What to know about the flash floods in Texas that killed nearly 70 people

KERRVILLE Texas AP Flash floods in Texas killed dozens and left an unknown number of July Fourth visitors and campers missing including various girls attending Camp Mystic The devastation along the Guadalupe River outside of San Antonio has drawn a massive search effort as bureaucrats face questions over their preparedness and the speed of their initial actions Here s what to know about the deadly flooding the colossal weather system that drove it in and around Kerr County Texas and ongoing efforts to identify casualties Massive rain hit at just the wrong time in a flood-prone place The floods grew to their worst at the midpoint of a long holiday weekend when numerous people were asleep The Texas Hill Country in the central part of the state is naturally prone to flash flooding due to the dry dirt-packed areas where the soil lets rain skid along the surface of the landscape instead of soaking it up Friday s flash floods started with a particularly bad storm that dropped majority of its inches centimeters of rain in the dark early morning hours After a flood watch notice midday Thursday the National Weather Institution office issued an urgent warning around a m that raised the prospective of catastrophic damage and a severe threat to human life By at least a m selected in the Kerrville City area say water levels were getting alarmingly high The massive rain flowing down hills sent rushing water into the Guadalupe River causing it to rise feet meters in just minutes Death toll is expected to rise and the number of missing is uncertain At least people in Kerr County and eight elsewhere in central Texas were approved dead as of Sunday morning In Kerr County of the casualties dead were adults and were children including girls recovered from Camp Mystic a Christian summer camp along the river Eleven more girls were still unaccounted for For past campers the tragedy turned happy memories into grief Beyond the Camp Mystic campers unaccounted for the number of missing from other nearby campgrounds and across the region had not been published We don t even want to begin to estimate at this time Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice disclosed Saturday citing the likely influx of visitors during the July Fourth holiday Agents face scrutiny over flash flood warnings Survivors have described the floods as a pitch black wall of death and disclosed they received no exigency warnings Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly who lives along the Guadalupe River noted Saturday that nobody saw this coming Various bureaucrats have referred to it as a -year-flood meaning that the water levels were highly unlikely based on the historical record And records behind those statistics don t invariably account for human-caused environment change Though it s hard to connect specific storms to a warming planet so soon after they occur meteorologists say that a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture and allow severe storms to dump even more rain Additionally agents have come under scrutiny about why residents and youth summer camps along the river were not alerted sooner than a m or recounted to evacuate Executives noted that the inhabitants can grow weary from too a great number of flooding alerts or forecasts that turn out to be minor Kerr county executives stated they had presented a proposal for a more robust flood warning system similar to a tornado warning system but that members of the society reeled at the cost On Sunday bureaucrats walked out of a news briefing after reporters required them again about delays in alerts and evacuations Monumental clearing and rebuilding effort The flash floods have erased campgrounds and torn homes from their foundations It s going to be a long time before we re ever able to clean it up much less rebuild it Kelly mentioned Saturday after surveying the destruction from a helicopter Other massive flooding events have driven residents and business owners to give up including in areas struck last year by Hurricane Helene AP photographers have captured the scale of the destruction and one of Texas largest rescue and recover efforts