How the cataclysmic Texas floods unfolded, minute by minute
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'It made like a swirl right around those cabins like a toilet bowl,' said Craig Althaus, who worked at the camp in Texas Hill Country for 25 years.
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At least 78 people died in the floods that swept through Central Texas on Friday - including 28 children - authorities said Sunday, and dozens more remain missing in one of the deadliest freshwater floods in decades. Ten children are still missing from Camp Mystic, the Christian camp on the banks of the river where for nearly a century girls have come to escape the heat of their hometowns: singing praise songs, learning how to fish and ride horseback.
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said Sunday that rescue operations and efforts to find the missing were ongoing, even as serious flood conditions threaten again. Abbott said he visited Camp Mystic on Sunday and called the scene 'nothing short of horrific - to see what these young children went through.'
Authorities said they had little hint of the cataclysmic events to come when the National Weather Service issued its first flood watch for the area at 1:18 p.m. Thursday. The areas along the river in Kerr County were not only packed with campers at about 18 summer camps but thousands more celebrating the holiday in tents and cabins, some of which had been in Texas families for generations.
The Weather Service cautioned that 1 to 2 inches of widespread rainfall was likely, with 'the potential for a lower probability but much higher impact flood event overnight.'
But extraordinary conditions were working against them, meteorologists say. Atmospheric conditions sent plumes of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico deep into Texas - an area so prone to flooding that it is called 'Flash Flood Alley'- a system that then stalled and eventually dumped catastrophic levels of rain onto the same area in hours.
The Weather Service said it gave localities enough time to warn residents, but the most dire alerts came in the early hours Friday, with the flash flood warnings blasting from phones at 1:14 a.m. Many locals said those alerts never reached them.
Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice told reporters that he went for a jog along the river between 3:30 a.m. and 4 a.m. Friday and noticed only a light rain. He went home to shower and returned to a park to check conditions. By 5:20 a.m., the river had risen dramatically, surging from 7 to 29 feet within a few hours, authorities say.
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Thomas Rux, 65, said he was awakened by thunder and fire officials with a bullhorn banging on his door, which convinced him to leave his trailer by the river about 4:30 a.m. He grabbed his keys and wallet, and fled to a nearby business on higher ground. From there, he could see the river rise with shocking speed. Eventually his 44-foot-long RV drifted by, carried by the raging waters, lodging between two trees.
His alarm company called to see if someone has broken in. No, he told them, the river had just carried away his home.
Serena Aldrich, an attorney from San Antonio, said in an interview that her two girls, ages 12 and 9, were asleep at Camp Mystic - the beloved summer camp about to celebrate its centenary - when the storm bore down. The older girl, who was bunking in an elevated area they call 'Senior Hill,' was awakened by loud thunder. The younger girl, who was in a different cabin, woke up when water started flooding in.
Groups of girls in their pajamas, some without shoes, were guided by their counselors up the side of a tall hill to a camp area with the pavilion and the famous lighted sign - that can be seen for miles around - that says 'Mystic.' They were eventually rescued from a neighboring camp by helicopter. She said that the family was 'heartbroken' by the experience, but that the young counselors had been heroic.
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Amid the darkness and chaos, Camp Mystic director Richard 'Dick' Eastland was also trying to help evacuate the youngest campers in the Bubble Inn cabin, witnesses said. He and his wife, Tweety, had been directing the camp since 1974, now alongside their sons.
Eastland taught the girls how to bait a hook and fish, said Paige W. Sumner, the director of philanthropy at the local senior center who attended the camp for years.
'He was like a dad to everyone,' Sumner said in an interview.
Whenever one of the campers was injured or there was another emergency, she recalled, Eastland would jump up and quickly buzz to the scene in a golf cart. Eastland was found in a black SUV, along with three girls he had tried to save, and died on the way to the hospital, local authorities said.
Around 5 a.m., Collene Lucas left her job at a convenience store, not thinking much about the rain and wildly rushing river, which sits less than 100 yards from the home she shares with her husband, David.
'We're familiar with that sound,' Lucas, 62, said. When she got news of the flooding, she tried to head home to reach her husband, but was stymied when her truck stalled out in the water. Only when his dogs began raising a ruckus and emergency responders arrived at his door did David step out of bed - into two feet of water.
'I've been here close to 40 years, and I've never seen anything like this,' said David Lucas, 73, gray-bearded and weary. Never had water come close to the house, he said, not until the day it all but swallowed it whole.
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The river would eventually leave miles of devastation in its wake, with pecan, cypress and live oak trees toppled, and houses ripped from their foundations. At Camp Mystic, cots were overturned, swimming towels still on the line covered in muck and stuffies abandoned.
More than 850 people would be saved in the next 36 hours, authorities said. One little girl survived by clinging to a mattress for hours as it floated down the river, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told reporters.
By Sunday, rescue operations continued, with helicopters crisscrossing the cloudy skies above the First Presbyterian Church of Kerrville, and authorities vowed to continue searching until everyone believed lost had been found. Rain threatened and authorities warned ominously of another 'wall of water' headed their way.
Inside the church, the morning light streamed through stained glass windows where the roughly 200 parishioners wrestled with all their community had faced in recent days, and all that lay ahead.
The church had lost one of its beloved members. Jane Ragsdale, the director and co-owner of the nearby Heart O' the Hills camp, had died in the flooding. The camp, along the banks of the Guadalupe River, was not in session when the disaster hit. But Ragsdale had been described as the 'heart and soul' of the camp, where she had served since the 1970s, according to the camp website.
Inside her church Sunday morning, the service began with hymns and a long silence. The pastor giving the children's message told the young faces before her: 'It's okay to be angry about what's happened. It's okay to be really scared. It's okay to be terribly sad.'
The Rev. Jasiel Hernandez Garcia said he, too, had struggled to find the right words amid such tragedy.
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'This is not how this weekend was supposed to be,' Garcia said from the pulpit. It was supposed to be a time of celebrations and fireworks, of time with family and making new friends at nearby camps.
'In the blink of an eye, everything changed. The waters came quickly, too quickly. Homes flooded, roads disappeared, and people were swept away,' he said. 'What felt strong was made fragile. What seemed secure was taken away in just a moment.'
Dennis reported from Kerrville and Ingram, Texas, Gowen from Lawrence, Kansas, and Gregg from Washington. Scott Dance, Ben Noll and Matthew Cappucci contributed to this report.
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New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Live Updates: Downpours Loom as Search for Texas Flood Victims Enters Fourth Day
Eight years ago, in the aftermath of yet another river flood in the Texas Hill Country, officials in Kerr County debated whether more needed to be done to build a warning system along the banks of the Guadalupe River. A series of summer camps along the river were often packed with children. For years, local officials kept them safe with a word-of-mouth system: When floodwaters started raging, upriver camp leaders warned those downriver of the water surge coming their way. But was that enough? Officials considered supplementing the system with sirens and river gauges, along with other modern communications tools. 'We can do all the water-level monitoring we want, but if we don't get that information to the public in a timely way, then this whole thing is not worth it,' said Tom Moser, a Kerr County commissioner at the time. In the end, little was done. When catastrophic floodwaters surged through Kerr County last week, there were no sirens or early flooding monitors. Instead, there were text alerts that came late for some residents and were dismissed or unseen by others. The rural county of a little over 50,000 people, in a part of Texas known as Flash Flood Alley, contemplated installing a flood warning system in 2017, but it was rejected as too expensive. The county, which has an annual budget of around $67 million, lost out on a bid at the time to secure a $1 million grant to fund the project, county commission meeting minutes show. As recently as a May budget meeting, county commissioners were discussing a flood warning system being developed by a regional agency as something that they might be able to make use of. But in a recent interview, Rob Kelly, the Kerr County judge and its most senior elected official, said that local residents had been resistant to new spending. 'Taxpayers won't pay for it,' he said, adding that he didn't know if people might reconsider now. The idea of a flood warning system was broached in 2015, in the aftermath of a deadly flood in Wimberley, Texas, about 75 miles to the east of Kerrville, the Kerr County seat. Image A search effort for someone missing after the San Marcos River flooded in Texas in 2015. Credit... Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times Image Cleanup efforts in Wimberley, Texas, in 2015. Credit... Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times The Guadalupe River Basin is one of the most dangerous regions in the United States when it comes to flash floods. Ordinary floods from heavy rainstorms occur regularly, inundating streets and threatening structures as floodwaters gradually rise. The region is also prone to flash floods, which can occur with little to no notice. People living near the Guadalupe in Kerr County may have little time to seek higher ground, especially when flash floods come through late at night when people are asleep. In 1987, a rapidly rising Guadalupe River swept away a school bus carrying teens from a church camp, killing 10 of them. Avantika Gori, a Rice University professor who is leading a federally funded project to improve flood resilience in rural Texas counties, said that flood warning systems are often simple networks of rain gauges or stream gauges that are triggered when rain or floodwaters exceed a certain level. The gauges can then be used to warn those at risk of flooding, whether by text message, which may not be effective in areas with spotty cellphone service; notifications broadcast on TV and radio; or sometimes through a series of sirens. More complex systems use forecasts from the National Weather Service to predict rainfall and model what areas might be subject to flooding, Professor Gori said. After the 2015 floods, an improved monitoring system was installed in the Wimberley area, and cell towers are now used to send out notices to all cellphones in the area. Mr. Moser, the former commissioner, visited Wimberley after its new system was in place, and then led efforts to have a flood warning system in Kerr County. His proposal would have included additional water detection systems and a system to alert the public, but the project never got off the ground, largely because of budget concerns. 'It sort of evaporated,' Mr. Moser said. 'It just didn't happen.' One commissioner at the time, H.A. 'Buster' Baldwin, voted against a $50,000 engineering study, according to a news account at the time, saying, 'I think this whole thing is a little extravagant for Kerr County, with sirens and such.' Mr. Moser said it was hard to tell if a flood warning system would have prevented further tragedy in Kerr County during the July 4 flood, given the extraordinary circumstance of the flooding, which came suddenly after an intense period of rain. But he said he believed that such a system could have had some benefit. 'I think it could have helped a lot of people,' Mr. Moser said. The death toll from the flooding, now at 80, includes at least 28 children, with several girls and a counselor from one of the camps along the river still unaccounted for. Image The Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas, in May. Credit... Keith Parker Image The Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas, as it flooded on July 4. Credit... Carter Johnston for The New York Times According to a transcript from a Kerr County Commissioners' Court meeting in 2017, officials discussed how even with additional water level sensors along the Guadalupe River, the county would still need a way to alert residents if water levels were rising dangerously fast. Sirens, which are used across Texas to alert residents about tornadoes, were considered by county officials as a way to alert people who live along the river about any flooding. 'With all the hills and all, cell coverage is not that great in some areas in Hill Country,' Mr. Moser said, adding that a series of sirens might have provided people in vulnerable areas sufficient time to flee. Mr. Moser retired as a commissioner of Kerr County in 2021. But he said this week's flooding there should be taken as a warning. 'I think there's going to be a lot of places in the United States that will look at this event that happened in Kerr County and determine what could be done,' Mr. Moser said. 'I think things should come out of this. It should be a lesson learned.' Current city officials on Sunday did not discuss the earlier deliberations over warning systems. Dalton Rice, the Kerrville city manager, sidestepped a question about the effectiveness of local emergency notifications, telling reporters at a news conference that it was 'not the time to speculate.' 'There's going to be a full review of this, so we can make sure that we focus on future preparedness,' he said. Professor Gori said that the decision not to install warning systems in the past has for many Texas counties come down to cost. 'If the county had a flood warning system in place, they would have fared much better in terms of preparedness, but most rural counties in Texas simply do not have the funds to implement flood warning systems themselves,' she said in an email. Some simpler systems, however, like those using stream or rain gauges, may still not have allowed enough time for evacuations, given how fast the water rose in Kerr County, she added. It is hardly unique in facing challenges. 'Rural counties are extremely data-scarce, which means we are essentially blind when it comes to identifying areas that are prone to flooding,' Ms. Gori said. Texas has a growing backlog of flood management projects, totaling some $54 billion across the state. The state flood plan of the Texas Water Development Board called on lawmakers to dedicate additional funding to invest in potentially lifesaving infrastructure. But lawmakers have so far allocated only a fraction of the money needed for flood projects through the state's Flood Infrastructure Fund, about $669 million so far, even as state lawmakers this year approved $51 billion in property tax cuts. Kerr County, in its earlier discussions about a warning system, had explored along with other members of the Upper Guadalupe River Authority the possibility of applying for financial support through the infrastructure fund. But the authority dropped the idea after learning that the fund would provide only about 5 percent of the money needed for the project. During last week's flooding, despite the text notifications that warned of rapidly rising waters, some residents were unsure how seriously to take the flood warnings because they are not unusual in that part of the state. Sujey Martin, a resident of Kerrville for the past 15 years, said she was awakened by an emergency alert on her phone at about 2 a.m. on Friday. She said she had glanced at it and went back to sleep. 'It's never this bad, so I didn't think much of it,' she said. Image A group gathered to pray for those missing and confirmed dead in Kerrville, Texas. Credit... Carter Johnston for The New York Times Image Crews searched for victims and cleared debris downriver from an R.V. camp in Kerrville, Texas. Credit... Carter Johnston for The New York Times It wasn't until about 5 a.m. that she became alarmed, when she realized that her power was out, and she started reading on Facebook about flooding and evacuations, some of them just a few streets over from her. 'It was raining really hard,' she recalled. Louis Kocurek, 65, who lives in Center Point, about 10 miles southeast of Kerrville, said that he had never received an official government text alert about the flooding. He had signed up for a private emergency alert service known as CodeRED, but by the time that alert came in, his power had gone out. At that time, he said, he had known about the situation for at least three hours, warned by his son-in-law at about 6:30 a.m. He had checked on the water level of the creek near his home and decided to stay put — even though the water in the creek rose 15 feet in 15 minutes at one point. His house sits at a higher elevation than the homes of some neighbors, and there were 11 people hunkering down at his house. Mr. Kocurek said the CodeRED alert came in at 10:07 a.m. 'At that point, you know, the roads were closed, no way to get out.' His house, ultimately, was not flooded. Linda Clanton, a retired schoolteacher who lives on the outskirts of Kerrville, said she did not know how bad the flooding had become until her sister called and woke her up with the news at 8:30 a.m. on Friday. The next day, she was among several people taking in the widespread destruction and piles of debris caused by the floodwaters at Louise Hays Park, along the Guadalupe River on the west side of town. She said she couldn't be sure that even sirens would have been useful in warning people about the fast-moving water. 'We are all spread out in these hills and the trees,' she said. 'If we had a siren here in town, nobody but town people would hear it,' she added. 'You'd have to have sirens all over the place, and that's a lot of money and a lot of things to go wrong.' And the danger was not over yet. Around 3 p.m. on Sunday, another emergency alert went out to people along the Guadalupe River, including the hundreds conducting searches, warning of 'high confidence of river flooding.' Move to higher ground, the alert urged. Christopher Flavelle and Anushka Patil contributed reporting.
News24
an hour ago
- News24
‘Horrible thing that took place': 78 killed, including 28 children, as major flooding hits Texas
The death toll from catastrophic floods in Texas reached at least 78 on Sunday, including 28 children, as the search for girls missing from a summer camp continued and fears of more flooding prompted evacuations of volunteer responders. Larry Leitha, sheriff of Kerr County in Texas Hill Country, said 68 people had died in flooding in his county, the epicentre of the flooding, among them 28 children. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, speaking at a press conference on Sunday afternoon, said another 10 had died elsewhere in Texas and confirmed 41 were missing. US President Donald Trump sent his condolences to the victims and said he would probably visit the area on Friday. His administration had been in touch with Abbott, he added. 'It's a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible. So we say, God bless all of the people that have gone through so much, and God bless, God bless the state of Texas,' he told reporters as he left New Jersey. Among the most devastating impacts of the flooding occurred at Camp Mystic summer camp, a nearly century-old Christian girls camp where 10 Camp Mystic campers and one counsellor were still missing, according to Leitha. 'It was nothing short of horrific to see what those young children went through,' said Abbott, who noted he toured the area on Saturday and pledged to continue efforts to locate the missing. The flooding occurred after the nearby Guadalupe River broke its banks after torrential rain fell in the central Texas area on Friday, the US Independence Day holiday. Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd said the destruction killed three people in Burnet County, one in Tom Green County, five in Travis County and one in Williamson County. 'You will see the death toll rise today and tomorrow,' said Freeman Martin, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, also speaking on Sunday. The flash flooding in Central Texas is absolutely heartbreaking. Michelle and I are praying for everyone who has lost a loved one or is waiting for news — especially the parents. And we're grateful to the first responders and rescue teams working around the clock to help. — Barack Obama (@BarackObama) July 6, 2025 Officials said on Saturday that more than 850 people had been rescued, including some clinging to trees, after a sudden storm dumped up to 380mm of rain across the region, about 140km northwest of San Antonio. Kidd said he was receiving unconfirmed reports of 'an additional wall of water' flowing down some of the creeks in the Guadalupe Rivershed, as rain continued to fall on soil in the region already saturated from Friday's rains. 'We're evacuating parts of the river right now because we are worried about another wall of river coming down in those areas,' he said, referencing volunteers from outside the area seeking to help locate Federal Emergency Management Agency was activated on Sunday and is deploying resources to first responders in Texas after Trump issued a major disaster declaration, the Department of Homeland Security said. US Coast Guard helicopters and planes were aiding search and rescue efforts. Trump has previously outlined plans to scale back the federal government's role in responding to natural disasters, leaving states to shoulder more of the burden themselves. Some experts questioned whether cuts to the federal workforce by the Trump administration, including to the agency that oversees the National Weather Service, led to a failure by officials to accurately predict the severity of the floods and issue appropriate warnings ahead of the storm. Trump's administration has overseen thousands of job cuts from the National Weather Service's parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, leaving many weather offices understaffed, former NOAA director Rick Spinrad said. Spinrad said he did not know if those staff cuts factored into the lack of advance warning for the extreme Texas flooding, but that they would inevitably degrade the agency's ability to deliver accurate and timely forecasts. Trump pushed back when asked on Sunday if federal government cuts hobbled the disaster response or left key job vacancies at the National Weather Service under Trump's oversight. 'That water situation, that all is, and that was really the Biden setup,' he said referencing his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden. But I wouldn't blame Biden for it, either. I would just say this is 100-year catastrophe. Donald Trump He declined to answer a question about FEMA, saying only: 'They're busy working, so we'll leave it at that.' Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees FEMA and NOAA, said a 'moderate' flood watch issued on Thursday by the National Weather Service had not accurately predicted the extreme rainfall and said the Trump administration was working to upgrade the system. Joaquin Castro, a Democratic US congressman from Texas, told CNN's State of the Union programme that fewer personnel at the weather service could be dangerous. 'When you have flash flooding, there's a risk that if you don't have the personnel ... to do that analysis, do the predictions in the best way, it could lead to tragedy,' Castro said. Katharine Somerville, a counsellor on the Cypress Lake side of Camp Mystic, on higher ground than the Guadalupe River side, said her 13-year-old campers were scared as their cabins sustained damage and lost power in the middle of the night. 'Our cabins at the tippity top of hills were completely flooded with water. I mean, y'all have seen the complete devastation, we never even imagined that this could happen,' Somerville said in an interview on Fox News on said the campers in her care were put on military trucks and evacuated, and that all were safe. The disaster unfolded rapidly on Friday morning as heavier-than-forecast rain drove river waters rapidly to as high as 9m. A day after the disaster struck, the summer camp, where 700 girls were in residence at the time of the flooding, was a scene of devastation. Inside one cabin, mud lines indicating how high the water had risen were at least 1.83m from the floor. Bed frames, mattresses and personal belongings caked with mud were scattered inside. Some buildings had broken windows, one had a missing wall.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Death toll in central Texas flash floods rises to 82 as sheriff says 10 campers remain missing
KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Families sifted through waterlogged debris Sunday and stepped inside empty cabins at Camp Mystic, an all-girls summer camp ripped apart by flash floods that washed homes off their foundations and killed at least 82 people in central Texas. Rescuers maneuvering through challenging terrain, high waters and snakes including water moccasins continued their desperate search for the missing, including 10 girls and a counselor from the camp. For the first time since the storms began pounding Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott said there were 41 people confirmed to be unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing. In Kerr County, home to Camp Mystic and other youth camps in the Texas Hill Country, searchers have found the bodies of 68 people, including 28 children, Sheriff Larry Leitha said in the afternoon. He pledged to keep searching until 'everybody is found' from Friday's flash floods. Ten other deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, according to local officials. The death toll is certain to rise over the next few days, said Col. Freeman Martin of the Texas Department of Public Safety. The governor warned that additional rounds of heavy rains lasting into Tuesday could produce more life-threatening flooding, especially in places already saturated. As he spoke at a news conference in Austin, emergency alerts lit up mobile phones in Kerr County that warned of 'High confidence of river flooding" and a loudspeaker near Camp Mystic urged people to leave. Minutes later, however, authorities on the scene said there was no risk. Families were allowed to look around the camp beginning Sunday morning. One girl walked out of a building carrying a large bell. A man, who said his daughter was rescued from a cabin on the highest point in the camp, walked a riverbank, looking in clumps of trees and under big rocks. A woman and a teenage girl, both wearing rubber waders, briefly went inside one of the cabins, which stood next to a pile of soaked mattresses, a storage trunk and clothes. At one point, the pair doubled over, sobbing before they embraced. One family left with a blue footlocker. A teenage girl had tears running down her face looking out the open window, gazing at the wreckage as they slowly drove away. Searching the disaster zone While the families saw the devastation for the first time, nearby crews operating heavy equipment pulled tree trunks and tangled branches from the water as they searched the river. With each passing hour, the outlook of finding more survivors became even more bleak. Volunteers and some families of the missing who drove to the disaster zone searched the riverbanks despite being asked not to do so. Authorities faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in an area long vulnerable to flooding and whether enough preparations were made. President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration Sunday for Kerr County, activating the Federal Emergency Management Agency to Texas. The president said he would likely visit Friday. 'I would have done it today, but we'd just be in their way,' he told reporters before boarding Air Force One back to Washington after spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. 'It's a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible.' The destructive, fast-moving waters rose 26 feet (8 meters) on the river in only 45 minutes before daybreak Friday, washing away homes and vehicles. The danger was not over as flash flood watches remained in effect and more rain fell in central Texas on Sunday. Searchers used helicopters, boats and drones to look for victims and to rescue people stranded in trees and from camps isolated by washed-out roads. Officials said more than 850 people were rescued in the first 36 hours. Prayers in Texas — and from the Vatican Gov. Greg Abbott vowed that authorities will work around the clock and said new areas were being searched as the water receded. He declared Sunday a day of prayer for the state. "I urge every Texan to join me in prayer this Sunday — for the lives lost, for those still missing, for the recovery of our communities, and for the safety of those on the front lines,' he said in a statement. In Rome, Pope Leo XIV offered special prayers for those touched by the disaster. History's first American pope spoke in English at the end of his Sunday noon blessing, 'I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were in summer camp, in the disaster caused by the flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas in the United States. We pray for them.' The hills along the Guadalupe River are dotted with century-old youth camps and campgrounds where generations of families have come to swim and enjoy the outdoors. The area is especially popular around the Independence Day holiday, making it more difficult to know how many are missing. Harrowing escapes from floodwaters Survivors shared terrifying stories of being swept away and clinging to trees as rampaging floodwaters carried trees and cars past them. Others fled to attics inside their homes, praying the water wouldn't reach them. At Camp Mystic, a cabin full of girls held onto a rope strung by rescuers as they walked across a bridge with water whipping around their legs. Among those confirmed dead were an 8-year-old girl from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who was at Camp Mystic, and the director of another camp up the road. Two school-age sisters from Dallas were missing after their cabin was swept away. Their parents were staying in a different cabin and were safe, but the girls' grandparents were unaccounted for. Locals know the Hill Country as ' flash flood alley' but the flooding in the middle of the night caught many campers and residents by surprise even though there were warnings. Warnings came before the disaster The National Weather Service on Thursday advised of potential flooding and then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies — a rare alert notifying of imminent danger. At the Mo-Ranch Camp in the community of Hunt, officials had been monitoring the weather and opted to move several hundred campers and attendees at a church youth conference to higher ground. At nearby Camps Rio Vista and Sierra Vista, organizers also had mentioned on social media that they were watching the weather the day before ending their second summer session Thursday. Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months' worth of rain for the area. Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said authorities are committed to a full review of the emergency response, including how the public was alerted to the storm threat. Trump, asked whether he was still planning to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said that was something 'we can talk about later, but right now we are busy working.' He has previously said he wants to overhaul if not completely eliminate FEMA and has been sharply critical of its performance. Trump also was asked whether he planned to rehire any of the federal meteorologists who were fired this year as part of widespread government spending reductions. 'I would think not. This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it. Nobody saw it. Very talented people there, and they didn't see it,' the president said. ___ Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Cedar Attanasio in New York; Sophia Tareen in Chicago; Michelle Price in Morristown, N.J.; and Nicole Winfield in Rome.
