The rising number of victims from the devastating central Texas floods is beginning to plateau, with at least 120 people found dead in the state – a bleak sign that rescuers have made little progress to find victims amid wreckage in the past 24 hours.
On Thursday morning, local officials in Kerr county, which was hit the hardest by the 4 July flash flood, announced that 96 people had died, the same number reported on Wednesday evening.
Sgt Jonathan Lamb of Kerrville police department said on Thursday that 60 of those dead in Kerr county were adults and 36 were children. There are still 161 people missing in the county, including five campers and one counselor from Camp Mystic.
Thursday morning’s update comes a day after Kristi Noem, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), discussed plans to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema). Weeks ago, Trump had promised to begin “phasing out” Fema in order to “bring it down to the state level”.
“We’re cutting through the paperwork of the old Fema, streamlining it, much like your vision of how Fema should operate,” Noem said on Wednesday. Noem added that Americans helping one another after such tragic events was proof that “God created us to take care of each other”, the Associated Press reports.
In early June, Trump stated he wanted to “wean off Fema”, a repeatedly stated aim of Noem and Trump. Experts warn that dismantling the agency and bringing it “down to the state level” could leave gaps in crucial services, when responding to emergencies, like the Texas floods.
The Associated Press interviewed Michael Coen, Fema chief of staff during the Barack Obama and Joe Biden administrations, who said that the White House’s push “causes more concern on how states should be planning for the future if the federal government’s not going to be there for them”.
On Sunday, Trump declared the Texas flooding to be a “major disaster”, ordering the further deployment of federal resources to assist in rescue and recovery efforts. Fema officials and resources were sent to the state to help with efforts. The DHS also deployed a number of its agencies to help in rescue and recovery efforts, including the US Coast Guard and a border patrol special tactical unit.
Fema, on Thursday, set up their taskforce command in Center Point, Texas, to continue their search operations.
Lamb, of the local police, said on Thursday morning that more than 2,100 personnel were on the ground, helping with reuniting families after the devastation. A team of Mexican firefighters are also present in Texas, helping with rescue and recovery efforts.
As the number of bodies recovered – and the number of missing – stagnate, community members are returning to their properties to survey the devastation. Trump and his wife will be visiting the disaster zone on Friday.
Summer camps on the banks of the Guadalupe River were flooded with water. Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian camp, was devastated by the flood, leading to the tragic death of young girls.
But as recovery efforts continue, questions remain about local jurisdictions’ preparedness for the flooding event. Various news organizations have reported on warning systems in the area, questioning whether they properly alerted locals about the rapidly rising river water.
Many state and local agencies missed opportunities to fund a flood warning system, according to a story from the AP published on Wednesday.
And an earlier report from Texas Public Radio indicated that volunteer firefighters requested an emergency alert to be sent to people’s phones at 4.22am on Friday, but some residents did not receive an alert until 10am, nearly six hours later.
