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MORE THAN 160 people are still missing amid ongoing search and rescue efforts in Texas, after devastating floods that have so far killed 109 people.
The flash floods erupted before daybreak on Friday after massive rains sent water speeding down hills into the Guadalupe River, causing it to rise 26ft in less than an hour.
Searchers in Kerr Country have so far recovered 90 bodies.
The bodies of 30 children are among those that have been recovered in the county, which is home to several youth camps, including Camp Mystic, the century-old all-girls Christian summer camp where at least 27 campers and counsellors died.
Officials said that five campers and one counsellor have still not been found.
The flood is the deadliest from inland flooding in the US since Colorado’s Big Thompson Canyon flood on 31 July 1976 killed 144 people, with public officials now facing intensifying questions about who was in charge of monitoring the weather and warning that floodwaters were heading toward camps and homes.
Here are some images from Texas showing the impact the floods have had:
Many images taken from above depict damaged and destroyed buildings near the banks of the Guadalupe River following the flooding.
The devastation spread across several hundred miles in central Texas all the way to just outside the capital of Austin.
Outside the cabins at Camp Mystic where the girls had slept, mud-splattered blankets and pillows were scattered on a grassy hill that slopes toward the river.
Pink, purple and blue luggage decorated with stickers was also in the debris.
Some campers had to swim out of cabin windows to safety while others held onto a rope as they made their way to higher ground.
Volunteers have been helping people to clean up their homes and retrieve their belongings throughout the county.
Volunteers have also been donating essentials for those who have lost their homes.
Most of the bodies of victims of the flooding have been recovered in the lowlands of Kerr County. Judge Rob Kelly, the county’s chief elected official, said the county did not have a warning system.
State officials have warned that unaccounted for victims could still be found amid the massive piles of debris that stretch for miles.
Texas governor Greg Abbott has promised that the search for victims will not stop until everyone was found.
With reporting from Press Association
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