Flood-ravaged Texas faces more rain; death toll at 70; 11 campers missing

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Texas floodsAuthorities on Sunday were in a desperate search to find those still missing after historic flash floods swept across central Texas — including 11 children from a beloved all-girls camp — as the death toll rose and forecasters warned of more rain.

Officials said at least 70 people have died in flooding triggered by unrelenting rain Thursday night into Friday. Sheriff Larry Leitha of Kerr County, where the worst of the flooding occurred, said it had recovered the bodies of 38 adults and 21 children.
Among those still missing were 11 children and a counselor from Camp Mystic, a Christian girls' camp at the edge of the Guadalupe River, which surged over 26 feet in less than an hour as storms dumped six months' worth of rain over the Texas Hill Country.

It's unclear how many people were missing in the communities along the Guadalupe, where local officials say thousands of people came from out of town to celebrate Independence Day weekend. Forecasters expect several more inches of rain on Sunday and warned of additional flooding and a worsening of conditions on the ground.

For days, crews have been working around the clock to find the missing, traversing swollen waterways and scouring riverbanks littered with mangled trees and rubble. Rescuers have pulled residents from rooftops and found survivors clinging to trees. As of Sunday, about 650 people have been rescued, officials said.

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