Children's camps were located in areas known to be at high risk of flooding
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The waterways in Texas Hill Country have carved paths over the centuries through the granite and limestone, shaping the rocky peaks and valleys that make the region so breathtaking.
When too much rain falls for the ground to absorb, it runs downhill, pulled by gravity into streams, creeks and rivers. The rain fills the waterways beyond their banks, and the excess overflows in predictable patterns that follow the terrain.
Governments and waterway managers know what will flood first and who will be threatened when a truly historic rain event takes place.
Several of the camps along the Guadalupe River and its tributaries sustained damage early July 4. Many of them are in areas known to flood.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency maintains a database of flood zones throughout the country. It maps the regulatory floodways — the places that will flood first and are most dangerous — and the areas that will flood in extreme events.
The Guadalupe River flood was a 1-in-100-year event, meaning it has about a 1% chance of happening in any given year. Extreme flooding is happening more frequently as the world warms and the atmosphere is able to hold more moisture.
Texas has already seen multiple dangerous flooding events this year, and the United States overall saw a record number of flash flood emergencies last year.
More than an entire summer's worth of rain fell in some spots in central Texas in just a few hours early on the Fourth of July, quickly overwhelming dry soils and creating significant flash flooding. Central Texas is currently home to some of the worst drought in the United States and bone-dry soils flood very quickly.
Camp Mystic is a nondenominational Christian summer camp for girls in western Kerr County. The camp is located at a dangerous confluence of the South Fork Guadalupe River and Cypress Creek, where flood waters converged.
Camp Mystic has two sites, both of which overlap with either the floodway or areas the federal government has determined have a 1% or 0.2% annual chance of flooding.
Officials have not shared how many of the Camp Mystic girls perished in the floods. At least 10 girls and one counselor remain missing as of Sunday evening.
Ten minutes north on the South Fork is Camp La Junta, a boys camp. Some of Camp La Junta's property also coincides with areas known to flood, though several of its buildings are located in the lower-risk zone, or outside the flood zones entirely.
Wyndham Etheridge, a 14-year-old at Camp La Junta in Hunt, Texas, told CNN's Fredricka Whitfield he woke up to people from all over the camp coming to 'seek refuge' at his cabin. They stayed there, fearing the strong floodwaters could sweep them away.
As the water rose, they climbed into the loft of their cabin to escape, but it wasn't safe, Etheridge said. 'So at some point we just decided … we could go to bed for a little bit, but then we woke up again to more water,' he said.
Etheridge's parents were among the lucky who received word that their child was safe and could be picked up. 'All those boys were pretty traumatized,' said Amy Etheridge, Wyndham's mother.
Everyone at Camp La Junta has been safe and accounted for, the camp announced Friday.
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Fox News
9 minutes ago
- Fox News
Texas summer camp evacuated 70 staying near river ahead of flooding: 'Saw it coming'
A Texas summer camp near the Guadalupe River evacuated about 70 children and adults after camp officials noticed rising waters and a deluge of rain early on the Fourth of July. The 500-acre Presbyterian Mo-Ranch Assembly, a recreation destination which had been hosting a summer camp, as well as a youth conference with churches across the U.S., is located at the headwaters of the river and had been monitoring the situation for about 24 hours, Mo-Ranch communications director Lisa Winters told KENS5. It was about 1 a.m. Friday when a facilities manager, Aroldo Barrera, notified his boss, who had been monitoring reports of the storms approaching, the Associated Press reported. Despite the absence of warning by local authorities, camp officials at Mo-Ranch acted quickly on their own, relocating about 70 children and adults staying overnight in a building near the river. With the kids safe, camp leaders including President and CEO Tim Huchton avoided the catastrophe that hit at least one other camp near Hunt, Texas. "They helped them pack up," Winters told the AP on Sunday. "They got them up, they got them out, put them up on higher ground." Other places fared much worse. Flash floods roared through Texas Hill Country before dawn on Friday, decimating landscape near the river and leaving more than 80 dead and dozens unaccounted for. As of Sunday, officials said 10 girls from nearby Camp Mystic remained missing. Rescue and recovery teams combed the area for them and others still unaccounted for days afterward. "We have the great blessing and advantage of being elevated enough to get people to a higher ground," Winters told KENS5 on Saturday. "We were making our plans and changing our plans and moving people up to higher ground well in advance last night." She said Mo-Ranch had been hosting several hundred campers, several hundred people from the conference, as well as regular guests there for the holiday weekend, all of whom were accounted for. She explained that the camp was without power. "Mo-Ranch is a Christian-based camp, and we prepare kids to be strong and to be resilient, and to have faith that they can get forward," Winters told KENS. "The ironic part of this, the big youth celebration that I attended last night – we just changed plans because we knew something was coming – the whole theme was stress and anxiety for kids and how to fight it and how to be powerful. They just put this into place, and they pulled together." "I can't say there wasn't anxiety. I wasn't right there when it happened. But everybody was prepared. Everybody was strong. Everybody safely made it through," Winters said. The decision to leave added to the mounting accounts of how camps and residents in the area say they were left to make their own decisions in the absence of warnings or notifications from the county. Local authorities have faced heavy scrutiny and at times have deflected questions about how much warning they had or were able to provide the public, saying the reviews will come later, according to the AP. For now, they say they are focusing on rescues. Officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months' worth of rain for the area. Winters told the AP that Mo-Ranch received no direct information from county officials about flooding that could – and did – take lives. "We had no warning this was coming," Winters said, adding that it would have been "devastating" had camp officials not been looking at weather reports and the rising river waters. Mo-Ranch "saw it coming well in advance, and they did something about it," she said. Winters told KENS that there are hundreds of camps located along the Guadalupe River, and Mo-Ranch sits on the top of the cliffs in Hunt. By about 7 a.m. on Friday, camp staff began contacting children's parents, telling them their kids were safe. "They knew that those parents would wake up and just see all this media footage of kids lost, or the river," Winters told the AP. "They're like, 'Tell your parents you're OK' … We made sure every single guest, every single kid, was accounted for." The camp, which sits on higher ground than some in the area, suffered some damage, but not as significant as others, Winters said. "The buildings don't matter," she said. "I can't imagine losing children, or people." She said a sturdy aluminum kayak was wrapped around a tree "like a pretzel." "That just shows you the sheer power of the water. I don't know how any people could survive. We're blessed," she said. The camp remained closed on Sunday and Mo-Ranch was working on ways to help other camps affected by the flood. "We're in a difficult place because others are really suffering," Winters, who became emotional during an interview, told the AP. "We're a sisterhood of camps. We take care of each other."
E&E News
9 minutes ago
- E&E News
Texas flood forecasts were accurate. It wasn't enough to save lives.
The catastrophic floods that struck central Texas on Friday show that accurate weather forecasts alone aren't enough to save lives. The National Weather Service issued timely warnings in advance of the deadly floods, meteorologists say. But they emphasized that forecasts are only one piece of an effective response — local authorities must be able to interpret weather warnings, communicate them to the public and help communities get to safety in time. Now more than 80 people are dead, with dozens more missing across the region as of Monday morning, including at least 10 campers and a counselor from Camp Mystic summer camp on the banks of the flooded Guadalupe River. Advertisement Experts are still piecing together the reasons why. 'I think this situation needs to be reviewed, both from a forecast and warning perspective and from a decision support perspective,' said Louis Uccellini, former director of the National Weather Service. 'That involves a lot of work.' Authorities have resorted to finger-pointing in the wake of the floods. Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, the county's top elected official, said at a press conference on Friday that 'we didn't know this kind of flood was coming.' Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd suggested at a separate press conference that NWS forecasts fell short in advance of the floods. Experts say that isn't true. Meteorologists can see extreme thunderstorms coming days ahead, but it's notoriously hard to pinpoint the exact amount of rain they'll produce, or how long they will linger in place, so far in advance. Meteorologists have to update their forecasts as better information becomes available. In the case of last week's floods, NWS began to escalate its warnings as much as 12 hours in advance, issuing flood watches beginning Thursday afternoon and upgrading to a flash flood warning by 1a.m. local time Friday, with more urgent warnings following into the early morning. 'There have been claims that NOAA/NWS did not foresee catastrophic TX floods — but that's simply not true,' said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA in a lengthy Bluesky thread defending the NWS weather forecasts. Still, Swain added that 'even quite good weather forecasts do not automatically translate into life-saving predictions — there's a lot of other work that has to take place to contextualize the forecast and ensure it gets to [the] right people.' Forecasts aren't enough Vacancies in top roles at some local NWS offices serving affected communities in Texas are cause for concern, some experts say. The NWS office in San Angelo, which serves some of the hardest-hit communities, has no permanent meteorologist in charge, according to a list of vacancies published by the agency in June. And the Austin/San Antonio office, also serving flooded communities, is missing its warning coordination meteorologist and a science and operations officer, according to the same list. These roles often serve as liaisons between NWS meteorologists and local authorities or emergency managers. Warning coordination meteorologists, in particular, help translate forecasts into usable action plans that can aid the local authorities who make decisions and evacuate communities as severe weather systems approach. It's unclear whether those vacancies have affected coordination with local authorities. Top meteorologists at NWS San Angelo and NWS Austin/San Antonio did not immediately respond to questions about whether the openings posed any challenges during the floods. But Tom Fahy, legislative director at the union that represents NWS employees, said in an interview that vacancies at the Texas offices did not cause any problems during the floods. The offices called 'all hands on deck' to ensure that they were fully staffed during the emergency, he said, adding that 'they knew this was a critical life and death situation — bodies and lives were on the line in this one.' NOAA spokesperson Erica Grow Cei provided a timeline of NWS warnings between Thursday and Friday, confirming that the first flood watch went out at 1:18 p.m. local time Thursday and the first flash flood warning was issued at 11:41 p.m. for Bandera County. Another flash flood warning — tagged 'considerable' to indicate a threat of major damage — was issued at 1:14 a.m. for Bandera and Kerr counties, triggering wireless emergency alerts on enabled devices and warnings on NOAA Weather Radio. 'National Weather Service is heartbroken by the tragic loss of life in Kerr County,' Cei said in an emailed statement, adding that the agency 'remains committed to our mission to serve the American public through our forecasts and decision support services.' Still, cellphone and radio alerts aren't always enough to prevent loss of life during disasters. They can't help people who disable their alerts, don't have cellphone service or don't have radios. Late-night and early-morning warnings can be an even greater challenge to distribute, when much of the public is asleep. Friday's floods occurred in the early hours of the morning, with the most urgent warnings issued after 1 a.m. 'The crux of this disaster is a failure of the last mile of communication,' Fahy said. 'The forecasts went out, they communicated the forecasts, they disseminated the watches and warnings. And the dilemma we have is there was nobody listening at 4 o'clock in the morning for these watches and warnings.' Most people who died in Friday's floods were located in Kerr County, which does not have a warning system, according to Kelly, the Kerry County judge, at a Friday news conference. Other cities in central Texas, like San Marcos, deploy outdoor weather sirens to warn of extreme weather events like floods and tornadoes, as local news reports have pointed out. In an interview with The New York Times, Kelly suggested that warning systems are expensive and 'taxpayers won't pay for it.' Questions also remain about disaster protocols at Camp Mystic, where at least 11 people remained missing as of Sunday afternoon. A policy on the camp's website suggests that campers are not permitted to have cellphones, smart watches, iPads or other devices with touchscreens. It's unclear whether counselors had access to devices equipped with emergency alerts or whether the camp had access to a NOAA weather radio. When asked Friday why nearby summer camps weren't evacuated in a timely manner, Kelly told reporters, 'I can't answer that.' Shrinking government Friday's floods have reignited concerns among scientists and disaster specialists about the impacts of the Trump administration's cuts to federal agencies tasked with responding to extreme weather events. Hurricane season began last month amid widespread chaos at NOAA and FEMA. Experts have warned that smaller disasters, like extreme thunderstorms and floods, are also likely to strain the federal government's disaster response systems this summer. That comes as extreme rainfall events and floods grow more intense as the climate warms. Record-breaking rainfall, like the kind that caused the Texas floods, is exactly the kind of event 'which is increasing the fastest in [a] warming climate,' said Swain in his Bluesky thread. 'So it's not a question of whether climate change played a role — it's only a question of how much.' Staffing shortages at the National Weather Service are an ongoing concern at offices across the country. The Trump administration also recently cut funding meant to help NWS warning coordination meteorologists travel for meetings and tabletop exercises with local authorities, Fahy said. These meetings, he said, help NWS staff members and emergency managers plan together for extreme events. 'We can't predict where the next severe storm or high-impact weather event will take place,' Fahy said. 'Therefore, we have to ask that the administration reconsider their decision to suspend the funding for the warning coordination meteorologists.' Meanwhile, uncertainties are still swirling around the future of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. President Donald Trump has on multiple occasions vowed to overhaul the agency in ways that may make states responsible for more of the costs associated with extreme weather events. Trump has also declined to respond to 12 requests for federal disaster aid that governors have submitted since mid-May, federal records show. Trump, however, approved disaster aid Sunday for Kerr County, which will aid in recovery efforts and help county residents pay for emergency lodging, home repairs and supplies. It was the president's first disaster declaration since June 19, when he approved aid for parts of Tennessee that were damaged by tornadoes in April. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said his administration will seek to work with FEMA to assess the overall damage and determine whether additional counties should be eligible for FEMA aid. When asked by reporters Sunday whether he is still planning to phase out FEMA, Trump deflected. 'Well, FEMA is something we can talk about later, but right now, they're busy working,' he said. 'So we'll leave it at that.' Reporter Thomas Frank contributed.
Fast Company
16 minutes ago
- Fast Company
How to help Texas flood victims as death toll reaches more than 80, including dozens of children
In the early-morning hours of July 4, while most people were still in their beds ahead of the Independence Day celebrations, residents of Kerr County, Texas, began fleeing for their lives. The county is located approximately 60 miles northwest of San Antonio and 90 miles west of Austin. At around 4 a.m. local time, the National Weather Service (NWS) issued an urgent warning of a flood watch that posed a severe threat to human life. Less than 90 minutes later, the Associated Press reports, parts of Kerrville City were seeing alarmingly high water levels. Soon the onslaught of rain sent waters rushing into the Guadalupe River, which flows through Kerr County and others, causing it to rise by 26 feet in under an hour, damaging homes and vehicles and leading to a staggering loss of life. Texas flooding death toll climbs The Kerr County, Texas, floods are among the worst that this area has experienced in nearly a century. And Kerr isn't the only county affected. As of the time of this writing, at least 82 people from six counties, including Kerr, Travis, Kendall, Burnet, Williamson, and Tom Green, are confirmed to have died in the flooding, with many still missing. CNN reports that at least 28 children are among those who have died, including some who were attending the Camp Mystic summer camp near the Guadalupe River. Search and recovery efforts are still underway. How to help the Texas flood victims It will likely be days before the final death toll is known and many months or longer until the affected areas are cleaned and rebuilt. Until then, there are several ways to help the victims of the Texas flooding, including: The Kerr County Flood Relief Fund: This fund was set up by the Texas Hill Country Community Foundation to help the victims of the July 4 floods. Monies donated to the fund will be distributed to organizations that provide flood assistance, rescue efforts, and relief efforts. The communities supported through this fund include Hunt, Ingram, Kerrville, Center Point, and Comfort. You can make a donation here. The American Red Cross of Central & South Texas: The American Red Cross is accepting donations. The Central & South Texas branch focuses on relief efforts in the area, including providing food as well as financial and travel assistance for those affected. You can donate to the American Red Cross here. The Salvation Army: The Salvation Army is providing myriad types of relief efforts in the areas affected by the flooding, including emergency aid, food and drinks, and other critical supplies. You can donate to The Salvation Army here. GoFundMe verified fundraisers: GoFundMe has set up a landing page featuring fundraisers that have been verified by the platform's Trust & Safety experts. A list of verified fundraisers for the July Texas floods can be found here.
