Thousands of first responders search for Texas survivors against long odds

By Jane Ross

KERRVILLE, Texas (Reuters) -Thousands of first responders were still combing through piles of mud-covered debris in Texas Hill Country on Thursday, hoping against long odds to find survivors six days after flash floods swept through the region, killing at least 120.

A dozen states have dispatched search teams to Kerr County, where the vast majority of the victims perished when torrential rains sent a wall of water raging down the Guadalupe River in the predawn hours of July 4.

At least 96 people, including 36 children, died in Kerr County, officials said at a briefing on Thursday morning. Another 161 people remain unaccounted for. The last person found alive was on Friday, according to authorities.

The dead included 27 campers and staff members from Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer retreat on the banks of the river. Five girls and one counselor from the camp remain missing, officials said.

Kerr County sits at the heart of what is known as "flash flood alley" in central Texas, a region that has seen some of the country's deadliest floods.

More than a foot of rain fell in less than an hour early on July 4. Flood gauges showed the river's height rose from about a foot to 34 feet (10.4 meters) in a matter of hours, cascading over its banks and sweeping away trees and structures in its path.

Hundreds of community members gathered at a worship service at Tivy High School in Kerrville on Wednesday to remember the victims.

Students and adults prayed and sang, with some hugging and holding back their tears during the memorial at the school's football stadium.

The school's soccer coach, Reece Zunker, and his wife, Paula, a former teacher there, were among the victims. Their two children were missing as of Sunday, according to the school district.

"Zunker was a really tough guy," said art teacher Marti Garcia, who attended Wednesday's event. "I just had faith that he was going to pull it out."

Authorities in Kerr County have faced questions about whether more could have been done in the early hours of July 4 to alert residents about the rising floodwaters and get some of them to higher ground.

The county declined to install an early-warning system years ago after failing to secure state grant money to cover the cost.

Officials have vowed to review the events to determine what may have gone wrong, but have emphasized that their current focus is on rescue and recovery.

The state legislature will convene in a special session later this month to investigate the flooding and provide disaster relief funding.

Meanwhile, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham told reporters on Thursday that after talks with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, federal authorities had pledged $15 million in disaster relief for the mountain village of Ruidoso, where flash flooding on Tuesday killed three people, including two children, and damaged hundreds of homes.

Some $12 million of the federal disaster funding is money previously pledged, but never paid, to build levees to protect the community from flash floods after wildfires last year, Lujan Grisham said.

(Reporting by Jane Ross; Additional reporting by Jonathan Allen, Rich McKay and Andrew Hay; Writing by Joseph Ax; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )