Live from London, this is Andrew Peach on the BBC World Service.

Welcome to NewsHour.

The Guadalupe River flows from Kerr County to San Antonio Bay in Texas.

It is a beauty spot which many American families flock to to celebrate the 4th of July, canoeing and fly fishing.

After a long drought in the area, the weather was perfect and then in the middle of the night it started to rain. What no one

expected was that it would rain like never before, raising the level of the Guadalupe by several

metres in one hour. The spots people had chosen to park

their vehicles and camp were suddenly underwater, an urgent evacuation began. The authorities

say the number of victims of the flash floods now stands at 27. Among those still missing,

girls who were attending a Christian summer camp. Here's the Sheriff of Kerr County,

Larry Leather. We are now more than 24 hours into this tragic event. And Kerrville Police Department,

Curveille Fire Department, and Kirk County Sheriff's Office and other first responders for around

the Texas are continuing to conduct rescue and recovery operations along the Guadalupe River Corridor.

So far, we've evacuated over 850 uninjured people, eight injured people, and have recovered

27 deceased fatalities at this time. Of these 27, 18 are adults, nine are children. Of that, six of the adults are

undenified and one of the children are unidentified at this time. That's of 8.55 this morning.

At the same news conference, Kerrville's city manager Dalton Rice said because so many people were on

vacation, the numbers affected

remain unclear.

We have the known, which is the 27 potential missing campers that we're looking for now.

The unknown is how many people were here locally visiting on vacation, you know, doing other

things in the community that we just do not have numbers.

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