logo
‘A river with a temper' returns to calm after wreaking deadly devastation in Texas

‘A river with a temper' returns to calm after wreaking deadly devastation in Texas

Yahoo06-07-2025
The Guadalupe River had returned to calm by Saturday evening and was beginning to give up its grim secrets, as nearly 70 people – many of them children – were recovered from what just a day earlier was a terrifying flash flood that had turned land into water, taken homes and retreated to leave miles of terrible devastation along its banks.
At Camp Mystic, on a bend in the river flanked by cliffs that sped the torrent as if through a chicane, 700 young girls had five days earlier joined for a month-long summer camp of fun and spiritual growth, the evening brought a strange calm to Texas Hill country.
Related: Texas floods: death toll rises as search and rescue turns into grim recovery operation
There were the flashlights of emergency vehicles; search helicopters clattered overhead; and wrecked cars marked as searched and clear with paint. A drenched mattress could be seen in the high branches of trees. Homes were obliterated, now stuffed with debris, as rescue workers continued to pull the camp girls and adults from the muddy waters.
Crystal Lampard was at her home up a road 150ft from the river early Friday when the first flood alerts started coming through on her phone.
'My husband and I woke up about 2.45 to a loud boom that was probably one of the transformers,' she said. It was raining, but there was nothing to suggest an apocalyptic scene developing below.
'This type of thing – you don't get a warning,' she said. 'We knew the rain was coming but not what we got.
'That water comes down those hills [and] this is where it goes. So if it's pouring 11 inches up at the headwaters, it's got to come here,' she said. 'But there was no indication that's what it would be.'
Yet surveying the cypress trees combed flat by flood waters along the Guadalupe's banks, bent canoes and other detritus, Lampard, 51, said the houses that used to be on there – and the people in them – were gone.
'It doesn't matter if you knew them or not – those poor babies,' Lampard said of the children killed by the flood. 'My heart breaks. This river is beautiful but she does get ugly.
'She's a beautiful river with a temper. It's going to be a while before everything is cleaned up, and a while before everybody is found – if they're found.'
Her friend, Alisha Sore, 26, said her family had planned to go to the river on Friday for an Independence Day cookout with hotdogs and fireworks. Sore, too, said she gets weather alerts and received a flood alert early Friday morning – but 'there was nothing letting us know it was 20ft tall and we're under water.'
On Thursday, a former classmate, Julian Ryan, gave Sore's dad a hug at the bar. He had just become a father for a second time. But hours later, as waters rose furiously, Ryan punched his hand through a window to help his family escape their home, severed an artery, and bled to death.
Now, the flood waters were heading to areas downriver. 'They're getting our flood on top of where they're sitting,' Sore said.
An initial flood watch for the area was issued at 1.18pm on Thursday predicting rain amounts of between 5 and 7in (12.7 to 17.8 cm). The weather messaging included automated alerts delivered to mobile phones to people in threatened areas. Those warnings grew increasingly ominous in Friday's early hours, urging people to move to higher ground and evacuate flood-prone areas.
And as questions are asked about whether meterologists missed the signs of the storm's force, and if alert systems were enough, many in the area grappled with flashbacks to another deadly flood nearly four decades earlier.
Some recalled one such emergency a few miles downriver in Comfort in July 1987, when a caravan of buses attempted to escape from a church camp through a low water crossing after an overnight storm. When the buses stalled, the teenagers attempted to form a human chain – and a wall of water washed them away. Ten were killed.
'You can't do anything in 45 minutes,' Lampard said, referring to the window of time she estimated having to flee after it became evident the flood threat was much more serious than initially estimated. 'If we'd try to leave out of here, we would have drove right into it.'
Amanda Chaney, who was on the road checking on neighbors, said several of her house-cleaning clients had lost their homes.
'I had my phone on, and I kept getting alerts,' she said. 'But the rain didn't seem much heavier than usual.'
Chaney said she noted how emergency responders had 'spread out in different locations instead of planting them all in one'. She interpreted that as a sign of the uncertainty surrounding where the storm which triggered the flood would cause the most damage.
At an emergency rescue staging post outside Hunt, a few miles below Camp Mystic and one of the hardest hit hamlets, workers said they had recovered over 15 bodies. By Saturday afternoon, emergency crews from all over the state had converged on the valley.
'Honestly, there could have maybe been more warnings,' said Justin Barnatt, who had driven with his crew 250 miles in three hours from Odessa in west Texas. 'But the river rose 29ft in maybe 45 minutes, and it was three or four o'clock in the morning.'
Gunner Alexander, 14, who was resting in the back of an off-road vehicle, said: 'We're not used to seeing our town like this. It's sad – people you know whose house is gone.'
He said he knew two girls at Camp Mystic. One had for sure gotten on an evacuation bus, he said.
Alexander said the storm's strength was unexpected. 'The rain gauges on our apps showed 3 to 4in,' he remarked. 'It came all of a sudden. It was really unexpected.'
Despite the scale of the deadly devastation, he said everyone he knew was trying to find a way to help out fellow community members.
Up at Camp Mystic, as night began to fall, tender scenes began to reveal themselves. A man who gave his name as Bobby appeared from the river, drenched and out of breath. Officials had pleaded with the public to leave the search-and-rescue work left to be done to professionals. Yet Bobby drove up two hours from San Antonio to assist.
'I don't work for anyone except for Bobby,' he said. 'I do this completely voluntarily. It's the right thing to do. There's never enough rescue workers. The more rapid the response, the more chance there is of survivors.'
A mile downstream, 55-year-old Dan Murray said he had flown down from San Francisco to search for his best friend, his best friend's wife and their son – whose holiday home had been swept clean off its foundations.
Neither the home nor its occupants have been found. But their daughter, who they had been coming to collect from Camp Mystic, had survived. 'They haven't found them yet so I have hope – but coming and seeing this utter devastation is rocking my belief that everything is going to be OK,' he said. 'It's just devastating.'
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Texas lawmakers investigate flash floods as death toll hits 137
Texas lawmakers investigate flash floods as death toll hits 137

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

Texas lawmakers investigate flash floods as death toll hits 137

By Brad Brooks (Reuters) -Texas state lawmakers met during a special session on Wednesday, to address for the first time the deadly flash floods that hit the Texas Hill Country this month, killing at least 137 people. Senator Charles Perry, chairperson for the joint Senate-House committee investigating the preparation for and response to the flooding, said the committee did not want to assign blame, but sought "constructive policy solutions which will remit future loss of life." Texas Governor Greg Abbott included the investigation on the agenda of a special legislative session that opened on Monday. Abbott said on social media that the death toll from the July 4 flash flooding ticked up to 137, and a man and a girl remained missing. Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, was the first person lawmakers called to testify. He described the vast state's emergency response system as fragmented. Under the system, each of 254 counties maintains control over ordering evacuations. Such an order was not given in the hardest hit areas earlier this month. Kidd told lawmakers that to improve preparation for natural disasters, he needed better in-house radar systems, better communications systems to warn local leaders and residents, and more resources for evacuations or to assist residents who shelter in place. The high casualty toll ranked as one of the deadliest U.S. flood events in decades, raising questions about the lack of flash-flood warning sirens in hardest hit Kerr County. Many have expressed concern about vacancies at National Weather Service offices due to staffing cuts under President Donald Trump. The legislative committee investigating the floods will next meet on July 31 in Kerr County. The committee will write a report to be forwarded to the full Texas Senate and House to inform possible legislation during the month-long special session.

Gas line rupture prompts evacuations in downtown Arlington
Gas line rupture prompts evacuations in downtown Arlington

CBS News

time3 hours ago

  • CBS News

Gas line rupture prompts evacuations in downtown Arlington

A gas line break in downtown Arlington has led to evacuations near the intersection of West Main Street and Oak Street. Emergency crews are on the scene, and a command post has been set up to coordinate the response. "Atmos crews are currently on scene," Arlington police spokesman Tim Ciesco said. "We are blocking off Main Street between Center Street and Oak Street while they work to make repairs. It's our understanding (that) the leak was reported by a construction company that was working in the area. "Businesses near the leak have been evacuated as a precaution. Those folks are currently being sheltered at the Downtown Arlington Library. There are no reports of any injuries." Authorities are urging the public to avoid the area until further notice. CBS News Texas will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available.

Flood waters race through New Mexico community, prompting rescues
Flood waters race through New Mexico community, prompting rescues

Associated Press

time3 hours ago

  • Associated Press

Flood waters race through New Mexico community, prompting rescues

VADO, N.M. (AP) — At least 20 people had to be rescued as flood waters raced through a New Mexico community near the Texas state line overnight, marking the latest deluge of summer rain to force evacuations and cause damage for the otherwise arid region. Forecasters with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque and El Paso, Texas, have been busy in recent weeks issuing flood watches and warnings as afternoon thunderstorms crank up across the region. It's part of the monsoon's daily ritual. Authorities in Doña Ana County conducted damage assessments Wednesday as they shifted to recovery operations. Initial reports from the county's emergency management team showed about 110 homes in the Vado area were damaged by flood waters, several hundred homes were without power and some roads remained closed. Emergency crews transported two people to the hospital with minor injuries, county officials said. 'All of our flooding protocols were working. It was just too much water,' county spokesperson Ariana Parra said of the storm. Resident Sally Sanchez-Gonzales asked for prayers Tuesday night as waves of muddy water crested just beyond the fence that lines her property. On Wednesday, she shared a video that showed the aftermath, the mud having caked a large swath of desert as debris clogged other areas. 'My family is still trying to help some families evacuate at the lower ends and others returned to get important items,' she told The Associated Press. 'There's a lot of cleanup to do.' The flooding in Vado resulted from more than 2 inches (5.08 centimeters) of rain that fell Tuesday, officials said. To the north, the mountain community of Ruidoso is still recovering from deadly flooding that damaged hundreds of homes as storm water rushed off mountainsides that have been scarred over recent years by wildfire. Without trees and other vegetation to hold back the water, the village has been forced to issue almost daily warnings for people to stay clear of creeks and low-lying areas. State officials on Wednesday announced the federal government has issued a major disaster declaration for communities in Lincoln County, including Ruidoso.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store