At least 27 people, including nine children, were killed in Texas, United States, after a storm unleashed nearly a foot of rain just before dawn Friday.
Floodwaters gushed out of the Guadalupe River through the region known for its century-old summer camps.
Many more are still missing, and authorities said about 850 people had been rescued so far.
Texas parents frantically posted photos of their young daughters on social media with pleas for information as at least 23 campers from an all-girls summer camp were unaccounted for Friday after floods tore through central Texas overnight.
State officials said 23 to 25 girls from Camp Mystic, a riverside Christian camp in Hunt, Texas, still were unaccounted for.
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“I’m asking the people of Texas, do some serious praying,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said. “On-your-knees kind of praying that we find these young girls.”
The camp was established in 1926. It grew so popular over the following decades that families are now encouraged to put prospective campers on the waitlist years in advance.
Photos and videos taken before the flood are idyllic, showing large cabins with green-shingled roofs and names like “Wiggle Inn,” tucked among sturdy oak and cypress trees that grow on the banks of the Guadalupe River.
In some social media posts, girls are fishing, riding horses, playing kickball or performing choreographed dance routines in matching T-shirts.
Girls ranging in age from 8 to 17 years old pose for the camera with big smiles, arms draped across the shoulders of their fellow campers.
Meanwhile, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed an expanded disaster declaration on Saturday, adding six new counties, and vowed to continue adding others as needed.
The new declaration includes Texas counties Bexar, Burnet, Caldwell, Guadalupe, Travis and Williamson.
Friday, the governor issued a disaster declaration for Bandera, Comal, Concho, Gillespie, Kendall, Kerr, Kimball, Llano, Mason, McCullough, Menard, Reeves, San Saba and Tom Green counties.
Reported by CNN
