Texas floods: 160 still missing as death toll rises to 109
The bulk of fatalities and the search for additional victims were concentrated in Kerr County and the county seat of Kerrville, a town of 25,000 residents transformed into a disaster zone when torrential rains struck the region early last Friday, unleashing deadly flooding along the Guadalupe River.
The bodies of 94 flood victims, more than a third of them children, have been recovered in Kerr County alone as of Tuesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said at a late-afternoon news conference after touring the area by air.
He said 161 other people were known to be missing in the flood zone.
The Kerr County dead included 27 campers and counsellors from Camp Mystic, a nearly century-old all-girls Christian summer retreat on the banks of the Guadalupe near the town of Hunt. The camp director also perished.
Five girls and a camp counsellor were still unaccounted for on Tuesday, Abbott said, along with another child not associated with the camp.
As of midday, 15 other flood-related fatalities had been confirmed across a swath of Texas Hill Country known as "flash flood alley," the governor said, bringing the overall death toll from the disaster to 109. Reports from local sheriffs' and media have put the number of flood deaths outside Kerr County at 22.
Hindered by continuing intermittent thunderstorms and showers, rescue teams from federal agencies, neighbouring states and Mexico have joined local efforts to search for missing victims, though hopes of finding more survivors faded as time passed.
The last flood victim found alive in Kerr County was on Friday.
"The work is extremely treacherous, time-consuming," Lieutenant Colonel Ben Baker of the Texas Game Wardens said at a press conference. "It's dirty work. The water is still there."
More than a foot of rain fell in the region in less than an hour before dawn last Friday, sending a wall of water cascading down the Guadalupe River basin that killed dozens of people and left behind mangled piles of debris, uprooted trees and vehicles.
Local, state and federal emergency officials have faced days of angry questions about whether they could have warned people in flood-prone areas sooner.
At an earlier news briefing on Tuesday, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha rebuffed questions about the county's emergency management operations and preparedness and declined to say who in the county was ultimately in charge of monitoring weather alerts and issuing a flood warning or evacuation orders.
He said his office first started receiving emergency 911 calls between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. on Friday, several hours after the local National Weather Service station issued a flash-flood alert. "We're in the process of trying to put (together) a timeline," Leitha said.
Beyond the fatalities in hardest-hit Kerr County, the death toll included seven in Travis County, seven in Kendall County, five in Burnett County, two in Williamson County and one in Tom Green County.
U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican, plans to visit the devastated region this week, a spokesperson said. Democrats in Washington have called for an official investigation into whether the Trump administration's job cuts at the National Weather Service affected the agency's response to the floods.
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1News
14 hours ago
- 1News
More than 160 people still missing after deadly Texas floods
More than 160 people are still believed to be missing in Texas days after flash floods killed over 100 people during the July Fourth weekend, the state's governor said today. The huge jump in the number unaccounted for — roughly three times higher than previously said — came after authorities set up a hotline for families to call. Those reported missing are in Kerr County, where most of the victims have been recovered so far, Gov. Greg Abbott said. Many were likely visiting or staying in the state's Hill Country during the holiday but did not register at a camp or hotel, he said during a news conference. The county's lowlands along the Guadalupe River are filled with youth camps and campgrounds, including Camp Mystic, the century-old all-girls Christian summer camp where at least 27 campers and counsellors died. Officials said today that five campers and one counsellor have still not been found. Search-and-rescue teams are using heavy equipment to untangle and peel away layers of trees, unearth large rocks in riverbanks and move massive piles of debris that stretch for miles in the search for the missing people. Crews in airboats, helicopters and on horseback along with hundreds of volunteers are part of one of the largest search operations in Texas history. ADVERTISEMENT The flash flood is the deadliest from inland flooding in the US since Colorado's Big Thompson Canyon flood on July 31, 1976, killed 144 people, said Bob Henson, a meteorologist with Yale Climate Connections. That flood surged through a narrow canyon packed with people on a holiday weekend, Colorado's centennial celebration. Public officials in charge of locating the victims are facing intensifying questions about who was in charge of monitoring the weather and warning that floodwaters were barrelling toward camps and homes. Volunteers search for missing people along the banks of the Guadalupe River after recent flooding in Hunt, Texas. (Source: Associated Press) The Republican governor, who took a helicopter tour of the disaster zone, dismissed a question about who was to blame for the deaths, saying, 'That's the word choice of losers'. 'Every football team makes mistakes,' he said. 'The losing teams are the ones that try to point out who's to blame. The championship teams are the ones who say, 'Don't worry about it, man, we got this. We're going to make sure that we go score again and we're going to win this game.' The way winners talk is not to point fingers.' Abbott promised that the search for victims will not stop until everyone is found. He also said President Donald Trump has pledged to provide whatever relief Texas needs to recover. Trump plans to visit the state Friday (local time). Scenes of devastation at Camp Mystic ADVERTISEMENT Outside the cabins at Camp Mystic where the girls had slept, mud-splattered blankets and pillows were scattered on a grassy hill that slopes toward the river. Also in the debris were pink, purple and blue luggage decorated with stickers. Among those who died at the camp were a second grader who loved pink sparkles and bows, a 19-year-old counsellor who enjoyed mentoring young girls and the camp's 75-year-old director. The flash floods erupted before daybreak Friday (local time) after massive rains sent water speeding down hills into the Guadalupe River, causing it to rise 8 meters in less than an hour. The wall of water overwhelmed people in cabins, tents and trailers along the river's edge. Some survivors were found clinging to trees. Some campers had to swim out of cabin windows to safety while others held onto a rope as they made their way to higher ground. Time-lapse videos showed how floodwaters covered roads in a matter of minutes. Although it's difficult to attribute a single weather event to climate change, experts say a warming atmosphere and oceans make catastrophic storms more likely. US President Donald Trump described the flooding as 'shocking' as intensive search efforts continue. (Source: 1News) Where were the warnings? ADVERTISEMENT Questions mounted about what, if any, actions local officials took to warn campers and residents who were spending the July Fourth weekend in the scenic area long known to locals as 'flash flood alley'. Leaders in Kerr county, where searchers have found about 90 bodies, said their first priority is recovering victims, not reviewing what happened in the hours before the flash floods. 'Right now, this team up here is focused on bringing people home,' Lt. Col. Ben Baker of the Texas Game Wardens, said during a sometimes tense news conference. Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, the county's chief elected official, said in the hours after the devastation that the county does not have a warning system. Generations of families in the Hill Country have known the dangers. A 1987 flood forced the evacuation of a youth camp in the town of Comfort and swamped buses and vans. Ten teenagers were killed. Local leaders have talked for years about the need for a warning system. Kerr County sought a nearly $1 million grant eight years ago for such a system, but the request was turned down by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Local residents balked at footing the bill themselves, Kelly said. Recovery and cleanup goes on ADVERTISEMENT Four days have passed since anyone was found alive in the aftermath of the floods in Kerr County, officials said today. The bodies of 30 children were among those that have been recovered in the county, which is home to Camp Mystic and several other summer camps, the sheriff said. This undated photo provided by John Lawrence on Monday, July 7, 2025, shows twin sisters, Hanna Lawrence, left, and Rebecca Lawrence, right, who were two the victims killed by the flooding at Camp Mystic in central Texas on Friday, July 4. (Source: Associated Press) The devastation spread across several hundred miles in central Texas all the way to just outside the capital of Austin. Aidan Duncan escaped just in time after hearing the muffled blare of a megaphone urging residents to evacuate Riverside RV Park in the Hill Country town of Ingram. All his belongings — a mattress, sports cards, his pet parakeet's bird cage — now sit caked in mud in front of his home. 'What's going on right now, it hurts,' the 17-year-old said. 'I literally cried so hard.' Along the banks of the Guadalupe, 91-year-old Charles Hanson, a resident at a senior living center, was sweeping up wood and piling pieces of concrete and stone, remnants from a playground structure. He wanted to help clean up on behalf of his neighbors who can't get out. 'We'll make do with the best we got,' he said.
RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
More than 100 dead, 160 still missing after Texas floods
By Jane Ross , Rich McKay and Jonathan Allen , Reuters A damaged home is seen near Camp Mystic, a Christian summer retreat where 27 campers and counselors died. Photo: Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP The death toll from the July Fourth flash flood that ravaged a swath of central Texas Hill Country rose on Tuesday (local time) to at least 109, many of them children, as search teams pressed on through mounds of mud-encrusted debris for scores of people still missing. The bulk of fatalities and the search for additional victims were concentrated in Kerr County and the county seat of Kerrville, a town of 25,000 residents transformed into a disaster zone when torrential rains struck the region early last Friday, unleashing deadly flooding along the Guadalupe River. The bodies of 94 flood victims, more than a third of them children, have been recovered in Kerr County alone as of Tuesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said at a late-afternoon news conference after touring the area by air. He said 161 other people were known to be missing in the flood zone. The Kerr County dead included 27 campers and counselors from Camp Mystic, a nearly century-old all-girls Christian summer retreat on the banks of the Guadalupe near the town of Hunt. The camp director also perished. Five girls and a camp counselor were still unaccounted for on Tuesday, Abbott said, along with another child not associated with the camp. As of midday, 15 other flood-related fatalities had been confirmed across a swath of Texas Hill Country known as "flash flood alley," the governor said, bringing the overall death toll from the disaster to 109. Reports from local sheriffs' and media have put the number of flood deaths outside Kerr County at 22. Hindered by continuing intermittent thunderstorms and showers, rescue teams from federal agencies, neighboring states and Mexico have joined local efforts to search for missing victims, though hopes of finding more survivors faded as time passed. The last flood victim found alive in Kerr County was on Friday. "The work is extremely treacherous, time-consuming," Lieutenant Colonel Ben Baker of the Texas Game Wardens said at a press conference. "It's dirty work. The water is still there." More than a foot of rain fell in the region in less than an hour before dawn last Friday, sending a wall of water cascading down the Guadalupe River basin that killed dozens of people and left behind mangled piles of debris, uprooted trees and vehicles. People look on as law enforcement and volunteers continue to search for missing people near Camp Mystic. 5 July 2025. Photo: Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP Local, state and federal emergency officials have faced days of angry questions about whether they could have warned people in flood-prone areas sooner. At an earlier news briefing on Tuesday, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha rebuffed questions about the county's emergency management operations and preparedness and declined to say who in the county was ultimately in charge of monitoring weather alerts and issuing a flood warning or evacuation orders. He said his office first started receiving emergency 911 calls between 4am and 5am on Friday, several hours after the local National Weather Service station issued a flash-flood alert. "We're in the process of trying to put (together) a timeline," Leitha said. Beyond the fatalities in hardest-hit Kerr County, the death toll included seven in Travis County, seven in Kendall County, five in Burnett County, two in Williamson County and one in Tom Green County. US President Donald Trump, a Republican, plans to visit the devastated region this week, a spokesperson said. Democrats in Washington have called for an official investigation into whether the Trump administration's job cuts at the National Weather Service affected the agency's response to the floods. - Reuters
Otago Daily Times
a day ago
- Otago Daily Times
Texas floods: 160 still missing as death toll rises to 109
The death toll from the July Fourth flash flood that ravaged a swath of central Texas Hill Country rose on Tuesday to at least 109, many of them children, as search teams pressed on through mounds of mud-encrusted debris for scores of people still missing. The bulk of fatalities and the search for additional victims were concentrated in Kerr County and the county seat of Kerrville, a town of 25,000 residents transformed into a disaster zone when torrential rains struck the region early last Friday, unleashing deadly flooding along the Guadalupe River. The bodies of 94 flood victims, more than a third of them children, have been recovered in Kerr County alone as of Tuesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said at a late-afternoon news conference after touring the area by air. He said 161 other people were known to be missing in the flood zone. The Kerr County dead included 27 campers and counsellors from Camp Mystic, a nearly century-old all-girls Christian summer retreat on the banks of the Guadalupe near the town of Hunt. The camp director also perished. Five girls and a camp counsellor were still unaccounted for on Tuesday, Abbott said, along with another child not associated with the camp. As of midday, 15 other flood-related fatalities had been confirmed across a swath of Texas Hill Country known as "flash flood alley," the governor said, bringing the overall death toll from the disaster to 109. Reports from local sheriffs' and media have put the number of flood deaths outside Kerr County at 22. Hindered by continuing intermittent thunderstorms and showers, rescue teams from federal agencies, neighbouring states and Mexico have joined local efforts to search for missing victims, though hopes of finding more survivors faded as time passed. The last flood victim found alive in Kerr County was on Friday. "The work is extremely treacherous, time-consuming," Lieutenant Colonel Ben Baker of the Texas Game Wardens said at a press conference. "It's dirty work. The water is still there." More than a foot of rain fell in the region in less than an hour before dawn last Friday, sending a wall of water cascading down the Guadalupe River basin that killed dozens of people and left behind mangled piles of debris, uprooted trees and vehicles. Local, state and federal emergency officials have faced days of angry questions about whether they could have warned people in flood-prone areas sooner. At an earlier news briefing on Tuesday, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha rebuffed questions about the county's emergency management operations and preparedness and declined to say who in the county was ultimately in charge of monitoring weather alerts and issuing a flood warning or evacuation orders. He said his office first started receiving emergency 911 calls between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. on Friday, several hours after the local National Weather Service station issued a flash-flood alert. "We're in the process of trying to put (together) a timeline," Leitha said. Beyond the fatalities in hardest-hit Kerr County, the death toll included seven in Travis County, seven in Kendall County, five in Burnett County, two in Williamson County and one in Tom Green County. U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican, plans to visit the devastated region this week, a spokesperson said. Democrats in Washington have called for an official investigation into whether the Trump administration's job cuts at the National Weather Service affected the agency's response to the floods.
