Death toll rises after devastating flooding in central Texas
Dozens of people have been killed since raging floodwaters slammed into central Texas on Friday.
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The death toll rose to nearly 70 on Sunday after searchers found more more bodies in the hardest-hit Kerr County. The victims include children who were camping along the banks of the Guadalupe River.
Officials have said they will not stop searching until every person is found.
Besides the 59 dead in Kerr County — 38 adults and 21 children — additional deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet and Kendall counties.
Rescuers dealt with broken trees, overturned cars and muck-filled debris in a difficult task to find survivors.
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Authorities still have not said how many people are missing beyond the children from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp where most of the dead were recovered.
With each passing hour, the outlook became more bleak. Volunteers and some families of the missing who drove to the disaster zone began searching the riverbanks despite being asked not to do so.
Authorities faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in an area vulnerable to flooding and whether enough preparations were made.
The destructive, fast-moving waters rose 26ft on the river in only 45 minutes before daybreak on Friday, washing away homes and vehicles. The danger was not over as flash flood watches remained in effect and more rain fell in central Texas on Sunday.
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Debris on a bridge over the Guadalupe River after the flooding (Julio Cortez/AP)
Searchers used helicopters, boats and drones to look for victims and to rescue people stranded in trees and from camps isolated by washed-out roads. Officials said more than 850 people were rescued in the first 36 hours.
Governor Greg Abbott vowed that authorities will work around the clock and said new areas were being searched as the water receded. He declared Sunday a day of prayer for the state.
'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 in a statement.
In Rome, Pope Leo XIV offered special prayers for those touched by the disaster. History's first American pope spoke in English at the end of his Sunday noon blessing, saying 'I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were in summer camp, in the disaster caused by the flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas in the United States. We pray for them.'
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The hills along the Guadalupe River are dotted with youth camps and campgrounds where generations of families have come to swim and enjoy the outdoors. The area is especially popular around the Independence Day holiday, making it more difficult to know how many are missing.
'We don't even want to begin to estimate at this time,' Kerrville City manager Dalton Rice said on Saturday.
Fast-moving waters rose 26 feet in 45 minutes, washing away homes and vehicles (Eric Gay/AP)
Survivors shared terrifying stories of being swept away and clinging to trees as rampaging floodwaters carried trees and cars past them. Others fled to attics inside their homes, praying the water would not reach them.
At Camp Mystic, a cabin full of girls held onto a rope strung by rescuers as they walked across a bridge with water whipping around their legs.
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Among those confirmed dead were an eight-year-old girl from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who was at Camp Mystic, and the director of another camp up the road.
Locals know the area as ' flash flood alley' but the flooding in the middle of the night caught many campers and residents by surprise even though there were warnings.
The National Weather Service on Thursday advised of potential flooding and then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies — a rare alert notifying of imminent danger.
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BBC News
36 minutes ago
- BBC News
Texas summer camp confirms 27 girls and staff among dead in flash floods as more rain expected
Update: Date: 13:40 BST Title: Rescuer: Victims found up to eight miles down river from Camp Mystic Content: Rescue volunteer Greg Froelick is heading up rescue efforts to locate survivors near Camp Mystic - and tells the BBC he's heard of people being found up to "eight miles (12.8km) down the river from where the camp was". Describing the damage down there, he says "it's pretty crazy" - with "giant trees wrapped around another tree, debris piles 20ft-plus high... it's a complete disaster to be honest". In an interview with BBC News on Sunday evening, he says he has seen "clothing and items from the camp dressers scattered everywhere, up and down the river". Rescuers have been searching with dogs, clearing brush and are are now planning to use boats, he explains. "It rained on us most of the day today," he says, and adds they had to seek higher ground when a "15ft wall of water" began surging through the area. Update: Date: 13:28 BST Title: What we know about Camp Mystic Content: A major focus of the search has been Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp for girls perched on the banks of the Guadalupe River which suffered significant damage. A number of the children were killed and several are thought following the flash floods. The camp in Kerr County said it was "grieving the loss of 27" campers and counsellors in a statement posted today. Its longtime director Richard "Dick" Eastland has been reported as among the dead. What do we know about the camp? Update: Date: 13:13 BST Title: In pictures: Devastation in Texas as desperate search continues Content: Rescuers are racing against the clock in a desperate search for missing people, following devastating flooding in Texas on Friday. Photos from the southern US state show the scale of devastation across a vast area. Louis Hays Park in the town of Kerrville now looks like a war zone, with flood debris scattered everywhere Camp Mystic - a popular girls' summer camp - was the worst-hit, when floodwaters swept through riverside cabins as most of the young residents were sleeping Rescuers with sniffer dogs have been deployed to the camp to comb through the site by Guadalupe River There are fears that a number of people may still be trapped Update: Date: 12:59 BST Title: What are the latest casualty figures? Content: More than 80 people – including children - are known to have died and another 41 are missing in Texas following flash floods. The worst hit is Kerr County, with 68 fatalities confirmed, including 28 children. There are also six confirmed casualties in Travis County, three in Burnet County, one in Williamson County, two in Kendall County and one in Tom Green County, according to CBS. Figures are changing quickly as rescuers continue to search for the missing, and officials say the death toll is certain to rise. Update: Date: 12:50 BST Title: Summer camp 'grieving the loss of 27' campers and counsellors Content: A summer camp has said it is "grieving the loss of 27" campers and counsellors following flash floods in Texas on Friday. Camp Mystic, a riverside Christian girls' camp in Kerr County, was deluged claiming the lives of a number of children and leaving others missing. 'Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy,' the camp said in a statement on Monday. It added it is continuing to work with local and state authorities "who are tirelessly deploying extensive resources to search for our missing girls". Update: Date: 12:43 BST Title: More rain forecast to hit Texas as search for survivors enters fourth day Content: Search efforts are continuing in Texas as warnings are issued for further heavy rain over the next two days. More than 80 people have been confirmed dead across several counties, including 28 children, after flash floods on Friday. Officials say the death toll is certain to rise. The catastrophe unfolded in the early hours of Friday as the Guadalupe River rose 26ft (8m) in 45 minutes. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Sunday authorities would "stop at nothing" to ensure every missing person is found. We'll be providing updates throughout the day.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
‘No warning at all': Texas flood survivors question safety planning and officials' response
As Texas marshals a formidable response to the flash floods that have already killed dozens, questions are now being posed about warnings that were given on Thursday and early Friday about the severity of the approaching storm and the coordination between local officials and the National Weather Service. New flood alerts were issued for Texas 'hill country' on Sunday, prompting rescue services to suspend the search for missing people, including at least 11 from Camp Mystic, the summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River hard hit by Friday's flash flood. At an early evening press briefing, Kerr county authorities said they were suspending the search and evacuating first responders from the river valley. They confirmed that 68 had died there, including 28 children. Not all have been identified, with officials still examining the bodies of 18 adults and 10 children. Extraordinary tales of resilience have also emerged alongside videos of the destruction and loss that are circulating on social media. On Sunday, a video was posted on X of girls from Camp Mystic being evacuated from the camp and singing the hymns Pass It On and Amazing Grace as they crossed a bridge over the still torrential Guadalupe River. The new round of rainfall in the area prompted an alert of a 'dangerous and life-threatening situation', it said, adding: 'Do not attempt to travel unless unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order.' The co-ordination between Kerr county officials and the National Weather Service has become a flashpoint of its own. Dalton Rice, the city manager of Kerrville, one of the hardest-hit areas, told reporters on Sunday afternoon: 'We don't want to speculate at this time. There will be a formal review that will focus on future preparedness.' When asked why Kerr county had not moved to evacuate the area before the storm hit, Rice said that authorities were preparing for the storm, 'but unfortunately the rain hit at an inopportune time and right at the most inopportune areas where the north and south forks of the river converge.' 'We want to focus on continuing rescue operations,' he added. Kerr county does not have outdoor weather sirens that are common in tornado zones and were once common across the US as relic of cold war nuclear attack alert systems. Since the flood, local resident Nicole Wilson started an online petition 'urgently' calling for Kerrville and Kerr county to implement an outdoor system. 'A well-placed siren system will provide critical extra minutes for families, schools, camps, businesses and visitors to seek shelter and evacuate when needed,' she told KXAN. 'This is not just a wish – it is a necessary investment in public safety.' But questions are also being asked about whether Kerr county commissioners' court and flood plains administrator had approved development along the river bank that may have skirted rules issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) that control where homes may be built in areas vulnerable to flooding. At a Red Cross center in Kerrville on Sunday, flood survivor Kathy Perkins said shehad been alerted to the storm by thunder and lightning. Emergency workers had come to her town, Ingram, and turned on their sirens. 'They were supposed to wake everyone up but I just left. It was just two guys in a white truck and they said to me: 'You gotta get out, you don't have much time.' It must have already hit in Hunt.' Perkins was luckier than some. Her trailer home was damaged by water, but some of her neighbors' homes got swept away or moved around by the water. 'Many people are angry right now, but you wait 'til the parents get here,' she said, referring to the parents of the children lost at Camp Mystic. 'Those parents are from everywhere.' The authorities, she added, 'won't just be able to go hush-hush. Those kids should have been safe and they weren't.' Perkins said everyone in the area noticed that Judge Rob Kelly, Kerr county's most senior elected official, seemed to shirk responsibility when he said on Friday: 'We didn't know this flood was coming. Rest assured, no one knew this kind of flood was coming. We have floods all the time. This is the most dangerous river valley in the United States.' 'He said: 'We didn't know nothing.' Everybody caught that,' Perkins said. Lesa Baird, a resident of Hunt who was also staying at the Red Cross shelter, said she heard 'no warning at all, none whatsoever' when the floods came. 'I heard something going on. I put my feet on the floor and felt the water. I picked up a bunch a kittens in a box and woke my friend up. He had to break a window to get out of the house.' But as they got out of the home, Baird, 65, followed a cable strung from the house and reached a tree. 'We got up in the tree and he pulled me up as best he could. Thank God he did because I could dangle my foot down and feel the water. We stayed up there for what seemed like hours.' When the waters began to recede, they climbed down and walked to the local Baptist church. Now recovering from her ordeal, Baird said she had never seen the Guadalupe River flood as badly as it had. Like many others, Baird faces the kind of limbo that affects natural disaster survivors: she wants to go home. 'There's no home to go to. It's done,' she said, declining to be photographed except for the bruises on her arms incurred during her ordeal. 'I may be able to salvage a bunch of things here and there, but this is my stuff,' she said, pointing to some bags of donated clothes. The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know. If you have something to share on this subject you can contact us confidentially using the following methods. Secure Messaging in the Guardian app The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said. If you don't already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS/Android) and go to the menu. Select 'Secure Messaging'. SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and post See our guide at for alternative methods and the pros and cons of each.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Texas floods victims aged 11 and 13 sent family heartbreaking three word text before dying with 'hands locked together': Live updates
Two young sisters killed in the catastrophic Texas floods sent their parents a heartbreaking 'I love you' text before they drowned. Blair, 13, and Brooke Harber, 11, were found dead with their 'hands locked together' after the Guadalupe River rose to record heights over the weekend, completely flooding the camping area where they were staying with their family. At least 82 people were killed in the devastation along the Guadalupe River, outside of San Antonio, and 41 remain missing. Ten girls and a counselor are still unaccounted for at Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp along the river. Survivors have described the floods as a 'pitch black wall of death' and said they received no emergency warnings. Officials have come under scrutiny as to why residents and youth summer camps along the river were not alerted sooner about the severe weather or told to evacuate. The National Weather Service has extended a flash flood watch for the Texas Hill Country, where an additional one to three inches of rain is expected to fall today, until 7pm local time (6pm EST). The Texas Hill Country in the central part of the state is naturally prone to flash flooding. Friday's flash floods started with a particularly bad storm that dropped most of its 12 inches of rain in the dark, early morning hours. 12:04 Sisters aged 11 and 13 send heartbreaking three word text to loved ones as they drowned in flood Two young sisters killed in the deadly Hill Country floods sent their parents a heartbreaking final text before they drowned to death. Blair, 13, and Brooke Harber, 11, were staying in a rented cabin along the Guadalupe River with their grandparents Mike and Charlene Harber over the July 4th holiday. Their father RJ and mother Annie were staying in a separate cabin, located in the Casa Bonita cabin community near Hunt, nearby, The Wall Street Journal reports. The married couple were woken up by the sound of rushing water early Friday morning as their cabin began to flood. RJ and Annie managed to escape the building by jumping out of a window as the water reached neck-level. RJ started to kayak towards the cabin where his daughters and parents were staying, but swell knocked him into a post about halfway through his journey. He shined a flashlight towards the cabin and saw an entire building had detached from the foundation and struck against the cabin where his family was. 'I shined a flashlight out there, and I could see it was white water, and I've kayaked enough to know that that was gonna be impossible,' he told WSJ. 'There were cars floating at me and trees floating at me. I knew if I took even one stroke further, it was gonna be a death sentence.' He kayaked back towards Annie and the pair headed to higher ground with other families who managed to flee the floods. When they arrived at a safe spot, the couple checked their phones and saw they each received a text from their daughters that read 'I love you', timestamped at 3.30am. The girls also sent a similar message to their grandfather in Michigan. Their bodies were found the next day, about dozen miles from the cabin with their 'hands locked together'. Mike and Charlene remain missing. Catastrophic Texas floods kill 82 people, including 28 children Flash flooding in central Texas has killed at least 82 people, including 28 children, officials have confirmed. At least 41 people are confirmed to be unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing, Gov. Greg Abbott said Sunday. In hardest-hit Kerr County, home to youth camps in the Texas Hill Country, searchers have found the bodies of 68 people, including 28 children, Sheriff Larry Leitha said. Fatalities in nearby counties brought the total number of deaths to 82 as of Monday morning. Ten girls and a counselor were still unaccounted for at Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp along the river. Beyond the Camp Mystic campers unaccounted for, the number of missing from other nearby campgrounds and across the region had not been released. Pictured: A view inside of a cabin at Camp Mystic, the site of where at least 10 girls went missing after flash flooding in Hunt, Texas, on July 5, 2025 Pictured: Search and recovery workers dig through debris looking for any survivors or remains of people swept up in the flash flooding at Camp Mystic on July 6, 2025 in Hunt, Texas 11:29 What caused the Guadalupe River floods? Friday's flash floods started with a particularly bad storm that dropped most of its 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain in the dark early morning hours. After a flood watch notice midday Thursday, the National Weather Service office issued an urgent warning around 4am that raised the potential of catastrophic damage and a severe threat to human life. By at least 5.20am, some residents in the Kerrville city area say water levels were getting alarmingly high. The massive rain flowing down hills sent rushing water into the Guadalupe River, causing it to rise 26 feet in just 45 minutes. The Texas Hill Country in the central part of the state is naturally prone to flash flooding due to the dry dirt-packed areas where the soil lets rain skid along the surface of the landscape instead of soaking it up. Pictured: Construction equipment is seen caught in the Guadalupe River in the aftermath of deadly flooding in Kerrville, Texas on July 6, 2025 Pictured: The sun sets over the Guadalupe River on July 6, 2025 in Kerrville, Texas. Heavy rainfall caused severe flooding along the Guadalupe River in central Texas, leaving more than 80 people reported dead
