Twin sisters who had just finished second grade are among the dead as the death toll of flash flooding in Texas passes 100.
Dozens of children are among the dead after floods swept across Kerr County in central Texas, causing the Guadalupe River’s water levels to rise more than eight metres in under an hour.
The flooded river on Thursday devastated Camp Mystic, a Christian girl’s camp, where eight-year-old twins Hanna and Rebecca Lawrence were killed.
The twins are among 27 adults and children who died in the flooding at the camp.
Their parents, John and Lacy Lawrence, paid tribute to their daughters, saying: ‘Hanna and Rebecca brought so much joy to us, to their big sister Harper, and to so many others.
‘We will find ways to keep that joy, and to continue to spread it for them. But we are devastated that the bond we shared with them, and that they shared with each other, is now frozen in time.’
Their grandfather David Lawrence said ‘it has been an unimaginable time for all of us’, adding that the twins gave their family joy and ‘they and that joy can never be forgotten’.
Hanna and Rebecca attended University Park Elementary School, which said on its website that ‘numerous’ pupils were forced to evacuate from the flooding and ‘multiple’ students had died.
‘We are deeply saddened to report the loss of multiple students, and our thoughts and prayers are with all of the families deeply affected by this unimaginable tragedy,’ a statement on the school’s website said.
US president Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration on Sunday, unlocking emergency disaster aid to help first responders amid search and rescue efforts as clean-up begins.
But he has drawn criticism after spending the weekend golfing in New Jersey rather than travelling to Kerr County.
Outraged Americans have shared video clips of Trump playing golf and eating an ice cream on social media, suggesting his actions show ‘how much he cares’.
The president’s official diary confirmed that he was due to spend Sunday atthe Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster.
Trump said he will ‘probably’ visit Texas later this week, but hasn’t yet set a date.
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