The wife of Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt has confirmed the tragic loss of a family member as a result of the devastating Texas floods.
The total death toll has risen to 82 after the Guadalupe River flooded and surged by up to 30 feet above its usual water level on Friday. 68 bodies have been found, including 28 children.
Clark’s wife, Tavia, revealed that Janie Hunt – a young cousin in the family – was among the Camp Mystic campers who died during the incident.
Taking to Instagram, she wrote: ‘Our hearts are broken by the devastation from the floods in Wimberley and the tragic loss of so many lives — including a precious little Hunt cousin, along with several friend’s little girls.
‘How do we trust a God who is supposed to be good, all knowing and all powerful, but who allows such terrible things to happen — even to children?
‘That is a sacred and tender question — and one the Bible doesn’t shy away from. Scripture is filled with the cries of those whose hearts have been shattered, who still wrestle to trust the same God they believe allowed the pain.’
Tavia Hunt (right) – wife of Chiefs owner Clark Hunt – confirmed that one of their family members was among the dead in flooding in Texas
Dallas nine-year-old Janie Hunt (pictured) died in the flooding at Camp Mystic
Tavia took to Instagram to reveal that Janie – a young cousin – had passed away
Eleven girls are missing from Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, and five of their fellow campers have died after the rushing waters destroyed the all-girls private Christian summer camp.
Beloved director of Camp Mystic, Richard ‘Dick’ Eastland, 70, died while trying to save girls as a month’s worth of rain dropped in a matter of minutes.
One week before the tragedy, the camp shared videos on social media of the campers happily prancing around on stage during their first term chorus and dance production.
The youngest campers slept on low-laying ‘flats’ inside the camp’s cabins, whereas older girls slept in cabins on higher ground, according to the NYT.
Most of the missing girls are from the younger age bracket, who were sleeping just yards away from the banks of the Guadalupe River.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that some 750 girls had been staying at the camp when the floodwaters hit.
Abbott also vowed that authorities will work around the clock as they continue to search for missing people and later declared Sunday as a day of prayer.
In a statement, he said: ‘I urge every Texan to join me in prayer this Sunday — for the lives lost, for those still missing, for the recovery of our communities, and for the safety of those on the front lines’.
A woman searches the area, following flash flooding, in Hunt, Texas, U.S. July 6
Items lie scattered inside a cabin at Camp Mystic after deadly flooding in Kerr County, Texas, U.S., July 5
Relatives of the missing have started arriving in the Kerrville area from across the Lone Star State to provide investigators with DNA samples.
The federal agency issued a flood watch on Thursday at 1:18pm, estimating up to seven inches of rain on Friday morning in South Central Texas.
A flash flood warning was issued at 1:14am on Friday, with a more extreme warning coming at 4:03am, urging people to immediately evacuate to high grounds as the situation became ‘extremely dangerous and life-threatening.’
Local officials, however, have accused the NWS of rolling out delayed warnings, especially in the Hill Country – dubbed ‘Flash Flood Alley’ – in Kerr County, where the devastation has been the greatest.
‘This wasn’t a forecasting failure,’ meteorologist Matt Lanza told the Texas Tribune. ‘It was a breakdown in communication.’
‘The warnings were there. They just didn’t get to people in time.’
Meanwhile, Daily Mail exclusively revealed on Sunday that Texas’s Division of Emergency Management predicted the number of dead as a result of catastrophic flooding in Kerrville on July 4 would top 100.
In an email sent out Saturday, the state disaster office told partners the number of dead would surpass 100, two different sources confirmed to Daily Mail.
The estimate of the dead is vastly different than the message state officials are projecting publicly, insisting that they are still searching for people who are alive, and refusing to say rescue efforts have shifted to recovery of remains.
‘Our state assets and local partners are continuing to search for live victims,’ the head of TDEM W. Nim Kidd told reporters at a press conference Saturday.
‘Our hope and prayer is that there is still people alive that are out there.’
