At least 24 people have been killed and 23 to 25 people are missing as flash floods hit Kerr County in south-central Texas hill country, northwest of San Antonio, following torrential downpour on Friday, reports Al Jazeera.
The missing includes 23 to 25 people listed as unaccounted for at an all-girls Christian summer camp located on the banks of the rain-engorged Guadalupe, authorities said.
"What I can confirm at this point, we're at about 24 fatalities," Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha told an evening news conference on Friday, later confirming 24 people had died.
The US National Weather Service declared a flash flood emergency for parts of Kerr County, following heavy downpours measuring up to 300mm (12 inches) of rain.
Dalton Rice, city manager for Kerville, the county seat, told reporters the extreme flooding struck before dawn with little or no warning, precluding authorities from issuing any evacuation orders.
"This happened very quickly, over a very short period of time that could not be predicted, even with the radar," Rice said. "This happened within less than a two-hour span."
Earlier in the day, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said that the Guadalupe River rose 8 metres (26ft) in 45 minutes amid heavy downpours deluging the region.
Patrick said 23 girls were listed as unaccounted for among more than 700 children who were at the summer camp when it was swept by floodwaters at about 4am local time (09:00 GMT).
At least 250mm of rain poured down overnight in central Kerr County, causing flash flooding of the Guadalupe River and leading to desperate pleas for information about the missing.
Teams conducted dozens of rescues, and emergency responders continued to search for those who were unaccounted for.
"It's terrible, the floods," US President Donald Trump told reporters Friday night. "It's shocking."
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