'They Were Littles,' Mom Says Of Texas Campers

The catastrophic flooding came in the middle of the night, rushing into cabins and dragging mattresses off beds at Camp Mystic, a private Christian summer camp near Texas' Guadalupe River.

On Saturday, rescuers searched for more than two dozen children from the camp.

The early Friday morning flooding also washed away homes, RVs and vehicles in the Texas Hill Country, northwest of San Antonio. The death toll had climbed to at least 52 people late Saturday with an unknown number of people still unaccounted for.

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As of Saturday evening, 43 people had died in the storm, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said in a news conference. Twenty-eight were adults and 15 were children.

The New York Times, citing Hector Nieto, a county spokesman, reported that the death toll in Travis County rose to four. In Burnet County, three people died and two were reported missing, according to county Emergency Management Coordinator Derek Marchio. Another person reportedly died in Kendall County, Emergency Management Coordinator Brady Constantinent said in a news release. One death was also reported in Tom Green County, according to a news release from the city of San Angelo.

Authorities said about 850 people had been rescued.

(MORE: How The Deadly Texas Flood Happened)

The Guadalupe River, fed by torrential rain, rose 26 feet in 45 minutes.

The Weather Channel digital meteorologist Sara Tonks said, "The soil and the river were unable to keep up with the rain as over 7 inches of rain fell in only 4 and a half hours from 1 to 5:30 am."

The Guadalupe River hit its second-highest height ever on record, reaching 29.45 feet, but Bob Fogarty, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Austin/San Antonio office believes it could be even higher. He told the Associated Press the gauge failed after recording a level of 29 and half feet, “The gauge is completely underwater.”

Flooding also inundated neighborhoods further north in San Angelo. Some areas got more than a foot of rain, trapping people inside their homes. The National Weather Service in San Angelo said it received multiple reports of flooded roads and homes across Tom Green County, calling the conditions life-threatening.

Back in Kerr County, Erin Burgess woke to thunder and rain at her home in Ingram. Just 20 minutes later, she told the Associated Press, water was pouring into her home. She described an agonizing hour clinging to a tree with her teenage son.

“My son and I floated to a tree where we hung onto it, and my boyfriend and my dog floated away. He was lost for a while, but we found them,” Burgess said.

Barry Adelman said water pushed everyone in his three-story house into the attic, including his 94-year-old grandmother and 9-year-old grandson.

“I was having to look at my grandson in the face and tell him everything was going to be OK, but inside I was scared to death,” Adelman told AP.

Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Department of Emergency Management, said at a news conference Saturday afternoon, “The entire river is being searched from the northernmost impact all the way as we run down. You have assets in the air that are still doing searches. You have boats that are in the water doing searches. And you have ground crews doing searches.

“That process is going to keep going. We are not stopping until we find everyone that’s missing.”

At Camp Mystic on Saturday, helicopters flew overhead as people walked among the destruction.

“The camp was completely destroyed,” said Elinor Lester, 13, one of hundreds of campers. “A helicopter landed and started taking people away. It was really scary.”