Texas flooding victim's horror last four words to family before mobile phone went dead

Joyce Badon is one of more than 80 people to have lost her life in the floods (Image: Fox4/AP)

A 21-year-old girl sent a haunting final message to her parents as floodwaters ripped through her cabin during the devastating Texas floods which have now killed more than 80 people. Joyce Badon's final words — "We’re being washed away" — were sent via text message just moments before her phone went silent.

The young woman was later confirmed among the 27 campers and counsellors who died when a wall of water smashed into Camp Mystic, a century-old all-girls Christian summer camp in the Texas Hill Country. She had been staying with friends Ella Cahill, Reese Manchaca, and Aidan Heartfield at a country house close to the Guadalupe River to celebrate Independence Day when the disaster struck. Search teams later recovered her body downstream, caught in debris along the river.

Texas floods: Floating house crashes into bridge

The message has come to symbolise the chaos that unfolded in the early hours of Friday. Heavy rainfall triggered flash flooding that swept away cabins, tents, and homes in multiple counties across central Texas.

The operators of Camp Mystic confirmed the deaths of 27 individuals on Monday. In a statement, they said: "We have been in communication with local and state authorities who are tirelessly deploying extensive resources to search for our missing girls."

Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said: "We’ve recovered the bodies of 68 people in the Hill Country area, including 28 children."

Governor Greg Abbott said a total of 41 people remained missing across the state as of Sunday evening.

A search and rescue team looks for people along the Guadalupe River (Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Camp Mystic sits along the edge of the Guadalupe River near the town of Hunt. Survivors described how the river rose rapidly in the middle of the night, breaching its banks and sweeping through the camp with little warning.

Some girls were led to safety across a bridge by rescuers using a rope, with water lashing at their legs. Others were trapped inside cabins that were either swept away or filled with water before help could arrive.

Families were allowed access to the camp over the weekend to search for belongings and to look for loved ones. One man, whose daughter had been rescued from one of the higher cabins, was seen walking the riverbank and checking under tree roots and rocks.

Another family was spotted leaving with a blue footlocker. A teenage girl in the back seat wept silently as she looked out of the car window at the destroyed campsite.

A view inside of a cabin at Camp Mystic after the floods (Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Search crews have been using heavy equipment to clear tangled tree trunks and other debris from the river as part of a coordinated effort involving more than 1,000 volunteers in Kerr County alone.

Elsewhere in the state, 12 deaths have been reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green, and Williamson counties, according to local officials.

Reagan Brown, whose elderly parents live in Hunt, said they managed to flee uphill before returning to help a neighbour. He said: "They found out their 92-year-old neighbour was stuck in her attic, and they went back and got her.

"They reached their tool shed up on higher ground. Neighbours began showing up there in the early morning, and they all rode it out together."

Among the missing are two school-age sisters from Dallas. Their cabin was swept away while their parents, staying in a separate part of the camp, survived. The girls' grandparents are also missing.

US President Donald Trump (Image: Getty)

The National Weather Service began issuing alerts on Thursday and escalated to flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday. Flash flood emergencies - rare and severe warnings - followed shortly after.

Officials acknowledged that while warnings were sent out, they did not anticipate such a powerful and fast-moving event.

Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said authorities were committed to a full review of the response and the decisions taken in the lead-up to the floods.

President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County on Sunday and said he intends to visit the area later this week. He said: "It’s a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible."

Asked whether the federal government had acted quickly enough, he said: "Nobody expected it. Nobody saw it. Very talented people there, and they didn’t see it."