by The death toll of floods that hit Central Texas on Friday has now risen to more than 100 people and an unknown number of others is missing.
Search and rescue teams wad through mudpile river banks as more rain and thunderstorms threaten the region, but hope faded to find even more survivors four days after the catastrophe.
Camp Mystic, a summer camp of a Christian all-girls, confirmed that at least 27 girls and the staff were among the dead. Ten girls and a camp advisor are still missing.
In the meantime, the White House rejected the suggestions that cuts on the National Weer Service (NWS) could have braked the disaster response.
At least 84 of the victims – 56 adults and 28 children – died in Kerr County, where the Guadalupe river was swollen by landscaping courses before the day on Friday, the fourth holiday of July.
About 22 adults and 10 children still have to be identified, said the provincial sheriff’s office.
Camp Mystic said on Monday in a statement: “Our hearts are broken alongside our families who endure this unimaginable tragedy.”
Richard Eastland, 70, the co-owner and director of Camp Mystic, died in an attempt to save the children, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
Local Pastor Del Way, who knows the Eastland family, said to the BBC: “The entire community will miss him [Mr Eastland]. He died a hero. “
In its latest prediction, the NWS has predicted more slowly moving thunderstorms, which may bring more flash floods to the region.
Critics of the Trump government have tried to link the disaster to thousands of job reductions at the parents’ agency of the NWS, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The NWS office that was responsible for predicting in the region had five employees when thunderstorms brewed over Texas on Thursday evening, the usual number for an overnight stay when tough weather is expected.
White House Pers Secretary Karoline Leavitt rejected attempts to blame the president.
“That was an act of God,” she told a daily briefing on Monday.
“It is not the government’s fault that the flood struck when it did, but there were early and consistent warnings and again, the National Weather Service did its job.”
She outlined that the NWS office in Austin-San Antonio made briefings for local officials on the eve of the flood and sent a flood watch that afternoon before giving countless flood wars that night and in the day of July 4.
Trump, who is expected to visit Texas later this week, pushed back when he was asked on Sunday whether the federal cutbacks had hindered the disaster reaction, and initially seemed to shift the debt to what he called “the Biden Set-up”, referring to his democratic predecessor.
“But I wouldn’t blame Biden,” he added. “I would just say that this is a 100-year-old catastrophe.”
Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican, told a press conference on Monday a press conference that it was not the time for “partisan fingering”.
A local campaigner, Nicole Wilson, has called for a petition to be founded in Kerr County flooding sirens – something in other provinces.
Such a system has been discussed in Kerr County for almost ten years, but funds have never been assigned.
Texas Lt Gov Dan Patrick recognized Monday that such sirens may have saved lives and said they should be in place the next summer.
In the meantime, the condolences from all over the world continued to flow in.
King Charles III has written President Trump to express his “deep sadness” about the catastrophic floods.
The king “offered his deepest sympathy” to those who lost loved ones, said the British embassy in Washington.
People held a wake in San Antonio, Texas on Monday [EPA]
