More than 160 people remain unaccounted for after devastating floods in Texas, the state governor said Tuesday, marking a dramatic increase in the number of missing from a tragedy that has so far claimed 109 lives.<\/p>\n
Four days after flash floods roared through several Texas counties, some in the middle of the night, hopes of finding survivors were fading — and Governor Greg Abbott warned that the list of those unaccounted for could yet rise.<\/p>\n
“Just in the Kerr County area alone, there are 161 people who are known to be missing,” he told reporters Tuesday as the grim search continued.<\/p>\n
“There very likely could be more added to that list,” he said, adding that the figure was based on people reported as unaccounted for by friends, relatives and neighbors.<\/p>\n
Kerr County, part of a central Texas region known as “Flash Flood Alley,” suffered the most damage, with at least 94 fatalities.<\/p>\n
That includes at least 27 girls and counselors who were staying at a youth summer camp on the Guadalupe River when it burst its banks as the Fourth of July holiday began in the early hours of Friday.<\/p>\n
Torrents of water swept through the camp, scouring cabins as hundreds of people slept.<\/p>\n