Texas, Camp Mystic
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KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Over the last decade, an array of Texas state and local agencies missed opportunities to fund a flood warning system intended to avert a disaster like the one that killed dozens of young campers and scores of others in Kerr County on the Fourth of July.
At least 19 of the cabins at Camp Mystic were located in designated flood zones, including some in an area deemed “extremely hazardous” by the county.
The data also highlights critical risks in other areas along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, revealing more than twice as many Americans live in flood prone areas than FEMA's maps show.
At least 119 people have been found dead in nearly a week since heavy rainfall overwhelmed the river and flowed through homes and youth camps in the early morning hours of July 4. Ninety-five of those killed were in the hardest-hit county in central Texas, Kerr County, where the toll includes at least three dozen children.
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Over 100 bodies have been recovered, but the large number of missing suggested that the full extent of the catastrophe was still unclear five days after the disaster.
Janie Hunt, 9, Eloise Peck, 8, Lila Bonner, 9, Hanna Lawrence, 8, Rebecca Lawrence, 8, and Hadley Hanna, 8, have all been confirmed dead.
Flash floods last week in Texas caused the Guadalupe River to rise dramatically, reaching three stories high in just two hours