Texas floods leave dozens dead, missing as crews search for survivors
Officials on Saturday confirmed at least 43 people are dead and more than 27 young girls remain missing after a devastating flood swept through Kerr County, Texas.
Five young girls who were staying at Camp Mystic, an all-girls private Christian retreat in Hunt, Texas, have been confirmed dead.
Anne Hunt confirmed to Fox News Digital that her daughter, Janie, was one of the campers killed in the flood. A Voice for the Voiceless, a nonprofit that advocates for "the missing, voiceless and crime victims," identified Renee Smajstrla as another deceased camper.
Family members identified best friends Lila Bonner and Eloise Peck as the most recent cabinmates found dead, according to a report from FOX 4 Dallas. They had both recently finished second grade at Bradfield Elementary.
A fifth camper has been confirmed to be deceased. However, her family asked that her name not be released.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News Digital's Rachel Wolf and Alexandra Koch. To continue reading, click here.
After a Texas flood killed at least 32 people Friday, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem addressed criticism about notification prior to the flood, saying the administration is working on updating the National Weather Service and NOAA's "neglected" and "ancient" systems.
Citing her time in Congress and as governor of South Dakota, Noem said that while the weather is difficult to predict, there have been instances when officials and citizens expressed the need for quicker warning and clearer notification before deadly weather.
"That is one of the reasons that, when President [Donald] Trump took office, he said he wanted to fix and is currently upgrading the technology," Noem said during a news conference with state officials Saturday afternoon.
"The National Weather Service has indicated that with that and the [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] (NOAA), we needed to renew this ancient system that has been left in place with the federal government for many, many years."
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News Digital's Alexandra Koch. To continue reading, click here.
As officials continue to confirm deaths and search for those missing after the Texas Hill Country floods on Friday, locals have started to share stories of incredible acts of bravery and heroism amid a weekend of anguish.
Julian Ryan and his fiancé Christina Wilson were at their home in Ingram, when water began rushing through the doors.
As the water was quickly rising, Ryan, 27, punched through a window to get Wilson, their children, and his mother out of the flooded house, according to Houston outlet KHOU-11.
Wilson told the outlet the glass cut one of Ryan's arteries and his arm was badly injured. Calls to 911 went unanswered.
"By 6 (a.m.), he looked at me and the kids and my mother-in-law and said, 'I'm sorry, I'm not going to make it. I love y'all,'" Wilson told KHOU-11.
Ryan is being remembered as a "true hero," who was dedicated to his family, according to a GoFundMe created for the family.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News Digital's Alexandra Koch. To continue reading, click here.
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Kerr County authorities discussed warning systems at least 20 times since 1987
Since 2016, the topic of a "flood warning system" for Kerr County has come up at 20 different county commissioners' meetings, according to minutes. The idea for a system was first introduced by Kerr County Commissioner Thomas Moser and Emergency Management Coordinator Dub Thomas in March 2016. Moser noted that neighboring counties had much more advanced flood warning systems than Kerr County, "even though this is probably one of the highest flood-prone regions in the entire state." Kerr County's existing water monitoring mechanisms were not "flood control or flood warning systems," Thomas explained, adding, "I think we need a system that can be operated or controlled by a centralized location." MORE: 'We are very flood prone': Local Texas officials spent years discussing potential warning system Following the March 2016 meeting, the flood warning system was discussed at 10 more commissioners' meetings that year. But after the county failed to secure FEMA grant funding to implement the system, it appeared to fall off the agenda. In a November 2020 discussion of a new FEMA emergency alert program, Thomas noted, "We've been trying to get a new Flood Warning System here. We haven't been able to do it." The last time commissioners mentioned the flood warning system was in July 2021, meeting minutes show. But since then, other local government bodies in Kerr County have discussed the possibility of a new flood warning system for the area. In April, the Upper Guadalupe River Authority, a government body that manages the watershed, convened a special meeting of its Board of Directors. The board voted unanimously to select a firm called Kisters "to develop a Flood Warning System in Kerr County." Meeting minutes show the company was slated to receive a contract worth up to nearly $73,000 as part of the proposed system, the status of which is currently unclear. MORE: Kerr County plan labeled flash flooding 'highly likely' with 'major' impact on public safety When the area flooded on Friday, Ingram City Council Member Ray Howard got three flash flood alerts from the National Weather Service, but none from Kerr County authorities, he told ABC News. "The river came up so fast," Howard said. "There's nothing you can do about that, but there should be early warning systems to get something, a warning, faster." Howard noted that money has been a barrier to implementing such a system. "We need to get funding for that," he added, "for sirens or something that's going to help out the community." But 2016 meeting minutes show there was also opposition to a flood warning system among some commissioners, with one saying, "the thought of our beautiful Kerr County having these damn sirens going off in the middle of [the] night, I'm going to have to start drinking again to put up with y'all." Another commissioner voted against submitting a grant application for the warning system, saying he thought "this whole thing is a little extravagant for Kerr County." Instead, several county officials argued that the county's informal system of "river calling" — essentially a phone tree to warn camps of imminent flooding — was sufficient. Howard disagrees: "Obviously calling from one place to another isn't fast enough," he told ABC News.
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Camp Mystic disaster plan approved 2 days before Central Texas flood killed dozens
Texas inspectors signed off on Camp Mystic's emergency plan just two days before the devastating flood killed more than two dozen people at the all-girls Christian summer camp, most of them children. Five children and one counselor remain missing. Records released Tuesday show the camp met state regulations for disaster procedures, but details of the plan remain unclear. Despite warnings from the National Weather Service, Camp Mystic did not relocate its more than 650 campers and staff. Camp Mystic disaster plans Five years of inspection reports released to The Associated Press do not offer any details of disaster plans at the camp, raising new questions about its preparedness ahead of the torrential July 4 rainfall in flood-prone Texas Hill Country. The Department of State Health Services released records Tuesday showing the camp complied with a host of state regulations regarding "procedures to be implemented in case of a disaster." Among them: instructing campers what to do if they need to evacuate and assigning specific duties to each staff member and counselor. The Texas Administrative Code lays out youth camp licensing requirements. There's no specific requirement involving weather radios or any mention of flooding specifically, but a written disaster plan is required. The plan isn't required to be submitted to the state, but must be posted on-site. National Weather Service warnings As early as 3:30 a.m. on July 3, more than 24 hours earlier, the National Weather Service warned of potential "isolated flooding." That afternoon, at 2:30 p.m., more than 12 hours before the floods, it issued an official flood watch for western portions of the Hill Country, including Kerr County. It forecast 1 to 3 inches of rain was possible, but it also warned it couldn't rule out the chance isolated areas would see as much as 5 to 7 inches. 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That also marks the "action" stage, the level at which, NOAA says, when reached by a rising stream, "some type of mitigation" becomes necessary to prepare for possibly significant activity. From there, the river surged. A wall of water overwhelmed people in cabins, tents and trailers along the river's edge. Some survivors were found clinging to trees. Growing frustration with Texas flood warnings, response Survivors have described the floods as a "pitch black wall of death" and said they received no emergency warnings. Officials have come under scrutiny about why residents and youth summer camps along the river were not alerted sooner than 4 a.m. or told to evacuate. Officials noted that the public can grow weary from too many flooding alerts or forecasts that turn out to be minor. Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said authorities were shocked by the ferocity of the floods. "We had no reason to believe that this was gonna be any, anything like what's happened here. None whatsoever," Kelly told "CBS Evening News." The potential for heavy rains had put precautions in motion as the state activated an emergency response plan and moved resources into the Central Texas area. Camp Mystic inspection and accreditation The state inspected Camp Mystic on July 2, the same day the Texas Division of Emergency Management activated emergency response resources ahead of the anticipated flooding. The inspection found no deficiencies or violations at the camp in a long list of health and safety criteria. A DSHS inspector signed off on the inspection, noting "yes" to these three criteria/questions: "Required Emergency Plans Is there a written plan of procedures to be implemented in case of a disaster, serious accident, epidemic, or fatality formulated and posted in the camp's administrative on-site office or location? Yes Are all camp staff and volunteers made aware of the plan of emergency to be implemented during the staff training program or volunteer briefing? Yes Is there documentation of this training kept at the camp's administrative on-site office or location? Yes" The camp had 557 campers and more than 100 staffers at the time between its Guadalupe and Cypress Lake locations. Camp Mystic did not respond to requests from the Associated Press for comment on its emergency plan. The camp notes that it is licensed by the state and a member of the Camping Association for Mutual Progress, which says its goal is to "raise health and safety standards" for summer camps. Leaders of that association didn't return messages. The American Camp Association said Tuesday that Camp Mystic is not accredited with that organization, whose standards focus on safety and risk management. Spokesperson Lauren McMillin declined to say whether the camp previously had been accredited with the association, which describes itself as "the only nationwide accrediting organization for all year-round and summer camps." In a statement on its website, the camp said it has been "in communication with local and state authorities who are tirelessly deploying extensive resources to search for our missing girls." Among the dead was Richard "Dick" Eastland, the camp's beloved director described by campers as a father figure.
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