*

Kerrville, on flooded river, accounts for most fatalities

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At least 28 children among dead; 10 summer campers still

missing

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State public safety chief predicts death toll will climb

higher

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Trump disputes notion that job cuts contributed to

disaster

By Sergio Flores and Evan Garcia

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

plodded through mud-laden riverbanks and flew aircraft over the

flood-stricken landscape of central Texas for a fourth day on

Monday, looking for dozens of people still missing from a

disaster that has claimed at least 78 lives.

The bulk of the death toll from Friday's flash floods was

concentrated in the riverfront Hill Country Texas town of

Kerrville, accounting for 68 of the dead, including 28 children,

according to Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha.

The Guadalupe River, transformed by predawn torrential

downpours into a raging, killer torrent in less than hour, runs

directly through Kerrville.

The loss of life there included an unspecified number of

fatalities at the Camp Mystic summer camp, a nearly century-old

Christian girls retreat on the banks of the Guadalupe where

authorities reported two dozen children unaccounted for in the

immediate aftermath of the flooding on Friday.

On Sunday, Leitha said search teams were still looking for

10 girls and one camp counselor, but he did not specify the fate

of others initially counted as missing.

As of late Sunday afternoon, state officials said 10 other

flood-related fatalities were confirmed across four neighboring

south-central Texas counties, and that 41 other people were

still listed as unaccounted for in the disaster 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.

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,

according to City Manager Dalton Rice.

Rice and other public officials, including Governor Greg

Abbott, vowed that 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 around 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 said during a news briefing 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 that more than 850 people had

been rescued, some clinging to trees, after a sudden storm

dumped up to 15 inches (38 cm) of rain across the region, about

85 miles (140 km) northwest of San Antonio.

In addition to the 68 lives lost in Kerr County, three died

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

and one in Williamson County, according to 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, who said on Sunday he would visit the disaster scene,

probably this coming Friday, 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.

Ahead of Friday's floods, the Weather Service office near

San Antonio, which oversees warnings issued in Kerr County, had

one key vacancy - a warning coordination meteorologist, who is

responsible for working with emergency managers and the public

to ensure people know what to do when a disaster strikes.

The person who served in that role for decades was among

hundreds of Weather Service employees who accepted early

retirement offers and left the agency at the end of April, media

reported.

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."