A Desperate Search for Survivors of the Central Texas Floods Presses Ahead

Workers for Mastermind Facility Services typically trim hedges and do outdoor maintenance at offices and apartment complexes around San Antonio. But on Sunday, a group of them were an hour away, near Kerrville, Texas, helping police officers cut and claw through fallen trees and debris at a riverside wedding venue ravaged by the recent flash flooding.

Search-and-rescue teams have been hoping against hope to find signs of life. But what they have encountered instead is painful silence and, in some instances, a trail of death. At one point, the workers, who came as volunteers, were worried that trapped inside the tangle of vegetation were the remains of someone who had been carried away by the surge of water that arrived on Friday. It turned out to be a false alarm.

The workers recognized that this was a physically and mentally arduous mission but, ultimately, not about them. Maybe they could help reunite a family, or at least provide a measure of certainty after days of dread. That is what mattered.

“You got to put your emotions aside,” said Christopher Rey, 35, one of the workers.

A sprawling and desperate search for missing people along the swollen Guadalupe River in Central Texas pushed forward on Sunday. Officials and search crews were acutely aware that the window for finding them alive was rapidly closing.

There have been astonishing stories of survival, feeding a sliver of hope that there was still a chance for rescues, even three days after the flooding began. Still, search crews were not only up against not only time, but also the unrelenting force of nature. The strength and fury of the floodwaters were evident in uprooted trees and razed homes and buildings.

The efforts were further hampered by more uncooperative weather. In Kerr County, which experienced the worst of the flooding and the highest death toll, phones blared on Sunday afternoon with fresh warnings as more rain fell. There was a “high confidence” of additional flooding, the alert said. “Move to higher ground.”

Across the affected area, military helicopters whirred overhead, workers wielding chain saws slashed their way through debris and vegetation, and rescue swimmers ventured into murky water.

“The preservation of life during this incident is our top priority,” Capt. Ulysses S. Mullins of the U.S. Coast Guard said in a recent statement, adding that there was a concerted effort involving local, state and federal agencies.

By Sunday evening, officials said that at least 80 people had been killed in the flooding. In Kerr County, 68 people had been confirmed dead; 28 of the victims were children. Ten girls and one counselor were still missing from Camp Mystic, a nearly 100-year-old children’s camp on the Guadalupe River that was in session when the floods hit. The overall number of missing people across the region remains unclear.

Brandon Hamrick fears how high the death toll could reach.

On Sunday, he said, he and others helping with the search found the body of a man wedged against a tree, along with a kayak. He had seen several bodies pulled from the river in recent days.

Mr. Hamrick lives in Center Point, a small unincorporated community in Kerr County, northwest of San Antonio. He saw the devastation. He felt he needed to do something.

He estimated he had trekked about 15 miles during the search. He had stomped and dug through muck and debris, hoping to find survivors but preparing for the worst.

“You want to use your eyes, but the key is your smell,” he said. That, too, has been complicated. Animals, including cattle, horses, deer and dogs, had also been caught in the floodwaters.

Officials have cautioned residents not to put themselves at risk. Even so, since the flooding started, many who live nearby have gotten involved however they can.

In Hunt, just outside of Kerrville, Robert Modgling, a 55-year-old plumber, went out with his neighbors on Friday. As time went by, his outlook for finding more survivors grew bleaker.

“We were looking for survivors all morning long, just driving up and down the river, calling out, and it was just silence,” he recalled. “There’s a handful of people that were rescued initially, and after that there just weren’t any.”

Hunt is filled with vacation homes along an idyllic stretch of the Guadalupe River. “Those homes that were full of people because of the Fourth of July weekend, they’re gone,” Mr. Modgling said. “Not just inundated with water. They’re gone.”

Matthew Murphy, a landscaping worker from San Antonio helping with the search, once lived in Kerrville. The devastation there shocked him. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen anything of this magnitude,” he said.

The cleanup was just beginning for some. Yet for the most part, residents and officials were not ready to direct their attention to the difficult road ahead. Officials have vowed to continue the search until every person who was unaccounted for had been found and recovered. “We will not give up that effort,” Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas told reporters on Saturday.

On Sunday, emergency workers in Kerrville plucked a red car from the river bank. They peeled off the broken windshield. They shoveled out clumps of mud. No one was inside.

David Montgomery contributed reporting.

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