VA Governor's Family Rescued From Deadly TX Flooding

HUNT, TX — One of the people safely evacuated from the flash flooding that devastated the Hill Country region of Texas is Virginia First Lady Suzanne Youngkin. At least 119 people have been confirmed dead, and more than 160 are still missing, authorities said Wednesday.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin told WWBT in Richmond that his wife and other family members were rescued Friday from a home on the Guadalupe River he owns in Hunt, Texas. The property is located in the popular vacation area that was dotted with campgrounds, parks and youth camps before record floodwaters early on July 4 tore through the region.

The governor said swift water rescue crews and members of the Texas National Guard rescued his family members during the flooding.

"My family was there, along with friends, and by the grace of God, my family was safe," Youngkin said. "I have to say there was moments when they weren’t. They ended up being safe during the day."

Youngkin flew to Texas on Friday afternoon and met with members of the National Guard who had helped rescue his family.

The Washington Post reported Suzanne Youngkin grew up in the Texas Hill Country, with generations of her family living in the area for about 80 years.

The governor told the Post he flew to Texas on Friday afternoon and was with Texas rescue teams and who went that evening and evacuated his family.

The devastation that he saw along the river was “shocking,” Youngkin said Tuesday. “It is really emotionally overwhelming, I have to say … Over 100 lost lives, and the circumstances with these families is just beyond grief.”

Stories continue to emerge of those lost and people who were rescued.

Crews used backhoes and their bare hands Wednesday to dig through piles of debris that stretched for miles in the search for more than 160 people believed to be missing in the flash floods.

Over 100 bodies have been recovered, but the large number of missing suggested that the full extent of the catastrophe was still unclear five days after the disaster.

“We will not stop until every missing person is accounted for,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told a news conference Tuesday. "Know this also: There very likely could be more added to that list.”

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.

Crews in air boats and helicopters and on horseback combed the terrain. They also used excavators and their hands, going through the earth layer by layer, with search dogs sniffing for any sign of buried bodies.

They were joined by hundreds of volunteers in one of the largest search operations in Texas history.

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.

President Donald Trump has pledged to provide whatever relief Texas needs to recover and plans to visit the state Friday.

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Includes reporting from the Associated Press.