Six days after sudden floods devastated part of the Texas Hill Country, causing the death of at least 120 people, the authorities claim that more than 160 people remain missing. Thousands of rescuers tracked up immense heaps of mud cutlery in search of survivors on Thursday.
However, according to disaster management experts, this figure may not reflect the reality of the number of missing.
The number of people reported missing in the aftermath of a natural disaster often goes far beyond the final results of the victims. Concerned relatives, unable to join a parent or a friend, report their name to local authorities or on participatory online databases, which considerably extends the list of disappeared.
In the first days after the devastating fire of the city of Paradise, in the Californian mountains in 2018, the number of disappeared had briefly exceeded 1,200. It took two weeks to local authorities to find all the victims, and several additional months to find the trace of each person who are missing.
In total, the fire had left 85 dead, remaining to date the deadliest forest fire in state history.
More than two weeks after the fire that ravaged Lahaina, on the Hawaiian island of Maui in 2023, the FBI counted even more than 1,000 names on its list of disappeared. The following summer, the authorities established the final assessment at 102 dead.
Josh Dozor, former deputy administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and now an executive within the International SOS Crisis Management company, believes that the list of missing could still evolve significantly.
“Some people may appear on the list of missing without even knowing it,” he explains. “There are power supply problems, some may no longer have a busy mobile phone. Others are in reception centers. It will take time for everyone to find their loved ones. »»
Kerr County, where the majority of victims and disappeared are concentrated, is a vast rural county where telephone cover remains very uneven.
More than 2,100 stakeholders continued a meticulous research on Thursday, Mile after Mile, through the region, hoping against all expectations to find survivors six days after torrential rains caused a sudden flood of the Guadalupe river in the night of July 4.
The authorities have not found any survivors since the day of the floods.
At least 96 people, including 36 children, died in Kerr County, the officials said during a press briefing Thursday morning.
This assessment includes 27 campers and members of staff of the Mystic camp, a Christian summer colony for girls located on the banks of the river. Five young girls and a camp instructor remain missing, according to the authorities.
“The delay to find a living person after a sudden flood in summer is much longer than during a winter storm or an earthquake, but the chances are decreasing day by day,” said Josh Dozor on Thursday.
« FLASH FLOOD ALLEY »
Kerr County is at the heart of what is called the “Flash Flood Alley” (the corridor of sudden floods) at the center of Texas, a region regularly struck by the deadliest floods in the country.
Over 30 centimeters of rain fell in less than an hour in the early morning on July 4. The flood gauges recorded a rise in the river level of 30 centimeters to 10.4 meters in a few hours, largely overflowing from its bed and taking trees and buildings in its path.
Hundreds of inhabitants gathered on Wednesday during an office at the Tivy High School in Kerrville to pay tribute to the victims.
Students and adults prayed and sang, some stressing or holding their tears during the ceremony.
The school’s football coach, Reece Zunker, and his wife Paula, a former teacher, are among the victims. Their two children were still missing on Sunday, according to the school district.
“Zunker was a truly solid man,” said Marti Garcia, a plastic arts professor present at the ceremony. “I trusted, I thought he would get out. »»
The authorities of the County Kerr face questions on the measures taken in the early hours of July 4 to alert the inhabitants of the rise of waters and try to evacuate certain towards safer areas.
The Texan Parliament must meet in extraordinary session later this month to investigate the floods and unlock funds for emergency aid.
At the same time, the governor of New Mexico, Michelle Lujan Grisham, said on Thursday that, following discussions with internal security secretary Kristi Noem, the federal authorities were committed to paying $ 15 million in emergency aid to the mountain village of Ruidoso, where sudden floods on Tuesday killed, including two children.
According to Lujan Grisham, $ 12 million in this federal aid corresponds to funds already promised but never paid for the construction of dikes intended to protect the community against floods after last year’s fires.