Leitha said he could not provide an estimate on the overall number of people missing after the river surged dramatically after heavy rain.
“The problem was, it was a holiday weekend here,” he said. “We had a lot of campers here, and we do not know that number at this time.”
The river rose from seven feet to 29 feet at one location, the second-highest point on record, after four months of rain came down in about four hours.
Leitha added that a death had been reported in neighboring Kendall County.
Major General Thomas M. Suelzer with the Texas National Guard said 237 people had been evacuated from the floods, including 167 by helicopter.v
Forecasters are expecting more rain in the area in the coming hours. Flash flood warnings continued to be issued for parts of Central Texas on Friday night.
Abbott signed a disaster declaration for affected counties at the Friday evening news conference.
Earlier, Abbott said Texas is “surging all available resources to respond to the devastating flooding,” including water rescue teams, the National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety. Abbott shared a video on X of a helicopter hoisting a person from floodwaters, writing, “Air rescue missions like this are being done around the clock.
