HUNT: Volunteers on horseback and others with rescue dogs are combing riverbanks alongside authorities in central Texas, searching for victims of catastrophic floods that have killed more than 100 people.
Rescuers in inflatable motorboats also searched Monday for bodies near Camp Mystic, an all-girls summer camp, where 27 campers and counselors died after being swept away by floodwaters.
Another team collected the children’s belongings from flooded cabins marked by mud lines exceeding five feet (1.5 meters) high.
About 30 volunteers on horseback, many wearing cowboy hats, joined mounted police from Austin to support rescue efforts in four towns along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County.
Michael Duncan, 55, rode Ranger, his dark brown horse, along the river, supporting rescue efforts that have deployed hundreds of searchers along several miles of the waterway.
“Obviously (on horseback)... we can gain more ground. We can get to some areas where people can’t get to as easy,” Duncan told AFP.
The horses easily navigate the hilly terrain, undergrowth and debris left behind after the rain-swollen floodwaters receded.
Perched atop Ranger, Duncan said that the “height advantage” allowed him to scan across the mounds of debris.
Volunteers on foot also scoured the area, detecting foul odours from undergrowth that could indicate decomposing animals or human remains.
They dug through earth piled near trees, using pointed sticks to probe mounds for any signs of bodies.
During their search, they found children’s swimming goggles and a football.
Tom Olson, a rescue dog trainer, deployed his eight-year-old Belgian Malinois, Abby, to assist the search.
Olson, 55, compared the dog’s search abilities to a useful tool, “just like underwater sonar boats, drone, aircraft.”
“The dog will be able to rapidly find a potential victim... lowering the risk to the people that are out here actually trying to do the search and rescue,” he told AFP.
Olson said the work to recover victims’ bodies involved “a mental debt” and “emotional debt” but was necessary to bring “closure to the families that lost (people), as well as closure for the rescuers.”
Electric company crews also worked to restore power poles and cables destroyed by the floods as the Guadalupe River receded to its normal course.
Duncan, the mounted volunteer, said the searches filled him with “a lot of sadness” but added: “It’s also great to see how many people come out... and most everybody is doing this for free.
“That’s pretty inspiring to see.”
Rescuers on horseback, with dogs search for Texas flood victims
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Rescuers on horseback, with dogs search for Texas flood victims
- About 30 volunteers on horseback joined mounted police from Austin to support rescue efforts in four towns along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County
Norway launches probe of Middle East diplomat and husband over Epstein links
- Mona Juul resigned from her position as ambassador to Jordan and Iraq
- Juul and her husband Terje Rod-Larsen played key roles in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations which led to the Oslo Accords
OSLO: Norwegian police said Monday they have launched an “aggravated corruption” investigation against a high-profile diplomat, Mona Juul, and her husband Terje Rod-Larsen, over the couple’s links to late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The police economic crime unit Okokrim said in statement that the probe began last week and that an Oslo residence was searched on Monday, as well as a residence belonging to a witness.
“We have launched an investigation to determine whether any criminal offenses have been committed. We are facing a comprehensive and, by all accounts lengthy investigation,” Okokrim chief Pal Lonseth, said.
Juul, 66, and Rod-Larsen, 78, played key roles in the secret Israeli-Palestinian negotiations which led to the Oslo Accords of the early 1990s.
Epstein left $10 million in his will to the couple’s two children, according to Norwegian media.
“Among other things, Okokrim will investigate whether she received benefits in connection to her position,” the statement said.
On Sunday, the foreign ministry announced that Juul had resigned from her position as ambassador to Jordan and Iraq.
“Juul’s contact with the convicted abuser Epstein has shown a serious lapse in judgment,” Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in connection to the announcement.
She had already been temporarily suspended last week pending an internal investigation by the ministry into her alleged links to Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
Norway’s political and royal circles have been thrust into the eye of the Epstein storm, including the CEO of the World Economic Forum Borge Brende.
Former prime minister Thorbjorn Jagland, is also being investigated for “aggravated corruption” over links to Epstein while he was chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee — which awards the Nobel Peace Prize — and as secretary general of the Council of Europe.
Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit has also come under scrutiny for her relationship with Epstein, which on Friday she said she “deeply regretted.”
On Monday, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store voiced support for the establishing of an independent commission set up by Parliament, to fully examine the nature of the ties between these figures and Epstein.
