NATE BURLESON:
00:00:14
And that number includes children from Camp Mystic, one of multiple camps along the Guadalupe River. Many people are now asking, was there enough warning before the floods hit Friday morning? CBS EveningNewsanchor Maurice DuBois is leading our coverage. He's in Kerrville, Texas. Maurice, good morning. Nate, good morning to you. The Guadalupe River just about a hundred feet behind me here, but on Friday at this very time, it was nearly 100 yards over its banks here, well above me and well beyond where I'm standing, uprooting all kinds of trees, leaving behind a trail of debris. Summer camps and campgrounds like this one popular draw here in Kerr County, where dozens of people were simply swept away and killed after the river rose rapidly from all that torrential rain. Video from nearby Center Point, Texas, here shows the moment the river started swelling, and then minutes later, the landscape becomes unrecognizable, submerged in the floodwaters. As the recovery process begins, many have expressed concern about the lack of early warnings from local and federal authorities. While flood alerts started coming in during the day on Thursday, the first alert warning people to evacuate Kerr County did not come until 4:03 in the morning. Most people, obviously, in a deep sleep at that point. Some blame the National Weather Service for underestimating the flood risk and for lack of urgent alerts. Others note that Kerr County does not have its own flood warning system. We spoke with one family, Carmen Jaime and her eight-year-old son Esteban. They recalled the moment they decided to grab all their stuff, stuff it into their RV, and get away from this RV campsite where they had been celebrating the holiday. I was thinking like, oh, it's time to go to the water park. No. The water park is outside. You thought she was waking you up for fun? Mm hmm. But no, this was bad. This was a warning. What do you think of this whole situation? Scared. Scared? Nervous. What scared you the most? The river rising up. What did it sound like? Wrecking, all of that. Like, tree branches falling off, like chairs flying, barbecue pits, everything. Did you think we were going to make it out on time? Probably not, but we safely did. Brave little boy. His mom there, she has been a science teacher. She told him about the power of Mother Nature, and now they actually witnessed it firsthand, and they're simply trying to process it.
