Desperate search for the missing as more than 80 people dead in Texas floods
US President Donald Trump said he would 'probably' visit the southern state on Friday.
Trump brushed off concerns his administration's wide-ranging cuts to weather forecasting and related federal agencies had left local warning systems worse off.
Instead, he described the flash floods as a '100-year catastrophe' that 'nobody expected.'
At least 40 adults and 28 children were killed in the worst-hit Kerr County in central Texas, Sheriff Larry Leitha said Sunday, while nearby areas showed at least 13 more people were killed by flooding.
'Across the state, in all the areas affected by flooding, there are 41 known missing,' Texas Governor Greg Abbott said Sunday.
As questions grew about why warnings did not come sooner or people were not evacuated earlier in the area popular with campers, Trump said the situation was a 'Biden setup.'
Death toll from Texas floods reaches 59, including 21 children
'That was not our setup,' Trump told reporters on Sunday, adding that he would 'not' hire back meteorologists when probed about staff and budget cuts at the National Weather Service (NWS).
Asked about whether he would change his plans to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency, he responded: 'FEMA is something we can talk about later.'
Trump, who previously said disaster relief should be handled at the state-level, also signed a major disaster declaration, activating FEMA and freeing up resources for Texas.
Missing girls
Around 17 helicopters joined the search in central Texas for missing people, including 10 girls and a counselor from a riverside Christian summer camp where about 750 people had been staying when disaster struck.
In a terrifying display of nature's power, the rain-swollen waters of the Guadalupe River reached treetops and the roofs of cabins in Camp Mystic as girls slept overnight Friday, washing away some of them and leaving a scene of devastation.
Blankets, teddy bears and other belongings at the camp were caked in mud. Windows in the cabins were shattered, apparently by the force of the water.
The National Weather Service (NWS) warned Sunday that slow-moving thunderstorms threatened more flash floods over the saturated ground of central Texas.
Governor Abbott warned that heavy rainfall could 'lead to potential flash flooding' in Kerrville and surrounding areas, as officials cautioned people against going near the swollen river and its creeks.
The flooding began at the start of the Fourth of July holiday weekend as months' worth of rain fell in a matter of hours, much of it coming overnight as people slept.
The Guadalupe surged around 26 feet (eight meters) – more than a two-story building – in just 45 minutes.
'Washed away'
Flash floods, which occur when the ground is unable to absorb torrential rainfall, are not unusual in this region of south and central Texas, known colloquially as 'Flash Flood Alley.'
Human-driven climate change has made extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and heat waves more frequent and more intense in recent years.
Officials said while rescue operations were ongoing, they were also starting the process of debris removal.
'There's debris all over the place that makes roads impassable, that makes reconstruction projects unachievable,' Abbott said.
People from elsewhere in the state converged on Kerr County to help look for the missing.
Texans also started flying personal drones to help look but local officials urged them to stop, citing a danger for rescue aircraft.
One of the searches focused on four young women who were staying in a house that was washed away by the river. Adam Durda and his wife Amber, both 45, drove three hours to help.
'There was a group of 20-year-olds that were in a house that had gotten washed away,' Durda told AFP.
'That's who the family requested help for, but of course, we're looking for anybody.'
Justin Morales, 36, was part of a search team that found three bodies, including that of a Camp Mystic girl caught up in a tree.
'We're happy to give a family closure and hopefully we can keep looking and find some of the… you know, whoever,' he told AFP.
'Help give some of those families closure. That's why we're out here.'
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Express Tribune
8 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Death toll hits 96 in Texas flash floods, campers still missing
Boerne Search and Rescue teams navigate upstream in an inflatable boat on the flooded Guadalupe River on July 4, 2025 in Comfort, Texas. Heavy rainfall caused flooding along the Guadalupe River in central Texas with multiple fatalities reported. PHOTO: AFP Search teams plodded through muddy riverbanks and flew aircraft over flood-ravaged central Texas on Monday as hopes dimmed of finding survivors among dozens still missing from a disaster that has claimed at least 96 lives, many of them children. Three days after a torrential predawn downpour transformed the Guadalupe River into a raging, killer torrent, a Christian girls' summer camp devastated by the flash flood confirmed that 27 campers and counselors were among those who had perished. Ten girls and a camp counselor were still unaccounted for, officials said on Monday, as search-and-rescue personnel faced the potential of more heavy rains and thunderstorms while clawing through tons of muck-laden debris. The bulk of the death toll from Friday's calamity was concentrated in and around the riverfront town of Kerrville and the grounds of Camp Mystic, situated in a swath of Texas Hill Country known as "flash flood alley." By Monday afternoon, the bodies of 84 flood victims - 56 adults and 28 children - were recovered in Kerr County, most of them in the county seat of Kerrville, according to the local sheriff. As of midday Sunday, state and local officials said 12 other flood-related fatalities had been confirmed across five neighboring south-central Texas counties, and that 41 other people were still listed as missing outside Kerr County. The New York Times, one of numerous news media outlets publishing varying death tolls, reported that at least 104 people had been killed across the entire flood zone. Debate also intensified over questions about how state and local officials reacted to weather alerts forecasting the possibility of a flash flood and the lack of an early warning siren system that might have mitigated the disaster. On Monday, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick vowed that the state would "step up" to pay for installing a flash-flood warning system in Kerrville by next summer if local governments "can't afford it." "There should have been sirens," Patrick said in a Fox News interview. "Had we had sirens here along this possible that we would have saved some lives." Rough week ahead While authorities continued to hold out hope that some of the missing would turn up alive, the likelihood of finding more survivors diminished as time passed. "This will be a rough week," Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring Jr said at a briefing on Monday morning. Camp Mystic, a nearly century-old Christian girls' retreat on the banks of the Guadalupe was at the epicenter of the disaster. "Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy," the camp said in a statement on Monday. Richard "Dick" Eastland, 70, Mystic's co-owner and director, died trying to save children at his camp from the flood, local news media reported. He and his wife, Tweety Eastland, have owned the camp since 1974, according to its website. "If he wasn't going to die of natural causes, this was the only other way, saving the girls that he so loved and cared for," Eastland's grandson, George Eastland, wrote on Instagram. Mishaps in the sky Authorities lost one of their aviation assets on Monday when a privately operated drone collided in restricted airspace over the Kerr County flood zone with a search helicopter, forcing the chopper to make an emergency landing. No injuries were reported, but the aircraft was put out of commission, according to the Kerr County Sheriff's Office. National Weather Service forecasts on Monday predicted that up to 4 more inches of rain could douse the Texas Hill Country, with isolated areas possibly receiving as much as 10 inches (25 cm). Officials said the region remained especially vulnerable to renewed flooding due to the saturated condition of the soil and mounds of debris already strewn around the river channel. State emergency management officials had warned on Thursday, ahead of the July 4 holiday, that parts of central Texas faced the possibility of flash floods based on National Weather Service forecasts. But twice as much rain as was predicted ended up falling over two branches of the Guadalupe just upstream of the fork where they converge, sending all of that water racing into the single river channel where it slices through Kerrville, City Manager Dalton Rice said. Rice said the outcome was unforeseen and unfolded in a matter of two hours, leaving too little time to conduct a precautionary mass evacuation without the risk of placing more people in harm's way. Authorities in flood-prone areas like the Guadalupe River basin also must balance the odds of misjudging a catastrophe against not wanting to "cry wolf," he said. Still, a team of European scientists said climate change has helped fuel warmer, wetter weather patterns that make extreme rain and flood events more likely. "Events of this kind are no longer exceptional in a warming world," said Davide Faranda, of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). "Climate change loads the dice toward more frequent and more intense floods." The Houston Chronicle and New York Times reported that Kerr County officials had considered installing a flood-warning system about eight years ago but dropped the effort as too costly after failing to secure a $1 million grant to fund the project.
Business Recorder
13 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Hopes fade for Texas flood victims as death toll tops 95
KERRVILLE: Search teams plodded through muddy riverbanks and flew aircraft over a flood-ravaged central Texas landscape on Monday as hopes dimmed for finding more survivors among dozens still missing from a disaster that has claimed at least 96 lives, many of them children. Three days after a torrential predawn downpour transformed the Guadalupe River into a raging, killer torrent, a Christian girls' summer camp devastated by the flash flood confirmed that 27 campers and counselors were among those who had perished. Ten girls and a camp counselor were still unaccounted for, officials said on Monday, as search-and-rescue personnel faced the potential of more heavy rains and thunderstorms while clawing through tons of muck-laden debris. The bulk of the death toll from Friday's flooding was concentrated in and around the riverfront Hill Country town of Kerrville, including the ill-fated grounds of Camp Mystic. By Monday afternoon, the bodies of 84 flood victims - 56 adults and 28 children - were recovered in Kerr County, most of them in the county seat of Kerrville, according to the local sheriff. As of midday Sunday, state and local officials said 12 other flood-related fatalities had been confirmed across five neighboring south-central Texas counties, and that 41 other people were still listed as missing outside Kerr County. Texas flood witness recalls furniture, trees and RVs swept down river The New York Times, one of numerous news media outlets publishing varying death tolls on Monday, reported that at least 104 people had been killed across the entire flood zone. 'Rough week ahead' While authorities continued to hold out hope that some of the missing would turn up alive, the likelihood of finding more survivors diminished as time passed. 'This will be a rough week,' Mayor Joe Herring Jr said at a briefing on Monday morning. Camp Mystic, a nearly century-old Christian girls' retreat on the banks of the Guadalupe was at the epicenter of the disaster. 'Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy,' the camp said in a statement on Monday. Richard 'Dick' Eastland, 70, Mystic's co-owner and director, died trying to save children at his camp from the flood, multiple media, including the Austin American-Statesman reported. He and his wife, Tweety Eastland, have owned the camp since 1974, according to its website. 'If he wasn't going to die of natural causes, this was the only other way, saving the girls that he so loved and cared for,' Eastland's grandson, George Eastland, wrote on Instagram. Mishap in the sky Authorities lost one of their aviation assets on Monday when a privately operated drone collided in restricted airspace over the Kerr County flood zone with a search helicopter, forcing the chopper to make an emergency landing. No injuries were reported, but the aircraft was put out of commission, according to the Kerr County Sheriff's Office. National Weather Service forecasts on Monday predicted that up to 4 more inches of rain could douse Texas Hill Country, with isolated areas possibly receiving as much as 10 inches (25 cm). Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the NWS Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, said the potential for renewed flooding was particularly heightened by the saturated condition of the soil and mounds of debris already strewn around the river channel. A flood watch was posted until 7 p.m. State emergency management officials had warned on Thursday, ahead of the July Fourth holiday, that parts of central Texas faced the possibility of flash floods based on National Weather Service forecasts. But twice as much rain as was predicted ended up falling over two branches of the Guadalupe just upstream of the fork where they converge, sending all of that water racing into the single river channel where it slices through Kerrville, City Manager Dalton Rice said. Rice said the outcome, the result of an unpredictable combination of circumstances, was unforeseen and unfolded in a matter of two hours. Death toll from Texas floods reaches 67, including 21 children 'Why didn't we evacuate? Well, evacuation is a delicate balance,' he said in response to reporters' questions on Monday. 'If you evacuate too late, you then risk putting buses, or cars, or vehicles or campers on roads into low-water areas, trying to get them out, which then can make it even more challenging.' 'It's very tough to make those calls, because what we also don't want to do is cry wolf.' The chief meteorologist for commercial forecaster AccuWeather, Jonathan Porter, said authorities had ample time to move people to higher ground before the flood struck. Rice and other public officials, including Governor Greg Abbott, said the circumstances of the flooding, and the adequacy of weather forecasts and warning systems, would be scrutinized once the immediate situation was brought under control. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday asked a government watchdog to investigate whether budget cuts imposed by the Trump administration contributed to any delays or inaccuracy in forecasting the floods. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said there would be time to examine whether more could have been done to prevent the loss of life but that now was not the time for 'partisan finger-pointing.'
Business Recorder
a day ago
- Business Recorder
Desperate search for the missing as more than 80 people dead in Texas floods
HUNT: Rescuers in Texas raced against time to find dozens of missing people, including children, swept away by flash floods that killed more than 80 people, with forecasters warning of new deluges. US President Donald Trump said he would 'probably' visit the southern state on Friday. Trump brushed off concerns his administration's wide-ranging cuts to weather forecasting and related federal agencies had left local warning systems worse off. Instead, he described the flash floods as a '100-year catastrophe' that 'nobody expected.' At least 40 adults and 28 children were killed in the worst-hit Kerr County in central Texas, Sheriff Larry Leitha said Sunday, while nearby areas showed at least 13 more people were killed by flooding. 'Across the state, in all the areas affected by flooding, there are 41 known missing,' Texas Governor Greg Abbott said Sunday. As questions grew about why warnings did not come sooner or people were not evacuated earlier in the area popular with campers, Trump said the situation was a 'Biden setup.' Death toll from Texas floods reaches 59, including 21 children 'That was not our setup,' Trump told reporters on Sunday, adding that he would 'not' hire back meteorologists when probed about staff and budget cuts at the National Weather Service (NWS). Asked about whether he would change his plans to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency, he responded: 'FEMA is something we can talk about later.' Trump, who previously said disaster relief should be handled at the state-level, also signed a major disaster declaration, activating FEMA and freeing up resources for Texas. Missing girls Around 17 helicopters joined the search in central Texas for missing people, including 10 girls and a counselor from a riverside Christian summer camp where about 750 people had been staying when disaster struck. In a terrifying display of nature's power, the rain-swollen waters of the Guadalupe River reached treetops and the roofs of cabins in Camp Mystic as girls slept overnight Friday, washing away some of them and leaving a scene of devastation. Blankets, teddy bears and other belongings at the camp were caked in mud. Windows in the cabins were shattered, apparently by the force of the water. The National Weather Service (NWS) warned Sunday that slow-moving thunderstorms threatened more flash floods over the saturated ground of central Texas. Governor Abbott warned that heavy rainfall could 'lead to potential flash flooding' in Kerrville and surrounding areas, as officials cautioned people against going near the swollen river and its creeks. The flooding began at the start of the Fourth of July holiday weekend as months' worth of rain fell in a matter of hours, much of it coming overnight as people slept. The Guadalupe surged around 26 feet (eight meters) – more than a two-story building – in just 45 minutes. 'Washed away' Flash floods, which occur when the ground is unable to absorb torrential rainfall, are not unusual in this region of south and central Texas, known colloquially as 'Flash Flood Alley.' Human-driven climate change has made extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and heat waves more frequent and more intense in recent years. Officials said while rescue operations were ongoing, they were also starting the process of debris removal. 'There's debris all over the place that makes roads impassable, that makes reconstruction projects unachievable,' Abbott said. People from elsewhere in the state converged on Kerr County to help look for the missing. Texans also started flying personal drones to help look but local officials urged them to stop, citing a danger for rescue aircraft. One of the searches focused on four young women who were staying in a house that was washed away by the river. Adam Durda and his wife Amber, both 45, drove three hours to help. 'There was a group of 20-year-olds that were in a house that had gotten washed away,' Durda told AFP. 'That's who the family requested help for, but of course, we're looking for anybody.' Justin Morales, 36, was part of a search team that found three bodies, including that of a Camp Mystic girl caught up in a tree. 'We're happy to give a family closure and hopefully we can keep looking and find some of the… you know, whoever,' he told AFP. 'Help give some of those families closure. That's why we're out here.'
