At least 66 people are dead in central Texas after devastating flash floods slammed Texas Hill Country, with water rescues taking place along the Guadalupe River, which rose rapidly early Friday morning to the height of a two-story building.

Hundreds of residents, campers and visitors were plucked to safety after the Guadalupe River rapidly swelled in Texas Hill Country with little warning.

Rescuers were scouring a devastated central Texas landscape of mangled trees, overturned cars and muck-filled debris on Sunday in an increasingly bleak mission to locate survivors following a historic flash flood.