(NEW YORK) — At least 27 people, both children and counselors, are dead at Camp Mystic after historic flooding wiped out the the Christian summer camp housing hundreds of young girls in the middle of the night.
“Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy,” Camp Mystic said in a statement. “We are praying for them constantly.”
“We have been in communication with local and state authorities who are tirelessly deploying extensive resources to search for our missing girls,” the statement continued. “We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of support from community, first responders, and officials at every level.”
At least 80 people are believed dead in six counties across Texas after the deadly floods that struck the state on the Fourth of July, according to the latest information from state officials.
The majority of the deaths — 68 in all, including 28 children — occurred in hard-hit Kerr County after heavy rain pounded the Texas Hill Country region early Friday, leading to “catastrophic” flooding, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said at a news conference Sunday afternoon.
At least 10 campers from the girls-only Camp Mystic summer camp, along with a counselor, remained unaccounted as of late Sunday afternoon, Leitha said.
A Flood Watch was in effect for parts of New Mexico and western Texas Thursday afternoon as rounds of slow-moving thunderstorms packing heavy rain moved through the area. By Thursday evening, five inches of rain had fallen in parts of western Texas, including Midland and Odessa.
The flooding caught local officials off guard as the torrential rains caused the Guadalupe River to rise to near-historic levels in a matter of minutes, officials said at a press conference Saturday.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for Kerr County, where the Guadalupe River is located, around 1:14 a.m. Friday.
The river rose 26 feet in 45 minutes that morning, Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring told reporters on Friday.
“This came at night when people were asleep in bed,” he said.
The Guadalupe River reached its second-highest height on record, surpassing a 1987 flood level, the National Weather Service said.
Stuart Gross, the code enforcement officer for the city of Ingram, Texas, in Kerr County, told ABC News Live that the damage and flooding levels in his town were unprecedented.
“They came up high, never seen it come up this high in my 45 years,” he said. “It was horrific.”
Gross also told ABC News that he didn’t recall receiving a warning about the flood but that the town’s volunteer fire department brought speakers to alert residents during the torrential storm.
“The only reason we got out is because of our volunteer fire department,” he said. “It’s tragic. The screams for help, and there’s nothing you could do.”
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told reporters that it is up to local mayors and counties to evacuate if they feel the need and many were unsure where the storm would land.
At a news conference Friday, Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said the county does not have a warning system on the river.
Kelly was pressed by a reporter as to why evacuations didn’t take place Thursday, but the judge said, “We didn’t know this flood was coming.”
“We have floods all the time. This is the most dangerous river valley in the United States, and we deal with floods on a regular basis. When it rains, we get water. We had no reason to believe that this was going to be anything like what’s happened here, none whatsoever,” he said.
Rain continued to hit the region Saturday, prompting flash flood emergency warnings for much of Burnet County and western parts of Williamson County and Travis County.
ABC News’ Emily Shapiro and Kyle Reiman contributed to this post.
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