The Indiana Task Force 1 insignia is pictured on one of their support vehicles on Aug. 4, 2024, in Indianapolis. The task force is deploying to Texas to assist in search and rescue efforts after devastating flooding impacted the state’s Hill Country region.
Provided photo
By Noah Crenshaw | Daily Journal
For The Republic
JOHNSON COUNTY — Two Johnson County rescue specialists are deploying to Texas as part of Indiana Task Force 1 in the aftermath of severe flooding.
Rescue specialists Justin Laraway and Neal Lane, of the Greenwood and Bargersville fire departments, respectively, are among the group of 49 deploying to Kerr County, Texas, as part of IN-TF1. The task force is deploying as a Type 3 incident team, assisting with search, rescue and recovery efforts from the flooding in the region, according to the task force.
IN-TF1 deployed from Indianapolis late Tuesday night for the mission, according to the task force.
Flash flooding caused widespread devastation in the Hill Country region of Texas last week. Over 100 bodies have been recovered, but more than 160 people are still believed to be missing, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
“We will not stop until every missing person is accounted for,” Gov. Greg Abbott told a news conference Tuesday. “Know this also: There very likely could be more added to that list.”
Officials have been seeking more information about those who were in the popular tourist destination during the Fourth of July holiday weekend but did not register at a camp or a hotel and may have been in the area without many people knowing, the governor said.
The riverbanks and hills of Kerr County along the Guadalupe River, where most of the flood victims have been recovered so far, are filled with vacation cabins, youth camps and campgrounds, including Camp Mystic, the century-old all-girls Christian summer camp where at least 27 campers and counselors died. Officials said five campers and one counselor have still not been found, the AP reported.
They were joined by hundreds of volunteers in one of the largest search operations in Texas history. The search has been slow, made more difficult by ongoing storms and dense layers of tangled trees and rubble.
The flash flood was the deadliest from inland flooding in the U.S. since Colorado’s Big Thompson Canyon flood on July 31, 1976, killed 144 people, said Bob Henson, a meteorologist with Yale Climate Connections. That flood surged through a narrow canyon packed with people on a holiday weekend marking Colorado’s centennial, according to the AP.
Public officials in charge of locating victims in Texas faced intensifying questions Tuesday about who was in charge of monitoring the weather and warning that floodwaters were barreling toward camps and homes.
Abbott said President Donald Trump has pledged to provide whatever relief Texas needs to recover. Trump plans to visit the state Friday.
Polls taken before the Texas floods show Americans largely believe the federal government should play a major role in preparing for and responding to natural disasters.
