Texas Flood Death Toll: Families desperate as number reaches 52; 27 girls still unaccounted for as searches continue
Kerr County: 44 confirmed dead. Most victims were swept away along the Guadalupe River near Hunt and Ingram, where floodwaters rose over 25 feet in under an hour.
Travis County: 5 dead. Several cars were caught on flooded roads west of Austin.
Burnet County: 2 dead. A father and daughter were found in a trailer near Lake Buchanan.
Kendall County: 1 confirmed dead. A woman's body was recovered near Comfort after her car was washed off a rural crossing.
Live Events
The missing and the waiting
A region known for danger
Frantic rescues, bitter questions
Families swept away
(You can now subscribe to our
(You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel
When the rain came, it wasn't gentle. It battered central Texas in the early hours of Friday, turning the Guadalupe River into a raging force that rose 26 feet in just 45 minutes. By Saturday night, the floods had killed at least 52 people, 15 of them children, and left rescuers combing through debris and mud for the missing.In Kerr County alone, 43 lives were lost. Many were campers at Camp Mystic , a Christian summer retreat that had stood along the river for nearly a century. It's here that 27 girls are still unaccounted for.'The camp was completely destroyed,' said Elinor Lester, 13, one of the survivors. 'A helicopter landed and started taking people away. It was really scary.'The death toll from the flash floods that ripped through Texas Hill Country has climbed to 52, including 15 children. Search teams are still combing through debris and swollen rivers, with 27 girls from Camp Mystic still missing. Here's what we know so far about where victims were found:Search teams have rescued more than 850 people so far — some from trees, others from rooftops. But there's a grim sense that time is slipping away. Dalton Rice, Kerrville City Manager, said, 'We're tracking the 'known missing' — the 27 — but there could be others. We simply don't know yet.'At an elementary school acting as a reunification centre, families wait for news. Some cling to hope. Others brace for the worst.'We still have people coming here looking for their loved ones. We've had a little success, but not much,' said Bobby Templeton, superintendent of Ingram Independent School District.This part of Texas has a nickname: flash flood alley . It's earned. The Hill Country is all rugged slopes and shallow soils that shed rain like a tin roof.'When it rains, water doesn't soak into the soil,' said Austin Dickson, CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country. 'It rushes down the hill.'In the past, officials had considered setting up a flood siren system along the river — like the tornado sirens in the Midwest. 'We know we get rains. We know the river rises. But nobody saw this coming,' said Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly. He admitted the plan for flood warnings never got off the ground, partly because of the cost.Inside Camp Mystic, the chaos came fast. Some campers crossed bridges roped together in knee-high water. Others were lifted out by helicopter. An 8-year-old girl from Alabama was among the confirmed dead. Jane Ragsdale, co-owner of Heart O' the Hills, another nearby camp, died in the flooding too.Governor Greg Abbott declared a state of disaster and urged Texans to pray. '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.Yet there's anger too. AccuWeather claimed its warnings, along with alerts from the National Weather Service, should have given officials enough time to evacuate vulnerable camps. 'These warnings should have provided officials with ample time to evacuate camps such as Camp Mystic and get people to safety,' the company said.Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem admitted the forecast had fallen short. 'A moderate flood watch issued on Thursday… did not accurately predict the extreme rainfall,' she said.Former NOAA director Rick Spinrad put it more bluntly: 'People's ability to prepare for these storms will be compromised. It undoubtedly means that additional lives will be lost and probably more property damage.'There's no shortage of horror stories. Erin Burgess and her teenage son clung to a tree for an hour after water poured into their house. 'My son and I floated to a tree where we hung onto it, and my boyfriend and my dog floated away. He was lost for a while, but we found them,' she said.Barry Adelman watched water drive his entire family — including his 94-year-old grandmother and his 9-year-old grandson — into the attic. 'I was having to look at my grandson in the face and tell him everything was going to be OK, but inside I was scared to death.'W. Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, promised that no one will give up. 'The process is going to keep going,' he said. 'We're not going to stop until we find everyone that's missing.'President Donald Trump offered prayers and federal aid. 'Our Brave First Responders are on site doing what they do best,' he posted.Yet for many families in the Hill Country, the truth is harder than any headline. Tonia Fucci summed up the mood as she stood in Comfort, a town downstream from Camp Mystic. 'Complete shock. I'm still in shock today. And with the rescues going on and helicopters, you just know there's so many missing children and missing people. You just want them to be found for the sake of the families. But, you know, it's not going to be a good ending.'Here's the thing. In places like this, rain can turn deadly overnight. The question is whether this time, someone should have seen it coming.(With inputs from Agencies)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
an hour ago
- India Today
Dramatic timelapse video shows floodwater swallowing Texas bridge in minutes
A timelapse video recorded in Texas's Kingsland during the devastating July 4 weekend floods shows the shocking speed at which floodwaters overwhelmed a local causeway. The 30-minute footage, filmed by an eyewitness, reveals rising waters submerging the elevated road in just 10 minutes.A few onlookers visible at the start of the video are seen retreating as the water quickly becomes dangerously high. Take a look –A timelapse video shows the speed at which deadly floodwaters rose over a causeway in Texas. The video recorded the scene for around 50 minutes, according to the timecode Reuters (@Reuters) July 7, 2025advertisementThe flash floods, described as among the worst in the US in decades, have left at least 104 people dead, with the toll expected to rise. Search-and-rescue operations continued Monday across central Texas, where teams used boats and heavy machinery to sift through wreckage and search for the missing. Authorities said that 27 campers and counselors from Camp Mystic, a historic all-girls Christian summer camp in Kerr County, were swept away by floodwaters early Friday morning. Officials have recovered 84 bodies, including 28 children, so Guadalupe River, swollen with relentless rainfall, tore through cabins, tents and trailers before dawn on July 5, dragging people from their beds and sweeping them for miles survivors were found clinging to trees. Debris which litters the riverbanks include tree trunks, coolers, volleyballs, canoes and personal items like family President Donald Trump, who signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County, is scheduled to visit Texas on Friday. On Sunday, he stated the flooding caught everyone by surprise and said: 'This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it.'White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended emergency services and said that both federal and local agencies provided sufficient weather warnings ahead of the floods.- Ends IN THIS STORY#United States of America
Indian Express
3 hours ago
- Indian Express
Texas flash flood death toll surpasses 100 as 5 million in central Texas remain under flood watch
The death toll from the catastrophic flash floods over the July Fourth weekend in central Texas has surpassed 100 on Monday as search and rescue teams plodded through muddy riverbanks and flew aircrafts to look for survivors as hopes dimmed of finding the dozens still missing from a disaster that has devastated the Texas Hill Country. Three days after a torrential downpour which started at midnight and transformed the Guadalupe River into a raging, killer torrent, officials of Camp Mystic, a century old Christian girls' summer camp confirmed that flash floods killed 27 campers and counselors. Officials from Kerr County said that at least 10 campers and one counselor still remain missing. Texas authorities, overseeing the search for flood victims, avoided the questions about weather warnings and said they will wait to address the issues as to why some summer camps did not evacuate ahead of the flooding that killed at least 104. Texas is working tirelessly to assist local officials with recovery and rescue operations. Heavy rain continues to be a threat. Texans should be weather aware. Texas will not stop until every missing person is found. More info: — Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) July 7, 2025 Officials further informed that bodies of 84 people were found, including 28 children and 56 adults in the county home to Camp Mystic and several other summer camps. Central Texas still remains at the edge as additional rains have been predicted and more flooding could ravage parts of the US state. Authorities have warned that the death toll could rise. On Sunday, state and local authorities said 12 other flood related deaths have been reported across five neighboring south-central Texas counties and 41 other people have been reported to be missing outside Kerr County. Hope to find some of the survivors alive are diminishing as time passed while authorities continued to search. 'Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy,' Camp Mystic said in a statement. According to an NBC News report, five million people in central Texas still remain covered by flood watches, including residents of San Angelo, Killeen, Kerrville, San Antonio and Austin.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
3 hours ago
- Business Standard
Death toll from flooding in Texas over July Fourth weekend crosses 100
The number of deaths reached 104 on Monday. In hard-hit Kerr County, home to Camp Mystic and several other summer camps, searchers have found the bodies of 84 people, including 28 children AP The death toll from catastrophic flooding in Texas over the July Fourth weekend has surpassed 100 as the massive search continues for missing people. The number of deaths reached 104 on Monday. In hard-hit Kerr County, home to Camp Mystic and several other summer camps, searchers have found the bodies of 84 people, including 28 children, Kerr County officials said. Authorities overseeing the search for flood victims in Texas said they will wait to address questions about weather warnings and why some summer camps did not evacuate ahead of the catastrophic flooding. The officials spoke only hours after the operators of Camp Mystic, a century-old all-girls Christian summer camp in the Texas Hill Country, announced that they lost 27 campers and counselors to the floodwaters. Meanwhile, search-and-rescue teams carried on with the search for the dead, using heavy equipment to untangle trees and wading into swollen rivers. Volunteers covered in mud sorted through chunks of debris, piece by piece, in an increasingly bleak task. With additional rain on the way, more flooding still threatened in saturated parts of central Texas. Authorities said the death toll was sure to rise. The announcement by Camp Mystic confirmed the worst fears after a wall of water slammed into cabins built along the edge of the Guadalupe River. The raging flash floods among the nation's worst in decades slammed into riverside camps and homes before daybreak Friday, pulling sleeping people out of their cabins, tents and trailers and dragging them for miles past floating tree trunks and cars. Some survivors were found clinging to trees. Piles of twisted trees sprinkled with mattresses, refrigerators and coolers now litter the riverbanks. The debris included reminders of what drew so many to the campgrounds and cabins in the Hill Country a volleyball, canoes and a family portrait. Nineteen deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, according to local officials. Among those confirmed dead were 8-year-old sisters from Dallas who were at Camp Mystic and a former soccer coach and his wife who were staying at a riverfront home. Their daughters were still missing. Calls for finding why warnings weren't heard Authorities vowed that one of the next steps would be investigating whether enough warnings were issued and why some camps did not evacuate or move to higher ground in a place long vulnerable to flooding that some local residents refer to as flash flood alley. That will include a review of how weather warnings were sent out and received. One of the challenges is that many camps and cabins are in places with poor cellphone service, said Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice. We definitely want to dive in and look at all those things, he said. We're looking forward to doing that once we can get the search and rescue complete. Some camps, though, were aware of the dangers and monitoring the weather. At least one moved several hundred campers to higher ground before the floods. Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said recent government spending cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service did not delay any warnings. There's a time to have political fights, there's a time to disagree. This is not that time, Cruz said. There will be a time to find out what could been done differently. My hope is in time we learn some lessons to implement the next time there is a flood. The weather service first advised of potential flooding on Thursday and then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies a rare step that alerts the public to imminent danger. Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months of rain. Some residents said they never received any warnings. President Donald Trump, who signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County and plans to visit the area, said Sunday that he does not plan to rehire any of the federal meteorologists who were fired this year. This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it, the president said. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said local and federal weather services provided sufficient warnings. That was an act of God. It's not the administration's fault that the flood hit when it did, but there were early and consistent warnings, Leavitt said. More than three dozen people were unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing, Gov. Greg Abbott said Sunday. Search-and-rescue crews at one staging area said Monday that more than 1,000 volunteers had been directed to Kerr County. Little time to escape floods Reagan Brown said his parents, in their 80s, managed to escape uphill as water inundated their home in the town of Hunt. When the couple learned that their 92-year-old neighbour was trapped in her attic, they went back and rescued her. Then they were able to reach their tool shed up higher ground, and neighbours throughout the early morning began to show up at their tool shed, and they all rode it out together, Brown said. Elizabeth Lester, a mother of children who were at Camp Mystic and nearby Camp La Junta during the flood, said her young son had to swim out his cabin window to escape. Her daughter fled up the hillside as floodwaters whipped against her legs. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
