Fact Check: Investigating rumor that 3 missing girls were found alive in hollow tree 10 days after Texas floods
Three girls were found alive inside a hollow tree more than a week after the July 2025 Texas flash floods.
Rating:
A story that spread on social media in July 2025 claimed three girls were found alive in a hollow tree more than a week after floods devastated the area around Texas' Guadalupe River in July 2025. The floods, which took place during the Fourth of July weekend, killed at least 135 people and, as of this writing, three people were still missing.
For example, one Facebook post (archived) with the claim read: "3 Missing Texas Girls Found Alive in a Hollow Tree 1 Mile From Camp — They Survived Nearly 10 Days Thanks to These 2 Things...," reaching over 5,800 reactions. The post displayed three pictures seemingly showing scenes from the 2025 Texas floods.
Many commenters on the post expressed joy and gratitude, celebrating the story as a miracle and thanking God for the girls' alleged survival.
One Snopes reader asked over email, "Wondering if the article about three girls surviving the Texas flood by staying in a hollowed out tree is true." Another wrote, "This post has been going around Christian socials and I can't find any news stories on it."
Google reverse image search results showed that the collage spread via multiple Facebook posts, but the rumor also spread on other social media platforms including Threads and X.
However, the story of three missing girls surviving in a hollow tree after the 2025 Texas floods was a work of fiction, part of a growing trend of stories generated using artificial intelligence (AI) and designed to attract clicks and advertising revenue on unreliable websites. Searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo found no news media outlets reporting about such events. Prominent news media outlets would have widely reported this rumor, if true.
Because there were no credible reports or evidence to support this narrative, we have rated this claim false.
From Facebook posts to ad-filled blogs
The false story spread widely through social media posts that redirected users to ad-saturated blog sites designed to generate clicks and revenue. The blog articles often lacked sources, bylines or any verifiable details, and many appeared to be copy-pasted or lightly reworded versions of each other.
One such article, titled, "3 Missing Texas Girls Found Alive in a Hollow Tree 1 Mile From Camp — They Survived Nearly 10 Days Thanks to These 2 Things…," began:
In what's being called one of the most miraculous survival stories in American history, three girls who vanished during the Texas flood disaster have been found alive — tucked inside the hollow of an ancient oak tree just one mile from the ravaged Camp Wrenwood.
The girls — Emily Rivera, Zoey Nash, and Hope Lin, ages 8 to 10 — survived for nearly 10 days with no food, using only rainwater and lessons from a wilderness safety drill they had completed days before the storm.
The story claimed the girls survived on rainwater alone, using skills from a wilderness safety drill completed days before the floods — a highly improbable scenario for children aged 8 to 10. Notably, none of the girls' names — Emily Rivera, Zoey Nash or Hope Lin — appeared in any credible reports of missing or rescued children from the floods. What's more, some of the articles ended with a vague mention of RedCross.org, likely an attempt to add legitimacy, reading: "This story will continue to be updated as more details become available. For support, donations, or volunteer opportunities in the ongoing Texas flood recovery, visit RedCross.org."
Another article, titled, "The Hollow Tree Miracle: How Three Missing Texas Girls Survived 10 Days Alone Using Only Rainwater, Instinct—and One Unbelievable Lesson," featured a nearly identical narrative:
In the aftermath of the devastating Texas flood that swept through Camp Wrenwood and left 27 children unaccounted for, a discovery stunned the nation: three missing girls were found alive after nearly 10 days, hidden inside a hollow oak tree less than a mile from the campgrounds.
Their survival—against all odds, without food, shelter, or adult guidance—is now being called one of the most remarkable child survival stories in modern American history. What saved them? Not just luck. But something far more powerful: memory, improvisation, and an unbreakable bond.
None of these articles cited or linked to any credible sources, official statements or news reports. They also repeatedly referenced "Camp Wrenwood" as the location tied to the girls' survival, but we found no evidence that any such camp exists in Texas. In reality, the camp most impacted by the flooding was Camp Mystic, a riverside Christian camp for girls in Hunt, Texas. (Another nearby camp, Heart O' the Hills, was also significantly affected by the floods, though it did not experience the same scale of loss as Camp Mystic.)
Additionally, AI-detection websites such as Copyleaks.com, ZeroGPT.com and Phrasly.ai all flagged the text of the blog articles as at least partially generated using AI tools.
(copyleaks.com)
Overall, the story contained multiple warning signs, and the combination of AI-generated text published via profit-driven blog sites helped the rumor spread online — even in the absence of any credible news coverage.
Similar story about 2 missing girls
The fabricated story about three girls surviving in a hollow tree appears to have been inspired by an earlier false claim that rescuers had saved two girls clinging to a tree during the Texas floods. The now-retracted article stated, "Two girls were rescued alive from a tree nearly 30 feet high Sunday in the flood zone between Comfort and Homillus Road in Center Point, according to multiple sources, as search teams also recovered four bodies in the area."
Though some rescuers initially repeated the claim, the Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha ultimately confirmed it was "100% inaccurate."
Kerr County Flood Event Joint Information Center warned that such misinformation often spreads during disasters. In fact, we have investigated numerous rumors related to the Texas floods — from fabricated rescue stories to false celebrity donation claims — many of which were fueled by AI-generated content.
"AI Detector - Free AI Checker for ChatGPT, GPT-4, Gemini & More." Copyleaks, https://copyleaks.com/ai-content-detector. Accessed 21 Jul. 2025.
AI Detector - Trusted AI Checker for ChatGPT, GPT4 & Gemini. https://www.zerogpt.com/. Accessed 21 Jul. 2025.
Christensen, Laerke. "Watch out for Story about Rescuers Saving 2 Young Girls Clinging to Tree in Texas Floods." Snopes, 7 Jul. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/texas-floods-girls-found-in-tree/.
"Floods Turned Beloved Texas Camp into a Nightmare. At Least 27 Girls Remain Missing." AP News, 4 Jul. 2025, https://apnews.com/article/texas-flooding-girls-missing-camp-mystic-395992e236e35c4486f9a6a97eed7704.
Liles, Jordan. "Caitlin Clark Offered to Pay Texas Flood Victims' Funeral Expenses?" Snopes, 11 Jul. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/caitlin-clark-texas-flood-funerals/.
---. "Toddler Girl Lost in Texas Floods Rescued by 'guardian Angel' Dog?" Snopes, 14 Jul. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/texas-floods-dog-rescued-girl/.
Rescuers Find 2 Girls in Tree, 30-Feet up, near Comfort – The Kerr County Lead. 6 Jul. 2025, https://web.archive.org/web/20250706203713/https://kerrcountylead.com/rescuers-find-2-girls-in-tree-30-feet-up-near-comfort/.
Texas Floods Articles | Snopes.Com. https://www.snopes.com/tag/2025_texas_floods/. Accessed 21 Jul. 2025.
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