Texas officials labored to account for more than 160 people originally reported missing along the Guadalupe River after the deadly July Fourth floods before ultimately concluding that most were safe and only three individuals still haven’t been found, the top executive in the hardest-hit county said Monday.
“Most of them were tourists that came into town and left and went back home and didn’t report that they were there,” Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said at a special meeting of the county commissioner court. He called the process a “Herculean effort.”
The flash floods killed at least 135 people in Texas, and most of the deaths were in Kerr County, where destructive, fast-moving water rose 26 feet (8 meters) on the Guadalupe River, washing away buildings and vehicles in the area about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of San Antonio…