastating floods in the Texas Hill Country,” Abbott said in a news release on Wednesday.
“We must ensure better preparation for such events in the future,” he added.
Abbott wants state lawmakers to improve early warning systems, emergency communications and flood-response infrastructure in flood-prone areas in Texas.
The governor also said he wants state legislators to enact measures that provide relief funding for local costs for responding to and recovering from the flooding events, including local match funding for Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance.
Texas lawmakers also are tasked with enacting legislation to evaluate and streamline rules and regulations that make natural disaster preparedness and recovery more efficient.
Search and recovery efforts
Rescuers from local, state and federal agencies, as well as volunteers, are involved in the search and recovery.
NASA said Wednesday it has deployed two high-altitude WB-57 aircraft equipped with the DyNAMITE sensor for “high-resolution imagery critical to assessing damage and supporting coordination of ground-based recovery efforts.”
There hasn’t been a live rescue since Friday.
“The first 72 hours, we were here on the scene right away to save lives,” Dr. Rajeev Fernando, chief medical officer of Heal-Corp, a nonprofit organization providing emergency aid in Kerr County, told NBC News. “But as time goes on, the recovery takes precedence, unfortunately.”
Rescue crews are dealing with treacherous terrain, downed trees, debris and temperatures in the mid-80s and high humidity.
Ryan Logue, an incident coordinator with the United Cajun Navy, told CNN it is unlikely for anyone to survive for long in the rough conditions.
He said “there’s nothing remaining” where he has searched
Capt. Max McQuarrie of the Virginia Beach Water Rescue Team told CNN: “It’s going to be a slow, methodical process that’s going to take us, you know, days if not weeks, I think, to really provide the answers that everyone’s looking for.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, responds to disasters.
On Wednesday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem reiterated the need to “eliminate” FEMA.
“Federal emergency management should be state and locally led, rather than how it has operated for decades,” Noem said about FEMA, which was established in 1979.
“It has been slow to respond at the federal level,” Noem, who visited the area on Sunday, added. “It’s even been slower to get the resources to Americans in crisis, and that is why this entire agency needs to be eliminated as it exists today and remade into a responsive agency.”
FEMA provides grants to individuals and communities for rebuilding.
“Regular home insurance doesn’t typically cover flood coverage, and it usually is an add-on that you have to buy in a separate private flood policy, or through FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program,” attorney Nishi Kothari, with Brasher Law Firm out of Houston, told Realtor.com.
Flood insurance costs an average of $783 a year for a home.
Only 7% of residential properties in Texas have flood insurance. In FEMA-designated high-risk zones, just 28% of homes are insured.
More than 12,000 homes were damaged, according to local officials.
Donations are being accepted by the American Red Cross of Central and South Texas, the Salvation Army, Kerr County Flood Relief Fund.