As the raging Guadalupe River burst its banks and wreaked havoc in central Texas, a young woman named Joyce Bandon sent a text message that may have been her last.

Triggering one of many frantic search efforts, Bandon pleaded for help from a house along the river, according to Louis Deppe, leader of a group of volunteers trying to help the Bandon family find their daughter.

Torrential rains starting the night before the Independence Day holiday caused the river to rise the height of a two-story building in less than hour, flooding parts of Kerr County, including several children's camps, tearing down trees and tossing cars as if they were toys. 

The death toll as of Sunday afternoon was at least 78, with more casualties expected.

Bandon and three friends had gone to a country house to spend the July 4 holiday together. 

It rained all Thursday night into Friday morning, when disaster struck.

"Their house collapsed at about 4 in the morning and they were being washed away. On her cellphone, the last message (her family) got was 'we're being washed away' and the phone went dead," Deppe told AFP.

He said the team works in groups of two or three people as they look through the debris and detritus left behind by the deluge.

"One of the bodies was 8 to 10 feet in a tree, surrounded up by so much debris. Not one person could see it, so the more eyes, the better," he added.

The river is returning to normal now but there is utter destruction everywhere on its banks, like a dead cow hanging from a tree, its head caught between two branches.

Nearby a pickup truck lies upside down and around it dozens of dead fish swept out of the water are beginning to rot and stink.

Helicopters fly overhead looking for survivors or bodies while rescue teams in boats ride up and down the river and emergency officials comb its banks.

Little by little, debris like uprooted trees and ruined cars is being taken away.

Finding bodies

Tina Hambly, 55, the mother of Joyce Bandon's best friend and roommate, walks around with a kayak oar poking at branches and other debris, hoping to find something or someone. 

"We're doing a seven-mile stretch, and there's seven teams and we're doing a mile apiece, so just kind of dividing and conquering, trying to find any four of them or anyone," Hambly told AFP.

"But, you know, we are friends and families and frankly, some strangers have shown up," she added.

In the town of Hunt, one of the worst hit areas, a summer gathering for children called Camp Mystic initially reported dozens of those kids missing in the flooding. The figure now stands at 11 plus a counselor.

Toys, clothing, towels and other belongings lie strewn around camp cabins full of mud.

The volunteers looking for Bandon have found some bodies -- two early on Saturday morning and then another stuck in debris up in a tree. "And they did let me know that she was one of the Camp Mystic girls that went missing," said Justin Morales, 36, part of the search team.

"We're happy to give a family closure," he said. "That's why we’re out here."