A chilling timelapse video has emerged showing how the Texas river of death swelled more than 30ft in just 45 minutes before claiming the lives of at least 80, including children.
Sixty-eight of the fatalities, including 28 children, were in Kerr County in the early hours of the Fourth of July – when rapid rainfall caused the Guadalupe River to surge more than 30 feet above its normal level in under an hour.
There are also five confirmed casualties in Travis County, three in Burnet County, two in Williamson County, two in Kendall County and one in Tom Green County.
Rescue teams are still frantically searching for 41 missing victims, including 11 girls who were at Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp along the river, when tragedy struck.
The terrifying footage from July 4, posted on X, shows the floods rising from 5pm to 6pm at an alarming rate as vehicles and locals in the background become trapped behind the river.
From around 5:15pm to 5:20pm the murky waters can be seen sweeping over a road while completely engulfing the smaller trees and bushes its path.
Over the next 20 minutes, the waters creep further up the narrow road as onlookers flee the devastating scene.
After the full hour has passed, only two tree tops are left visible as the flood water surges through the area.
One concerned viewer wrote on social media: ‘Those making remarks regarding evacuations and warnings please take note: The video begins at 5:12. Stop the video at 5:18 and look at the water level. Where does one run to in 6 minutes?’
Another added: ‘Beyond insane to watch the levels rise on the timelapse’.
Officials in Kerr County have since warned the area near Johnson Creek and the Guadalupe River could rise by a further two feet due to incoming rain, as they announced a new wave of evacuations.
Nim Kidd, Chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, advised Kerr County to brace for more of the deadly rains which have already claimed the lives of at least 80 people.
‘There are unconfirmed at this point reports of additional water coming in. And as the governor mentioned, there’s rain still falling on the area,’ Kidd said at a press conference.
‘We’ve got DPS aircraft that are flying up to try to find this wall of water right now, and the people in the reported areas, again, unconfirmed, that are on our communication systems.’
Locals in central Texas are being urged to scramble to higher ground following further flash flood warnings as a result of further rain falling on saturated ground.
On July 6, Daily Mail revealed that Texas’s Division of Emergency Management predicted the number of dead as a result of catastrophic flooding would top 100.
In an email sent out Saturday, the state disaster office told partners the number of dead would surpass 100, two different sources confirmed to Daily Mail.
The estimate of the dead is vastly different than the message state officials are projecting publicly, insisting that they are still searching for people who are alive, and refusing to say rescue efforts have shifted to recovery of remains.
‘Our state assets and local partners are continuing to search for live victims,’ Kidd told reporters at a press conference Saturday.
‘Our hope and prayer is that there is still people alive that are out there.’
DNA testing will also be used to help identify the remains of the flood victims, a state source told Daily Mail.
Families have been asked for blood draws or other records to help identify the bodies of loved ones who have been recovered.
Relatives of the missing have started arriving in the Kerrville area from across the Lone Star State to provide investigators with DNA samples.
More information has been emerging in recent hours about the victims, including those lost at Camp Mystic.
At least five girls, aged between eight and nine, lost their lives in the flood after the summer camp was swept away on July 4.
Beloved director of all-girl’s Christian Camp Mystic, Richard ‘Dick’ Eastland, 70, also died while trying to save girls as a month’s worth of rain dropped in a matter of minutes.
The youngest campers slept on low-laying ‘flats’ inside the camp’s cabins, whereas older girls slept in cabins on higher ground, according to the NYT.
Most of the missing girls are from the younger age bracket, who were sleeping just yards away from the banks of the Guadalupe River.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that some 750 girls had been staying at the camp when the floodwaters hit.
Some of those who are missing or died at Camp Mystic are connected to wealthy families in Highland Park.
Known as the Beverly Hills of Dallas, Highland Park and neighboring Park Cities are home to many of missing girls who belong to prominent families.
Some have ties to Highland Park United Methodist Church – whose most famous member is former President George W. Bush.
‘This crisis affects many our HPUMC family and our local Park Cities community, including generations of women and families touched by Camp Mystic,’ wrote Highland Park United Methodist Church head pastor Paul Rasmussen.
‘One of the girls unaccounted for, Hadley Hanna, is a part of our church family. Please pray for her safety and for her parents, Doug and Carrie, along with her two sisters.’
Over 300 people attended a prayer vigil at the church Saturday in support of the flood victims.
