PIEN HUANG, HOST:
In central Texas, the search continues for those still missing after devastating flooding on Friday. At least 78 people have died, most of them in Kerr County, where 40 adults and 28 children lost their lives. Many more are missing, including 10 children and one counselor from a girls' summer camp. NPR's Greg Allen has been talking to people in the flooded area, and he joins us now from Kerrville. Hey, Greg.
GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: Hi, Pien.
HUANG: So Greg, what's the latest on the search efforts there?
ALLEN: Well, you know, things are still ongoing here, looking for victims of the flood. It's more than two days though after, you know, this terrible storm and the devastation that struck this area. So there's little hope for finding, you know, survivors at this point. Officials say they're moving into the recovery phase now of this disaster. I spent some time along the river today, and, you know, as you know, and from the pictures you've seen, it's a horrible sight. Trees are uprooted. You have all kinds of debris in the river from that - washed down from upriver. I saw cars just piled on top of each other like toys, high up on the bank in some cases - just gives you a sense on how strong this flood was that came down the Guadalupe River. Cars came down with all - other kinds of debris. And finding victims now within all that debris is going to be a major task that's going to take some time. But Governor Greg Abbott said today that all the missing will be accounted for.
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GREG ABBOTT: I had the opportunity yesterday to visit Camp Mystic and get to see firsthand what happened there, as well as all the way downstream after that. And it was nothing short of horrific to see what those young children went through. And we will remain 100% dedicated, searching for every single one of the children who were at Camp Mystic, as well as anybody else in the entire riverbed.
HUANG: As you mentioned, you spent some time in the area along the Guadalupe River today, where some of the worst flooding occurred. How are people there doing?
ALLEN: Well, you know, as you can imagine, people here are just in shock still. I spent some time in the town of Hunt, a small town right along - not too far from Camp Mystic, the girls' camp where, you know, so many of the deaths occurred and where the search is still centered. Hunt was just devastated, though. Many people who live in homes along the river and in RV parks just saw their homes destroyed. Trailers are washed away. Homes and businesses are all flooded in many of the areas.
I talked today to two cousins, Candice Rodriguez (ph) and Wendy Barker (ph), who live in Hunt. Their homes are high enough up on the hillside that they were undamaged. But they said, despite the warnings beforehand, they were just shocked by the devastation, and they had no idea the flooding could possibly be this bad.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: We get flash flood warnings. We get warnings all the time. And normally in our area, when the rain starts coming together around us, it always dissipates just because of the hills and everything around us. So it's hard to know when it's really going to happen and when it's not going to happen. It says it's going to rain one minute, and then nothing shows. Nothing ever comes. So, you know?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Yeah.
ALLEN: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: I don't think there was a way to predict how fast and how quick that water was coming down.
HUANG: And Greg, quickly, there are a lot of questions being asked about what warnings were sent out and when. What do we know about that?
ALLEN: Well, you know, the National Weather Service sent warnings out beginning on Wednesday, and they upgraded them on Thursday and Friday. They were fairly strong in their wording, but they came down late. Governor Abbott says in an area like central Texas, the problem is that people get flash flooding warnings all the time. But what they saw on Friday is nothing like the devastation that they - the devastation on Friday was much worse than the flash flooding they usually see. And that's really why it took so many people unawares.
HUANG: That's NPR's Greg Allen in Kerrville, Texas. Thank you.
ALLEN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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