Floods kill at least 13 in Texas, over 20 missing

Central Texas is swamped by a summer's worth of rain in a matter of hours. Dozens are rescued from fast moving water. Some could not be saved.

This came at night when people were sleeping in bed. Please pray for our community.

From CBS News headquarters in New York, this is The CBS EveningNews. Good evening, everyone, and thanks for joining us. I'm Jericka Duncan in tonight for Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson. We begin with the catastrophic floods in Central Texas. Some areas have been swamped by more than 15 inches of rain since yesterday. Near San Antonio, the Guadalupe River overflowed and unleashed a torrent of water. Among the missing are a group of girls from a Sleepaway Camp. The Lieutenant Governor there of Texas, Dan Patrick, says the bodies of children and adults have been recovered. Across the region, dozens of people have been rescued from flooded homes and roads. Several more inches of rain are expected later tonight. Jason Allen leads us off in our coverage in Kerrville, Texas. Jason, what is the latest in terms of the response from those rescues and search operations? Jericka, there are still helicopters tonight that are flying up and down the Guadalupe River. Officials have confirmed they have found 13 people to this point who have died after these floods. There are still more than 20 girls missing from one of those camps you mentioned, which is up river. This is still a rescue mission, though, at this point, with first responders hoping to find more survivors. That river rose 26 feet in 45 minutes.

Overnight inches of rain fell within an hour, turning Kerr County into a catastrophic flood zone. First responders launched dozens of rescues along the swollen Guadalupe River, flooding several children's summer camps. Dan Patrick is the acting Texas Governor. Out of the over 700, we have the number of about 23 not accounted for.

This helicopter swooped in and rescued a young camper from the top of a tree. Photos from inside one of the camps show children being evacuated. We will do everything humanly possible 24/7, looking in every tree, turning over every rock, whatever it takes. If your child is one of those truly missing--

Torrents of floodwater ripped away homes and cars. We do not have a Warning system.

Rob Kelly is the Kerr County judge. We had no reason to believe that this was going to be anything, anything like what's happened here. None whatsoever. This concrete pad was part of an RV park, and the owner told me they were lined up along the riverbank for the 4th of July holiday. But there was no warning for them to get out in time, and all of them washed down the river. Residents were told to evacuate and move to higher ground. Barry Adelman was staying at his grandmother's home by the Guadalupe River when he was jolted awake by the sound of water. The scariest part for me is seeing the children and the moms and dads in the trees and knowing that they were hurt and without some of their loved ones.

From the house, Adelman took this photo of a family friend clinging to a tree. She told us she was floating down the river with her husband, and her husband kept telling her to grab anything you can grab, and she did. And she said-- she said, Barry, I caught the last tree of the-- very last tree right on your property. That woman's husband is still missing. The scar marks on the trees here 25 to 30 feet high. That's where RVs and homes were hitting them as they washed down the river. All right. Jason Allen for us. Thank you so much. And here to explain how the flooding disaster unfolded is CBS News Bay Area chief meteorologist Paul Heggen. Paul, when you think about the amount of rain that fell in such a short amount of time, I mean, it is truly remarkable. It is remarkable, Jericka, what the atmosphere can do. And it's not just that it's too much rain. It's too much rain in too short a period of time onto a landscape that just cannot absorb that volume of moisture. You can see the storms on the radar replay training over the Texas Hill country over and over again, adding up to amounts well in excess of what the forecast models were predicting-- 8 to 10 inches of rain on a widespread basis, some spots over 15 inches of rain, month's worth of rain, much of it falling at night. It's just a recipe for disaster, and unfortunately, we are in for more rain as we head through the next 24 hours. We'll switch over to Futurecast. The bulk of this next round of rain is going to be focused a little closer to San Antonio, but still, any additional rainfall is going to have these folks on edge.