Over 170 people are still reported missing in Texas floods: How do we know who’s missing?

It’s been a week since the deadly flash floods hit central Texas and so far at least 121 people have been confirmed dead. The search for those still missing is in its seventh day as thousands of volunteers and officials scour the area.

And the numbers have not changed much despite all those efforts.

According to CBS, Texas officials reported that there are still more than 170 people unaccounted for after the floods, 161 of those are in Kerr County. Survivors have not been found since July 4.

The number of missing people might not be completely accurate, however, and searchers face many challenges as they work to find the missing.

Reuters indicated that often the number of people reported missing in a natural disaster turns out to be much greater than the eventual actual death toll. Here’s a look at how this happens.

How many people are actually missing?

According to CBS, names are added to the list of missing people as “worried members of the public, unable to reach a relative or friend, report the name to local authorities and to crowd-sourced online databases, and it gets added to a list that can grow distressingly long.”

Confusion and uncertainty play a role in how many are reported missing.

After the flash floods hit Texas last weekend, several hundred people were reported missing but investigators were able to whittle down that number by learning some residents were counted twice and others were found alive, per The Associated Press.

Similar things have happened in disasters in the past. As many as 1,100 people were believed to be missing in the 2023 Maui fire, but the total death count came to be much lower at 102, per the AP.

“We need to keep an accurate count, as accurate as possible,” Jonathan Lamb of the Kerrville Police Department said to the public on Wednesday, per the AP. “So if you’ve reported somebody missing and they’ve been recovered safely, please let us know.”

Getting through the list of missing people in a disaster can be both meticulous and time-consuming work.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott gave a message to anyone who is contacting the police about a missing person: “If you make a prank call or provide false information, that’s a crime,” he said, per the AP. “So you better be correct.”

The missing people list for the Texas floods could still change significantly.

It’s possible that people listed as missing don’t even know they are on the list because of power issues, a phone being dead, while some people are safe but staying at shelters.

Challenges searchers face as they search for missing people

Thousands of officials and volunteers have spent the last week searching through the flood-affected zone to find people who are still unaccounted for, according to reports. But these searchers are bound to run into a number of challenges caused by wreckage and debris along with the environmental conditions, according to NPR.

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré told NPR that search efforts can be painfully slow due to piled-up debris that must be carefully removed. Honoré led the effort to bring military relief to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and since then he’s spent years working on disaster recovery operations.

“It’s not like bringing the excavator in and start moving debris. You’ve got to take it off a piece at a time and respect that that might be a person under the next piece of wood you’re picking up,” Honoré said, to NPR.

These large pieces of debris can include overturned cars, felled trees and piles of mud. Search efforts were also slowed by rain that fell after the initial floods hit.

The Kerrville Police Department posted on social media asking volunteers to not use heavy equipment to tear down large piles or pieces of debris “due to the possibility that a victim could be inside.”

A search for victims of a water disaster comes with unique and distinct challenges, per the AP. The water carries the victims and sometimes they are found miles away from where they went missing.

“So the water has a tremendous impact on where you look and when you look,” Honoré said, per NPR.

The searchers are using all the technology available to them as well as cadaver dogs as they sweep through the area.

“They’ve got a lot of boots on the ground now. And this is going to be long, arduous work to find all the remains. And the governor has committed to finding everyone. And that’s going to take weeks, if not months,” Honoré said, per NPR.

What happens when remains are found?

According to NPR, when searchers find remains they call in the emergency response people for it to be documented. The remains are taken in a body bag to a holding area where people work to identify who the person is.

DNA can be used to identify bodies. People who have reported relatives missing may be asked to provide their DNA because the remains may not be recognizable.