<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Camp Mystic says it is "grieving the loss" of 27 campers and counsellors as the search continues for victims of catastrophic </span><a href="http://9news.com.au/texas" rel="" target="" title="Texas"><span>Texas</span></a><span> </span><a href="http://9news.com.au/floods" rel="" target="" title="flooding"><span>flooding</span></a><span> over the Fourth of July holiday weekend.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The statement adds another layer of heartbreak to the devastating flooding that </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/at-least-13-dead-in-texas-floods-and-more-than-20-children-missing-from-a-girls-summer-camp/ed1ac01d-60f3-47c1-b9fd-d837d687d865" rel="" target="" title="sent a wall of water through the century-old summer camp"><span>sent a wall of water through the century-old summer camp</span></a><span>.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We have been in communication with local and state authorities who are tirelessly deploying extensive resources to search for our missing girls," the camp said in a statement posted on its website on Monday morning (Monday night AEST). </span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/texas-floods-victims-children-swept-away-at-summer-camp/2a64be8d-f38f-4110-8038-cc8533a18e7b"><strong><span>Father who died saving his family among victims of the Texas flooding tragedy</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of support from community, first responders, and officials at every level."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>With more rain on the way, the risk of life-threatening flooding was still high in central Texas on Monday even as crews </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/texas-floods-search-for-missing-girls-plows-forward-after-flash-flood-kills-at-least-people-in-texas/9da0f633-51b1-46f9-8b04-2e0c8ba86c6f" rel="" target="" title="searched urgently for the missing"><span>searched urgently for the missing</span></a><span> following a holiday weekend deluge that killed more than 80 people. Officials said the death toll was sure to rise.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Residents of Kerr County began clearing mud and salvaging what they could from their demolished properties as they recounted harrowing escapes from rapidly rising floodwaters late on Friday (Saturday AEST).</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/texas-floods-update-camp-mystic-grieving-the-loss-of-27-campers-and-counsellors-following-catastrophic-texas-floods/a619e083-4c75-43a5-a0f4-117b6a7d2e2d" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Reagan Brown said his parents, in their 80s, managed to escape uphill as water inundated their home in the town of Hunt. When the couple learned that their 92-year-old neighbour was trapped in her attic, they went back and rescued her.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Then they were able to reach their toolshed up higher ground, and neighbours throughout the early morning began to show up at their toolshed, and they all rode it out together," Brown said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A few kilometres away, rescuers manoeuvring through challenging terrain filled with snakes continued their search for the missing, including those from Camp Mystic, an all-girls summer camp that sustained massive damage. On Sunday afternoon (Monday morning AEST), more than two days after the floods tore through the camp, authorities had said that some of the girls and a counsellor had still not been found.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/erin-patterson-mushroom-poisoning-trial-verdict-update/931c6e69-9054-4bed-ab50-0af86c3e52d9"><strong><span>The mushroom murder pics you weren't allowed to see - until now</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Governor Greg Abbott said on Sunday that 41 people were unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In the Hill Country area, home to several summer camps, searchers have found the bodies of 68 people, including 28 children, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Ten other deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, according to local officials.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The governor warned that additional rounds of heavy rains lasting into Tuesday could produce more dangerous flooding, especially in places already saturated.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/darling-downs-zoo-queensland-update-woman-arm-injured-animal-bite/8e913db2-37d4-44d0-b0a6-2b07dd1b8318"><strong><span>New details emerge after woman loses arm in zoo mauling</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Families were allowed to look around the camp beginning Sunday morning. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>One girl walked out of a building carrying a large bell. A man whose daughter was rescued from a cabin on the highest point in the camp walked a riverbank, looking in clumps of trees and under big rocks.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>One family left with a blue footlocker. A teenage girl had tears running down her face as they slowly drove away and she gazed through the open window at the wreckage.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/erin-patterson-mushroom-murder-trial-reaction/ad8212a0-3655-4758-ad81-4f5791e9eea7" rel="" target="" title=""><strong><span>Inside the courtroom as Patterson found guilty</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Searching the disaster zone</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Nearby crews operating heavy equipment pulled tree trunks and tangled branches from the river. With each passing hour, the outlook of finding more survivors became even more bleak.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Volunteers and some families of the missing came to the disaster zone and searched despite being asked not to do so.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Authorities faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in an area long vulnerable to flooding and whether enough preparations were made.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration Sunday for Kerr County and said he would likely visit Friday: "I would have done it today, but we'd just be in their way."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It's a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible," he told reporters.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Prayers in Texas — and from the Vatican</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Abbott vowed that authorities will work around the clock and said new areas were being searched as the water receded. He declared Sunday a day of prayer for the state.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In Rome, Pope Leo XIV offered special prayers for those touched by the disaster. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The first American pope spoke in English at the end of his Sunday noon blessing.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were in summer camp, in the disaster caused by the flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas in the United States. We pray for them," he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Desperate refuge and trees and attics</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Survivors shared terrifying stories of being swept away and clinging to trees as rampaging floodwaters carried trees and cars past them. Others fled to attics, praying the water wouldn't reach them.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>At Camp Mystic, a cabin full of girls held onto a rope strung by rescuers as they walked across a bridge with water whipping around their legs.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Among those confirmed dead were an eight-year-old girl from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who was at Camp Mystic, and the director of another camp up the road.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Two school-age sisters from Dallas were missing after their cabin was swept away. Their parents were staying in a different cabin and were safe, but the girls' grandparents were unaccounted for.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Warnings came before the disaster</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>On Thursday the National Weather Service advised of potential flooding and then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies — a rare alert notifying of imminent danger.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months' worth of rain for the area.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said authorities are committed to a full review of the emergency response.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump, asked whether he was still planning to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said that was something "we can talk about later, but right now we are busy working." He has said he wants to overhaul if not completely eliminate FEMA and sharply criticised its performance.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump also was asked whether he planned to rehire any of the federal meteorologists who were fired this year as part of widespread government spending cuts.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I would think not. This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it. Nobody saw it. Very talented people there, and they didn't see it," the president said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><em></em><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f"><em><strong><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></strong></em></a><em><strong><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the </span></strong></em><a href="https://apps.apple.com/au/app/9news/id1010533727"><em><strong><span>Apple App Store</span></strong></em></a><em><strong><span> and </span></strong></em><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nineNewsAlerts.nine.com&amp;hl=en_AU"><em><strong><span>Google Play</span></strong></em></a><em><strong><span>.</span></strong></em></div></div>