*

Kerrville, on flooded river, accounts for most fatalities

*

At least 28 children among dead; 10 summer campers still

missing

*

State public safety chief predicts death toll will climb

higher

*

Trump disputes notion that job cuts contributed to

disaster

(Adds threat of more rain and flooding in paragraphs 1 and 9,

updates death toll at camp in paragraph 5)

By Sergio Flores and Evan Garcia

KERRVILLE, Texas, July 7 (Reuters) - Search teams

looking for dozens of people still missing after flash floods in

central Texas faced the danger of more heavy rain and

thunderstorms on Monday after a disaster that has killed at

least 78 people including 28 children.

Search teams waded through mud-laden riverbanks and flew

over the flood-stricken landscape on the fourth day of the

search for survivors after Friday's flash floods.

The bulk of the dead were in the riverfront Hill Country

Texas town of Kerrville, where 68 were killed including the 28

children, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said.

The Guadalupe River that runs through Kerrville was

transformed by predawn torrential downpours into a raging

torrent in less than hour on Friday

The dead there included 27 campers and counselors at the

Camp Mystic summer camp, a nearly century-old Christian girls

retreat on the banks of the Guadalupe River, the camp said in a

statement.

As of late Sunday afternoon, state officials said 10 other

flood-related fatalities had been confirmed across four

neighboring south-central Texas counties, and that 41 other

people were still listed as unaccounted for beyond Kerr County.

Freeman Martin, director of the Texas Department of Public

Safety, predicted the death toll would rise further as

floodwaters receded and the search gained momentum.

Authorities also warned that continued rainfall - even if

lighter than Friday's deluge - could unleash additional flash

floods because the landscape was so saturated.

The National Weather Service said in an advisory that heavy

rains of up to 3 inches (7.6 cm) and thunderstorms could cause

more flooding across the area throughout Monday.

State emergency management officials had warned on Thursday,

ahead of the July Fourth holiday, that parts of central Texas

faced the possibility of heavy showers and flash floods based on

National Weather Service Forecasts.

CONFLUENCE OF DISASTER

But twice as much rain as was predicted ended up falling

over two branches of the Guadalupe just upstream of the fork

where they converge, sending all of that water racing into the

single river channel where it slices through Kerrville, City

Manager Dalton Rice said.

Rice and other public officials, including Governor Greg

Abbott, said the circumstances of the flooding, and the adequacy

for weather forecasts and warning systems, would be scrutinized

once the immediate situation was brought under control.

In the meantime, search and rescue operations were

continuing round the clock, with hundreds of emergency personnel

on the ground contending with a myriad of challenges.

"It's hot, there's mud, they're moving debris, there's

snakes," Martin told reporters on Sunday.

Thomas Suelzar, adjutant general of the Texas Military

Department, said airborne search assets included eight

helicopters and a remotely piloted MQ-9 Reaper aircraft equipped

with advanced sensors for surveillance and reconnaissance

missions.

Officials said on Saturday more than 850 people had been

rescued, some clinging to trees, after a sudden storm dumped up

to 15 inches of rain across the region, about 85 miles (140 km)

northwest of San Antonio.

In addition to the 68 deaths in Kerr County, three people

died in Burnet County, one in Tom Green County, five in Travis

County and one in Williamson County, said Nim Kidd, chief of the

Texas Division of Emergency Management.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency was activated on

Sunday and was deploying resources to Texas after President

Donald Trump issued a major disaster declaration, the Department

of Homeland Security said. U.S. Coast Guard helicopters and

planes were aiding search and rescue efforts.

SCALING BACK FEDERAL DISASTER RESPONSE

Trump said on Sunday he would visit the disaster scene,

probably this Friday. He has previously outlined plans to scale

back the federal government's role in responding to natural

disasters, leaving states to shoulder more of the burden

themselves.

Some experts questioned whether cuts to the federal

workforce by the Trump administration, including to the agency

that oversees the National Weather Service, led to a failure by

officials to accurately predict the severity of the floods and

issue appropriate warnings ahead of the storm.

Trump's administration has overseen thousands of job cuts

from the National Weather Service's parent agency, the National

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, leaving many weather

offices understaffed, former NOAA director Rick Spinrad said.

Trump pushed back when asked on Sunday if federal government

cuts hobbled the disaster response or left key job vacancies at

the Weather Service under Trump's oversight.

"That water situation, that all is, and that was really the

Biden setup," he said referencing his Democratic predecessor,

Joe Biden. "But I wouldn't blame Biden for it, either. I would

just say this is 100-year catastrophe."

(Additional reporting by Marco Bello and Sandra Stojanovic in

Comfort, Texas; Rich McKay in Atlanta; Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid

and Deborah Gembara in Washington; Nathan Howard in Morristown,

New Jersey; Ryan Jones and Bhargav Acharya in Toronto; Brendan

O'Brien in Chicago, and Nathan Layne in New York; Writing and

additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by

Stephen Coates and Timothy Heritage)