At least 20 girls are missing in a Christian summer camp in southern Texas after catastrophic floods hit the area following severe night storms.
At a press conference on Friday afternoon, Dan Patrick, Lieutenant Governor of Texas, said “20 girls” who attended the Mystic camp in Hunt, Texas, remained without accounting, then estimating that the figure was “around 23”.
At a separate press conference in Kerr County on Friday afternoon, the Sheriff of County Larry L. Leitha Jr. said there had been 13 deaths, without offering additional information, and warned that there could be more.
Patrick said the victims, including children, had already been located: “Some in cars were washed upstream.”
“We don’t know where those bodies came from,” he said, without ruling out that some may have come from the camp.
“This is an event of massive victims,” said Freeman Martin, director of Public Security of Texas.
Patrick said that 18 helicopters and 400 to 500 rescue workers are participating in the search and rescue mission, and that some people had already been rescued from the trees.
Patrick said he has been in contact with President Donald Trump, who said that the White House would send to those federal resources officials needed.
Early in the day, the camp, where approximately 750 boys stayed, issued a statement saying to the parents: “If their daughter is not counted, it has been notified”, while indicating that the girls located in other parts of the camp had been found safe.
The officials said that the nearby road was dragged and that the area remained without energy, water or internet and was “fighting” to get more help.
“Continue praying and sending any help if you have contacts to do it,” the officials wrote.
The camp, for girls between the ages of 7 and 17, had to celebrate its centenary next year. It is located near the Guadalupe River, which the authorities rose to 22 feet in just half an hour on Friday morning to a height of 30 feet in the nearby city of Comfort in Kerr County, breaking a record that had been for decades.
The National Security Department said Friday afternoon that Secretary Kristi Noem had activated the United States Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency “to try to put these girls to a safe place” and was coordinating with state and local leaders.
Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, also issued a statement about X shortly after 4 pm et.
“Please, pray for everyone in the country of Hill, especially in the mystical camp,” he wrote. “Today, I talked to the Abbott government, Lieutenant Governor Patrick, head of TDEM and President Trump. Multiple helicopters are doing search and rescue. President Trump committed everything Texas needs.”
At a press conference on Friday, Kerr County Judge, Rob Kelly, confirmed six deaths from the catastrophic flood, and the toll is expected to increase, according to Austin American-Statesman.
When asked about the missing girls, Kelly confirmed that some were still without account.
“We know that some are missing,” he said. “We know where some of them are; they are stranded, and we are working to confirm that with people in Camp Mystic. But in terms of how many, exactly they are missing and are not taken into account, we are not sure of that number, but we have a lot of them that we are trying to return.”
Flood warnings throughout the state remain in place during the weekend.
“There is a continuous threat to the possible sudden floods of San Antonio to Waco during the next 24 to 48 hours, in addition to the continuous risks in the west and the center of Texas,” said Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick in a statement.
