Death toll continues to climb in Central Texas flooding.
SAN MARCOS — Searchers continued scouring the banks of the Blanco River for survivors of last weekend’s record flood Wednesday as the tally of victims grew and officials struggled to quantify the damage.
And the first funeral for a flood victim took place Wednesday morning in Devine, where 18-year-old Alyssa Ramirez was laid to rest by hundreds of friends and family. Ramirez was just two miles from home, coming back from postprom festivities in San Antonio early Sunday, when her vehicle was swept away by rising floodwaters.
Another body found
In tragic developments late Wednesday, authorities announced that a boy’s body, yet to be identified, had been found near Water Park Road in Hays County. The body was sent to Central Texas Autopsy for identification. Officials also announced that a body found Sunday had been identified as Dayton L. Thomas, 74.
In Blanco County, county spokesman Ben Oakley said Zachary Jones, a 42-year-old cook from Blanco, died late Saturday after rising waters swept his car off a road there.
Three people still are missing in Blanco County from the storm that dumped 12 inches of rain there, turning the river into a raging torrent, he said.
“The damage is absolutely devastating,” Oakley said, noting the flood washed away a bridge on RR 165 east of Blanco and caused extensive other losses that still are being inventoried.
“Our primary focus has been on search and rescue,” he said.
Farther downstream, in Hays County, nine people remained missing as officials identified two bodies recovered Tuesday as individuals who vanished from the Wimberley area.
The woman whose body was found in Caldwell County near Martindale — about 20 miles from where she last was seen — was identified as Michelle Marie Carey-Charba, 43.
She was a member of one of the families that were inside a vacation home in Wimberley when it was swept off its foundation by a “wall of water.”
One family member, Jonathan McComb, was found alive 10 miles downriver; his wife and their two children are missing.
Also missing are Carey-Charba’s husband, their son and her parents.
The body discovered Tuesday near the RR 12 bridge in Wimberley was identified as Jose Alvero Arteaga-Pichardo, 29.
DNA testing will be required to identify the third known flood victim in Hays County, a man whose body was found Sunday in San Marcos.
More than 3,600 acres along 26 miles of river had been covered as of Wednesday in the search effort led by Texas Task Force 1, which included the use of helicopters equipped with heat sen-sors, said Kenneth Bell, emergency management coordinator in San Marcos.
‘Massive undertaking’
Despite the passage of days since the flood, Bell said “we’re still hopeful” of finding people alive. He predicted it will take years for the downed trees, smashed houses and other flood debris to be removed from along the Blanco River.
“It is a massive undertaking,” Bell said.
Once the task force wraps up its highly specialized search in and near the river, areas farther from the water will be scoured by private search groups that are expected soon.
The task of assessing the damage to public infrastructure and private property in Hays County also has begun to determine whether the losses are sufficient to qualify the affected communities for state and federal disaster assistance.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who joined Bell at the news briefing, said preliminary indications are that the damage from recent flooding across Texas would qualify the state for federal support.