Over 160 People Missing After Texas Floods

At least 172 people are still missing days after catastrophic flash floods ripped through central Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday, revealing a dramatic increase from the official tally of 40 that officials had announced earlier.

Abbott updated the total of unaccounted for victims after taking a helicopter tour of the affected area, and noted the grim milestone that the death toll from the floods — which now stands at 111 — has surpassed the number of Texans killed in Hurricane Harvey in August 2017, in which 103 people from the Lone Star State lost their lives.

The latest death is located in Williamson County, according to the county spokesperson.

“We sent out the update as the missing person was recovered. Now at three deaths,” Williamson County spokeswoman Connie Odom told CNN Tuesday evening.

Eighty-seven of the deaths occurred in Kerr County, where rescuers are continuing their search for five girls still missing from Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer camp that has reported 27 deaths so far.

“We will not stop until every missing person is accounted for,” Abbott told reporters. “There could very likely be more people added to the list.”

Abbott said the new total of missing was based on people reported unaccounted for by friends, neighbors and relatives.

Asked about an investigation into the number of dead in the storm, Abbott bristled, characterizing the question, which included the phrase “who’s to blame?” as “the word choice of losers,” before launching into a football analogy.

“Every football team makes mistakes,” the governor said.

“The losing teams are the ones that try to point out who’s to blame. The championship teams are the ones that say, ‘Don’t worry, ma’am, we’ve got this.’”

Abbott said officials were aware of the possibility of serious flooding days before Kerr County was hit and resources were in place, he said during the press conference.

“We were ready with the resources on the ground to be able to quickly respond,” the governor detailed with a day-by-day timeline.

What officials could not anticipate was the scale of what was coming.

“No one would know that would be a 30-foot-high tsunami wall of water, I don’t think,” the governor explained.

“All I can tell you is the information we had, the state had, and that we acted on, was information that catalyzed us to begin putting assets and resources in place two days before the event happened.”