At least 161 people are known to be missing in Kerr County, Texas, following the catastrophic flooding this past weekend, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said at a news conference Tuesday.
The governor also confirmed 109 fatalities linked to the floods, including 94 in Kerr County and 15 in other parts of Texas.
“There are far more fatalities than there were in Hurricane Harvey. That’s how catastrophic this is,” Abbott said at the news conference.
Camp Mystic, which has long been the go-to summer camp for the Christian daughters of the state’s political elite, said on Monday that it was “grieving” the loss of 27 campers and counselors after the flooding. Abbott said on Tuesday that five campers and one counselor remained missing.
Abbott said the increase in the number of missing people is a result of greater outreach efforts “to get better information about those who were not registered at a camp, those who were not registered at a hotel, those who may have been down here who no one really had any accounting of.”
“Through law enforcement agencies working together, they provided me this number: Just in the Kerr County area alone, there are 161 people who are known to be missing,” Abbott said at the news conference.
He pledged to continue searching until everyone is found and urged the public to help.
“Know this: We will not stop until every missing person is accounted for,” Abbott said. “Know this also, there are very likely to be more added to that list.”
Abbott encouraged the public to continue calling in with information about people they know who are missing. He requested that callers include the best identification possible for the missing individual, as well as their last known location. He provided the following number and email to the public: 830-250-1111; kerrvillemissing@dps.texas.gov.
