- Workers in the Texas center continue to pass through sludgeted waste batteries.
- The death toll increases to 119 with more than 160 people who still reported missing.
- The tragedy “as horrible as it is, could have been much worse,” says the official.
Hunt: Texas's flash death touch increased to 119 on Wednesday, as worries grew that the figure could more than double with more than 160 people who still reported missing.
The workers in the center of Texas continued to review through the flood debris batteries of the floods of July 4, since Governor Greg Abbott ordered that the flags be reduced to the half -mast by the tragedy.
Kerr County officials, the epicenter of floods, confirmed on Wednesday that it was known that 161 people were missing in the county.
Part of a region of Hill Country in the center of Texas, known as “Alley Flash Flow Alley”, Kerr County suffered the greatest damage, with at least 95 deaths, including 36 children, said Sheriff Larry Leitha to journalists.
Among them, the directors and 27 girls in a summer camp that disappeared early Friday when the Guadalupe River revoked its banks.
Five campers and a advisor to the Mystic Camp were still missing until Wednesday, along with another boy not associated with the camp, Leitha said.
Two dozen of other people have been confirmed dead in other parts of the state, according to a AFP TALY OF OFFICIAL REPORTS.
More than 2,000 rescue personnel, the police and experts have descended in the flood zone in what Leitha described as an operation of “all hands on the deck.”
Ben Baker, with the Guardians of the Texas game, said that the search and rescue efforts that involve helicopters, drones and dogs were difficult due to water, mud and rubble.
“When we try to do these recoveries, these great batteries can be very obstructive and deepen these batteries, it is very dangerous,” Baker said.
Meanwhile, the questions intensified if the government cuts of the government of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, had weakened the warning systems and about the management of the rescue operation.
During the news conferences sometimes tense on Tuesday and Wednesday, officials bordered questions about the speed of the emergency response.
“There will be a subsequent review of the action” of what happened, said Sheriff Leitha, adding that “those questions must be answered.”
But the officials emphasized that the immediate approach was to locate the missing and gathered families.
'Door to door'
Kerville police officer, Jonathan Lamb, spoke of heroic rescue of authorities and volunteers who evacuated hundreds of people from their homes or vehicles.
The officers were “door to door, waking people” in Kerr County on early Friday and, in some cases, “get them out of the windows” of floods and trailers, Lamb told reporters.
The tragedy, “as horrible as it is, it could have been much worse,” he added.
The National Meteorological Service (NWS) has predicted scoring storms on Wednesday in Hill Country, including pockets isolated from heavy rains.
In the neighboring state of New Mexico, the sudden floods left three people dead on Tuesday in noise, said the village website in a statement, added that the noisy river went up to a 20 -foot record (six meters).
Bodies in mud
In the city of Hunt de Texas, a AFP The team saw recovery workers reviewing through rubble batteries with helicopters flying above.
Javier Torres, 24, was digging through the mud while looking for his grandmother, after having located his grandfather's body.
He also discovered the bodies of two children, apparently washed next to the river.
Trump must visit Texas on Friday with the first lady Melania Trump.
“We brought many helicopters everywhere … They were true professionals and were responsible for getting many people,” Trump said about the answer.
Shel Winkley, a climate expert at the Central Climate Research Group, blamed within reach of geography disaster and exceptional drought, when dry soil absorbs less rain.
“This part of Texas, at least in the flood of Kerr County, specifically, was at one end to an exceptional drought … We know that since May, temperatures have been above average,” Winkley told journalists.
