KERRVILLE, Texas — The death toll from the July Fourth flash flood that ravaged a swath of central Texas Hill Country rose on Tuesday to at least 109, many of them children, as search teams pressed on through mounds of mud-encrusted debris looking for scores of people still missing.

According to figures released by Governor Greg Abbott, authorities were seeking more than 180 people whose fate remained unknown four days after one of the deadliest US flood events in decades.

The bulk of fatalities and the search for additional victims were concentrated in Kerr County and the county seat of Kerrville, a town of 25,000 residents transformed into a disaster zone when torrential rains struck the region early last Friday, flooding the Guadalupe River basin.

The bodies of 94 flood victims, about a third of them children, have been recovered in Kerr County alone as of Tuesday, Texas Mr. Abbott said at a late-afternoon news conference after touring the area by air.

The Kerr County dead include 27 campers and counselors from Camp Mystic, a nearly century-old all-girls Christian summer retreat on the banks of the Guadalupe near the town of Hunt. The camp director also perished.

Five girls and a camp counselor were still unaccounted for on Tuesday, Mr. Abbott said, along with another child not associated with the camp.

As of Tuesday, 15 other flood-related fatalities had been confirmed across a swath of Texas Hill Country known as “flash flood alley,” the governor said, bringing the overall tally of lives lost to 109. Reports from local sheriffs and media have put the number of flood deaths outside Kerr County at 22.

But authorities have said they were bracing for the death toll to climb as flood waters recede and the search for more victims gains momentum.

Law enforcement agencies have compiled a list of 161 people “known to be missing” in Kerr County alone, Mr. Abbott said. The roster was checked against those who might be out of touch with loved ones or neighbors because they were away on vacation or out of town, according to the governor.

‘FIND EVERY SINGLE PERSON’
He said another 12 people were missing elsewhere across the flood zone as a whole, a sprawling area northwest of San Antonio.

“We need to find every single person who is missing. That’s job number one,” Mr. Abbott said.

On Tuesday, San Antonio-born country singer Pat Green disclosed on social media that his younger brother and sister-in-law and two of their children were among those “swept away in the Kerrville flood.”

Hindered by intermittent thunderstorms and showers, rescue teams from federal agencies, neighboring states and Mexico have joined local efforts to search for missing victims, though hopes of finding more survivors faded as time passed. The last victim found alive in Kerr County was last Friday.

“The work is extremely treacherous and time-consuming,” Lieutenant Colonel Ben Baker of the Texas Game Wardens said at a press conference. “It’s dirty work. The water is still there.”

A water-soaked family photo album was among the personal belongings found in flood debris by Sandi Gilmer, 46, a US Army veteran and certified chaplain volunteering in the search operation along the Guadalupe at Hunt.

“I don’t know how many people in this album are alive or deceased,” she said, flipping through images of two toddlers and a gray-haired man. “I didn’t have the heart to step over it without picking it up and hoping to return it to a family member.”

MAKINGS OF A DISASTER
More than a foot of rain fell in the region in less than an hour before dawn last Friday, sending a wall of water cascading down the Guadalupe that killed dozens of people and left mangled piles of debris, uprooted trees and overturned vehicles.

Public officials have faced days of questions about whether they could have alerted people in flood-prone areas sooner.

The state emergency management agency warned last Thursday, on the eve of the disaster, that parts of central Texas faced a flash floods threat, based on National Weather Service forecasts.

But twice as much rain as predicted ended up falling over two branches of the Guadalupe just upstream of the fork where they converge, sending all that water racing into the single river channel where it slices through Kerrville, City Manager Dalton Rice said.

Mr. Rice has said the outcome was unforeseen and unfolded in a matter of two hours, leaving too little time to conduct a precautionary mass evacuation without the risk of placing more people in harm’s way.

Scientists have said extreme flood events are becoming more common as climate change creates warmer, wetter weather patterns in Texas and other parts of the country.

At an earlier news briefing on Tuesday, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha rebuffed questions about the county’s emergency operations and preparedness and declined to say who was ultimately in charge of monitoring weather alerts and issuing flood warnings or evacuation orders.

He said his office began receiving emergency-911 calls between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. on Friday, several hours after the local National Weather Service station issued a flash-flood alert. “We’re in the process of trying to put (together) a timeline,” Mr. Leitha said.

Mr. Abbott said a special session of the Texas legislature would convene later this month to investigate the emergency response and provide funding for disaster relief. — Reuters

TAIPEI — Taiwan launched its largest ever military drills on Wednesday, starting with simulated attacks on its command systems and infrastructure ahead of a Chinese invasion, senior defense officials said.

The early stages of the annual Han Kuang exercises will focus on testing how Taiwan’s military can decentralize command in the event of a crippling communications attack. Over the next 10 days, the drills will expand to assess Taiwan’s combat readiness against a full-scale attempt to seize the island.

“We are learning from the situation in Ukraine in recent years and realistically thinking about what Taiwan might face… in real combat,” said one senior defense official, highlighting the need to protect command and communication systems.

“Commanders have to think about what issues their troops might face, and they need to pass them down to their subordinates,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the operation.

Cyberattacks and misinformation campaigns are seen by Taiwan as high-intensity “gray zone” actions that are likely to precede a broader Chinese assault.

The annual Han Kuang exercises will this year mobilize the largest number of reservists, some 22,000, and for the first time feature New High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, made by Lockheed Martin, along with Taiwan-developed Sky Sword surface-to-air missiles.

Some 300 reserve troops were seen moving into classrooms of a junior high school in the city of Taoyuan emptied for summer holidays, receiving instruction in mortars and rifles.

China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own and has intensified military pressure around the island over the last five years, including a string of war games and daily patrols.

Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control, and any attack on Taiwan could ignite a broader regional war.

Taiwanese defense officials said they believed that the Chinese military would be closely monitoring the drills.

By 6 a.m., Taiwan had detected 31 Chinese aircraft sorties and seven naval ships, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. Some 24 of the aircraft crossed the median line, the unofficial barrier between the two sides.

China’s Ministry of Commerce added eight Taiwan firms to its export control list, banning exports of dual use products, the state news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday. The list includes the Aerospace Industrial Development Corp. As they evolve, the drills will feature 24-hour operations army, naval and air operations to defend Taiwan coasts.

Civil defense elements will also be tested, including the creation of emergency supply stations as well as the use of Taiwan’s recently expanded air-raid shelters.

China’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that Taiwan’s Han Kuang military exercises were “nothing but a bluff.”

“No matter what weapons are used, Taiwan can’t resist the People’s Liberation Army’s sharp sword against independence,” ministry spokesperson Jiang Bin was quoted as saying by state broadcaster CCTV.

The Taiwanese senior defense official said they wanted to show China that they faced an unpredictable foe and that any invasion scenario was growing more complex, while showing the international community that Taiwan was determined to defend itself.

Regional military attaches and analysts say the drills are being closely watched, both for China’s response and to gauge improvements in Taiwanese resilience.

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te and his government strongly object to China’s sovereignty claims, saying it is up to the island’s people to decide their future. — Reuters

SEOUL — South Korea’s former President Yoon Suk Yeol will appear on Wednesday at a Seoul court, which will consider a special prosecutor’s request to detain him as part of a probe into his botched bid to impose martial law.

The Seoul Central District Court will hear from the special counsel team investigating Mr. Yoon’s martial law decree in December and Mr. Yoon’s legal team on the request to detain the deposed president over allegations of abuse of power and obstruction of justice.

After the hearing, Mr. Yoon is expected to await the court’s decision at the Seoul Detention Center, or in a detention area within the court, the special prosecutor’s team has said.

There has been tight security around the court, which is expected to announce a decision late on Wednesday or in the early hours of Thursday.

Mr. Yoon was ousted in April by the Constitutional Court, which upheld his impeachment by parliament for his martial law bid that shocked South Koreans and triggered months of political turmoil, entrenching already deep divisions in the country.

The former conservative president is already under a criminal trial on charges that his attempt to rule the country using martial law amounted to an insurrection, a charge that is punishable by a life sentence or even death.

But the probe has picked up pace since the special prosecution began its investigation after liberal President Lee Jae Myung was elected in June and has been looking at additional charges, including accusations Mr. Yoon mobilized presidential guards to stop authorities from arresting him in January.

He was previously taken into custody over the earlier criminal probe but was released from jail after 52 days on technical grounds.

The detention warrant request was made on the grounds of him being a flight risk and concerns that he might interfere with witnesses linked to his case, local media reported, citing the special prosecutors’ request.

If Mr. Yoon is detained, he is expected to be held at the Seoul Detention Center, and the special prosecution is expected to speed up a probe into additional allegations including whether Yoon hurt South Korea’s interests by intentionally inflaming tensions with North Korea.

Mr. Yoon’s lawyers have rejected all the allegations against him, saying the detention warrant request is unreasonable, and the investigation lacks objective evidence. — Reuters