Texas floods: 11 girls from summer camp still missing as death toll rises to 59

Rescue and recovery efforts continue 48 hours after floods swept through the Texas Hill Country, leaving at least 51 people dead. The state’s lieutenant governor says that number may still rise.

“This is a death toll that continues to rise,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told NBC Sunday.

Patrick said there is still significant uncertainty about the number of people missing because many visitors were spending the July 4th holiday weekend along the river.

“There were thousands of people who came and had a tent, had a trailer, rented a small house on the banks of the river … we don’t know who all those people are,” Patrick said. “There were a lot of visitors in a town of 20,000 people.”

Teams continue search and rescue efforts, even as authorities acknowledge that the likelihood of finding survivors decreases as time passes.

“We never give up on looking for someone. We’ve had storms in the past where people have gone down river 10, 15 miles, and you find them later and they’ve survived,” Patrick said. “Those hours, of course, are getting long now.”

More than 800 people have already been rescued from the floodwaters, according to Patrick.

“It is my hope that miracles still happen,” he said.

The lieutenant governor also acknowledged the 27 girls missing from Camp Mystic along the Guadalupe River, saying he has tried to offer encouragement to their families.

“There is this line you have to walk of making sure people have hope, those who are missing their children,” Patrick said. “At the same time, you don’t want to exaggerate those hopes, so you have to be as candid as you can be.”

Texas officials must prepare to deal with future flooding events, particularly given the impact of climate change, Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro said this morning.

An intense search is on for more than 20 girls from a central Texas summer camp who are still missing after massive flooding hit the state early Friday, with first responders from Austin, San Antonio and other areas moving in to help, Castro told Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“Obviously the priority is on making sure that those girls are found and are saved — and anybody else who may be missing at this point — and then I think after that, we have to figure out in the future how we make sure that it doesn’t happen again,” the Texas lawmaker said.

Castro cited an increase in flooding events in general, including in San Antonio last month.

“I think the governor and state government should look at what they can do in terms of longer-term planning,” he said.

Reports that the National Weather Service was missing staffers in the region due to Trump administration cuts should be investigated, Castro added.

“I don’t think it’s helpful to have missing key personnel from the National Weather Service not in place to help prevent these tragedies,” the lawmaker said.

The two Texas NWS offices most closely involved in forecasting and warning about last week’s flooding — Austin-San Antonio and San Angelo — are missing some key staff members, but still issued a slew of watches and warnings about the flood danger.