HOUSTON, July 4 (Xinhua) -- At least six people were killed and an unknown number of children from summer camps along the Guadalupe River went missing during the major flash flooding caused by heavy rain overnight in central Texas, authorities said Friday.
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly confirmed the toll, but did not reveal the victims' identities. Further details would not be released until families were notified, according to the Kerr County Sheriff's Office.
"We can't say for sure that they're all accounted for. We know that there are some missing," Kelly said during a briefing Friday morning.
The area has multiple summer camps along the river, including Camp Mystic, a camp for girls, which issued a statement Friday morning saying the parents of the missing children had been notified.
If a parent has not been contacted, their child is accounted for, said the camp.
Several other camps along the river have issued statements saying all children had been accounted for, NBC News reported.
Kelly said the county did not have a related warning system to alert residents or campers.
At about 4 a.m. local time (0900 GMT), the National Weather Service upgraded its flash flood warning, which allows wireless emergency alerts to be sent to cell phones for residents and campers along the river, said the NBC News report.
The service also warned that a "large and deadly flood wave" was moving down the Guadalupe River.
The Guadalupe River in Kerr County rose from 7.5 feet (about 2.3 meters) to nearly 30 feet overnight and is expected to crest at 34 feet in Spring Branch on Friday afternoon, said the service.
Cars, campers and mobile homes were swept away as the section of the Guadalupe River surged in the county, online videos showed.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on X that the state is "surging all available resources" to respond to the flooding.
"The immediate priority is saving lives," the governor said.
Over half a million people in central Texas were still under flash flood warnings as of Friday afternoon.
