KERRVILLE, Texas: Shock has turned into grief across Texas where at least 120 people have died from flash floods and more were missing as the search for victims moved methodically along endless miles of rivers and rubble Thursday.
Photos of those who have died along with a colorful array of flowers and candles now decorate a fence in Hill Country — a growing tribute that reflects the enormity of the disaster in the region.
The victims include three friends who had gathered for the July Fourth weekend, 8-year-old sisters who were at summer camp and a 91-year-old grandmother known for her sharp wit.
More than 170 people have been reported missing, most in Kerr County, where nearly 100 victims have been recovered. The death toll remained at 120 Thursday, nearly a week since the floods first hit.
Authorities say they have carefully gone over the list of those unaccounted for but those numbers are often tough to pin down in the immediate aftermath of a disaster.
The unrelenting power of the floods forced families to make unnerving escapes with little time to spare in the middle of the night. One woman recounted how she and others, including a toddler, first climbed into an attic and then onto a roof where they heard screams and watched vehicles float past. Photos and videos captured their ordeal.
More than 2,000 local, state and federal workers were involved in the search for victims. Stifling heat and mounds of trees, hunks of lumber and trash made the task more difficult.
At a small shopping center damaged in the floods, people piled debris gathered from the rivers. Officials hope to eventually set aside personal items so residents find their possessions.
On Wednesday, hundreds prayed, wept and held one another at a prayer service, among the first of many somber gatherings to come in the weeks ahead.
“Our communities were struck with tragedy literally in the darkness,” said Wyatt Wentrcek, a youth minister.
David Garza drove more than an hour to support his loved ones.
“I’m from here, and I was here in the ‘78 flood and the ‘87 flood,” Garza said. “I just wanted to be a part of this.”
Some at the service wore green ribbons for the girls from Camp Mystic, the century-old Christian summer camp where at least 27 campers and counselors died.
Parents of children who were at the many summer camps in Hill Country have credited the teenage counselors with ushering campers to safety and helping keep them calm during the chaos.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called on state lawmakers to approve funding for new warning systems and emergency communications in flood prone areas when the Legislature meets later this month. Abbott also asked for financial relief for the response and recovery efforts.
“We must ensure better preparation for such events in the future,” he said in a statement Wednesday.
Public officials in the area have come under repeated criticism amid questions about the timeline of what happened and why widespread warnings were not sounded and more preparations were not made.
Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha has said those questions will be answered after the victims are recovered.
Local leaders have talked for years about the need for a flood warning system, but concerns about costs and noise led to missed opportunities to put up sirens.
President Donald Trump has pledged to provide whatever relief Texas needs to recover and is planning to visit the state Friday.
Polls taken before the floods show Americans largely believe the federal government should play a major role in preparing for and responding to natural disasters, which are becoming a growing worry. On Tuesday, a deluge in New Mexico triggered flash floods that killed three people.
The devastation in Texas stretched from Hill Country all the way to just outside the state’s capital. At least 15 people died in the Austin area and adjacent counties.
Just north of Austin, floodwaters from the San Gabriel River swamped two RV parks in Georgetown.
Teri Hoffman watched the water lift up her camper with her two dogs inside.
“The camper just kind of goes over on its side and starts floating. And then all the other campers just started crashing into it,” she said.
Rescuers were able to save the dogs and she managed to dig out the last picture she has of her late mother. Everything else from the RV where she lived with her husband and children is gone, she said.
“I couldn’t look at it,” Hoffman said. “I had to walk away.”
Mourning begins in Texas where more than 170 are still missing from flash floods
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Mourning begins in Texas where more than 170 are still missing from flash floods
‘A den of bandits’: Rwanda closes thousands of evangelical churches
- A 2018 law introduced new rules on health, safety, and financial disclosures, and requires all preachers to have theological training
- Observers say the real reason for the closures comes down to control, noting that even those who complied with the law had been shut down
- President Kagame has described the church as a relic of the colonial period, a chapter of its history with which the country is still grappling
KIGALI: Grace Room Ministries once filled giant stadiums in Rwanda three times a week before the evangelical organization was shut down in May.
It is one of the 10,000 churches reportedly closed by the government for failing to comply with a 2018 law designed to regulate places of worship.
The law introduced new rules on health, safety, and financial disclosures, and requires all preachers to have theological training.
President Paul Kagame has been vocal in his criticisms of the evangelical churches that have sprouted across the small country in Africa’s Great Lakes region.
“If it were up to me I wouldn’t even reopen a single church,” Kagame told a news briefing last month.
“In all the development challenges we are dealing with, the wars... our country’s survival — what is the role of these churches? Are they also providing jobs? Many are just thieving... some churches are just a den of bandits,” he said.
The vast majority of Rwandans are Christian according to a 2024 census, with many now traveling long and costly distances to find places to pray.
Observers say the real reason for the closures comes down to control.
Kagame’s government is saying “there’s no rival in terms of influence,” Louis Gitinywa, a lawyer and political analyst based in Kigali, told AFP.
The ruling party “bristles when an organization or individual gains influence,” he said, a view also expressed to AFP by an anonymous government official.
‘Deceived’
The 2018 law requires churches to submit annual action plans stating how they align with “national values.” All donations must be channelled through registered accounts.
Pastor Sam Rugira, whose two church branches were shut down last year for failing to meet fire safety regulations, said the rules mostly affected new evangelical churches that have “mushroomed” in recent years.
But Kagame has described the church as a relic of the colonial period, a chapter of its history with which the country is still grappling.
“You have been deceived by the colonizers and you let yourself be deceived,” he said in November.
The closure of Grace Room Ministries came as a shock to many across the country.
Pastor Julienne Kabanda, had been drawing massive crowds to the shiny new BK Arena in Kigali when the church’s license was revoked.
The government had cited unauthorized evangelical activities and a failure to submit “annual activity and financial reports.”
AFP was unable to reach Kabanda for comment.
‘Open disdain, disgust’
A church leader in Kigali, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the president’s “open disdain and disgust” for churches “spells tough times ahead.”
“It is unfair that even those that fulfilled all requirements are still closed,” he added.
But some say the clampdown on places of worship is linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which around 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, were slaughtered.
Ismael Buchanan a political science lecturer at the National University of Rwanda, told AFP the church could sometimes act as “a conduit of recruitment” for the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), the Hutu militia formed in exile in DR Congo by those who committed the genocide.
“I agree religion and faith have played a key role in healing Rwandans from the emotional and psychological wounds after the genocide, but it also makes no sense to have a church every two kilometers instead of hospitals and schools,” he said.
Pastor Rugira meanwhile suggested the government is “regulating what it doesn’t understand.”
It should instead work with churches to weed out “bad apples” and help them meet requirements, especially when it comes to the donations they rely on to survive, he said.
