The death toll from the catastrophic floods that hit Kerr County in the state of Texas in the United States has risen to 82, as the search for the missing continues and officials face questions over a failure to evacuate people in hard-hit Kerr County, reports Al Jazeera.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Sunday that at least 41 people remain unaccounted for across the southern state, three days after the deluge and that more could be missing.
He promised authorities would continue to work around the clock to find the missing and warned that additional rounds of heavy rains lasting into Tuesday could produce more life-threatening flooding.
In Kerr County, Sheriff Larry Leitha said on Sunday that searchers have found the bodies of 68 people, including 28 children, many of whom went missing from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp for girls.
Leitha said 10 more girls and a counsellor remain missing and pledged to keep searching until everybody is found.
President Donald Trump sent his condolences to the victims and said he would probably visit the area on Friday. His administration had been in touch with Abbott, he added.
The flooding occurred after the nearby Guadalupe River broke its banks after torrential rain fell in the central Texas area on Friday, the US Independence Day holiday.
Growing Concerns about Preparedness
Meanwhile, authorities are facing growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in an area long vulnerable to flooding, and whether enough preparations were made.
Al Jazeera's Shihab Rattansi, reporting from central Texas, said several communities along the Guadalupe River were evacuated after the National Weather Service sent out repeated warnings about the rising water levels, but not those in Kerr County.
"There are still no answers as to why those here weren't alerted," he said.
Rattansi mentioned that although Trump has activated the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for Texas on Sunday which is deploying resources to first responders, the president had "made it clear in the past that he wants to phase out such aid, even once saying that if a state governor needs to ask for federal emergency help, perhaps they're not up to the job".
Trump, when asked by reporters whether he was still planning to phase out FEMA, said that it was something "we can talk about later, but right now, we are busy working".
FEMA is an agency of the US Department of Homeland Security, created under President Jimmy Carter, to coordinate the response to a disaster between the federal government and the state authorities, particularly when the state authorities fall short of resources.
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