Heavy rains fell quickly in the predawn hours of Friday in the Texas Hill Country, causing the Gaudalupe River to rise 26 feet in just 45 minutes.

Local officials warned the number of dead will likely rise and were due to give an update on Sunday morning, as search and rescue teams raced to find 27 girls missing from a camp near the Guadalupe River,

Rescuers were searching for more than two dozen girls missing from a summer camp in Texas after a catastrophic flash flood killed at least 43 people, 15 of them children. The Guadalupe River that runs through the Hill Country in central south Texas rose by 26ft (8 metres) in just 45 minutes in the early hours of Friday,

The National Weather Service issued multiple alerts ahead of the deadly floods that devastated central Texas, but whether people actually responded to them is an important question.