Death toll from catastrophic flooding in Texas surpasses 100
That will include a review of how weather warnings were sent out and received. One of the challenges is that many camps and cabins are in places with poor cellphone service, said Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice.
'We definitely want to dive in and look at all those things,' he said. 'We're looking forward to doing that once we can get the search and rescue complete.'
Some camps, though, were aware of the dangers and monitoring the weather. At least one moved several hundred campers to higher ground before the floods.
Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said recent government spending cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service did not delay any warnings.
'There's a time to have political fights, there's a time to disagree. This is not that time,' Cruz said. 'There will be a time to find out what could been done differently. My hope is in time we learn some lessons to implement the next time there is a flood.'
The weather service first advised of potential flooding on Thursday and then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies — a rare step that alerts the public to imminent danger.
Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months of rain. Some residents said they never received any warnings.
President Donald Trump, who signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County and plans to visit the area, said Sunday that he does not plan to rehire any of the federal meteorologists who were fired this year.
'This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it,' the president said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
3 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Death toll from catastrophic flooding in Texas over July Fourth weekend surpasses 100
The officials spoke only hours after the operators of Camp Mystic, a century-old all-girls Christian summer camp in the Texas Hill Country, announced that they lost 27 campers and counselors to the floodwaters. Meanwhile, search-and-rescue teams carried on with the search for the dead, using heavy equipment to untangle trees and wading into swollen rivers. Volunteers covered in mud sorted through chunks of debris, piece by piece, in an increasingly bleak task. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up With additional rain on the way, more flooding still threatened in saturated parts of central Texas. Authorities said the death toll was sure to rise. Advertisement The announcement by Camp Mystic confirmed the worst fears after a wall of water slammed into cabins built along the edge of the Guadalupe River. The raging flash floods — among the nation's worst in decades — slammed into riverside camps and homes before daybreak Friday, pulling sleeping people out of their cabins, tents, and trailers and dragging them for miles past floating tree trunks and cars. Some survivors were found clinging to trees. Advertisement Piles of twisted trees sprinkled with mattresses, refrigerators, and coolers now litter the riverbanks. The debris included reminders of what drew so many to the campgrounds and cabins in the Hill Country — a volleyball, canoes, and a family portrait. Nineteen deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green, and Williamson counties, according to local officials. Among those confirmed dead were 8-year-old sisters from Dallas who were at Camp Mystic and a former soccer coach and his wife who were staying at a riverfront home. Their daughters were still missing. Authorities vowed that one of the next steps would be investigating whether enough warnings were issued and why some camps did not evacuate or move to higher ground in a place long vulnerable to flooding that some local residents refer to as 'flash flood alley.' That will include a review of how weather warnings were sent out and received. One of the challenges is that many camps and cabins are in places with poor cellphone service, said Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice. 'We definitely want to dive in and look at all those things,' he said. 'We're looking forward to doing that once we can get the search and rescue complete.' Some camps, though, were aware of the dangers and monitoring the weather. At least one moved several hundred campers to higher ground before the floods. Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said recent government spending cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service did not delay any warnings. 'There's a time to have political fights, there's a time to disagree. This is not that time,' Cruz said. 'There will be a time to find out what could been done differently. My hope is in time we learn some lessons to implement the next time there is a flood.' Advertisement The weather service first advised of potential flooding on Thursday and then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies — a rare step that alerts the public to imminent danger. Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months of rain. Some residents said they never received any warnings. President Trump, who signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County and plans to visit the area, said Sunday that he does not plan to rehire any of the federal meteorologists who were fired this year. 'This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it,' the president said. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said local and federal weather services provided sufficient warnings. 'That was an act of God. It's not the administration's fault that the flood hit when it did, but there were early and consistent warnings,' Leavitt said. More than three dozen people were unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing, Governor Greg Abbott said Sunday. Search-and-rescue crews at one staging area said Monday that more than 1,000 volunteers had been directed to Kerr County. Reagan Brown said his parents, in their 80s, managed to escape uphill as water inundated their home in the town of Hunt. When the couple learned that their 92-year-old neighbor was trapped in her attic, they went back and rescued her. 'Then they were able to reach their tool shed up higher ground, and neighbors throughout the early morning began to show up at their tool shed, and they all rode it out together,' Brown said. Advertisement Elizabeth Lester, a mother of children who were at Camp Mystic and nearby Camp La Junta during the flood, said her young son had to swim out his cabin window to escape. Her daughter fled up the hillside as floodwaters whipped against her legs.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Texas flood toll passes 100 as more bodies recovered
The death toll from catastrophic flooding in Texas rose to more than 100 on Monday, as rescuers continued their grim search for people swept away by torrents of water. Among the dead were at least 27 girls and counselors who were staying at a youth summer camp on a river when disaster struck over the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Forecasters have warned of more flooding as rain falls on saturated ground, complicating recovery efforts involving helicopters, boats, dogs and some 1,750 personnel. "There is still a threat of heavy rain with the potential to cause flooding," Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in a statement Monday, with the number of victims expected to rise still. President Donald Trump confirmed he planned to visit Texas on Friday, as the White House slammed critics claiming his cuts to weather agencies had weakened warning systems. "Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie, and it serves no purpose during this time of national mourning," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday. She said the National Weather Service, which The New York Times reported had several key roles in Texas unfilled before the floods, issued "timely and precise forecasts and warnings." Trump has described the floods that struck in the early hours of Friday as a "100-year catastrophe" that "nobody expected." The president, who previously said disaster relief should be handled at the state level, has signed a major disaster declaration, activating fresh federal funds and freeing up resources. - 'Tragedy' - At least 104 flood-related deaths were reported across central Texas. Kerr County, through which the Guadalupe River runs, was the hardest hit, with at least 84 people killed including 28 children, according to the local sheriff's office. The toll includes 27 who had been staying at Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian camp that was housing about 750 people when the floodwaters struck. Camps are a beloved tradition in the long US summer holidays, with children often staying in woods, parks and other rural areas. Texas Senator Ted Cruz described them as a chance to make "lifetime friends -- and then suddenly it turns to tragedy." But some residents were questioning the absence of more robust flood-warning systems in this region of south and central Texas -- where such deluges are so frequent that it is known colloquially as "Flash Flood Alley." Experts stress the NWS sent out timely forecasts, and climate scientist Daniel Swain pinned the problem on a failure of "warning dissemination." San Antonio mother Nicole Wilson -- who almost sent her daughters to Camp Mystic -- launched a petition on urging Governor Greg Abbott to approve a modern warning network. "Five minutes of that siren going off could have saved every single one of those children," she told AFP. - Two-story building - In a terrifying display of nature's power, the rain-swollen waters of the Guadalupe River reached treetops and the roofs of cabins as girls at the camp slept. Blankets, teddy bears and other belongings were caked in mud. Windows in the cabins were shattered, apparently by the force of the water. Volunteers were helping search through debris from the river, with some motivated by personal connections to the victims. "We're helping the parents of two of the missing children," Louis Deppe, 62, told AFP. "The last message they got was 'We're being washed away,' and the phone went dead." Months' worth of rain fell in a matter of hours on Thursday night into Friday, and rain has continued in bouts since then. The Guadalupe surged around 26 feet (eight meters) -- more than a two-story building -- in just 45 minutes. Flash floods occur when the ground is unable to absorb torrential rainfall. Human-driven climate change has made extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and heat waves more frequent and more intense in recent years. bur-aks/st
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Why were flash floods across Central Texas so catastrophic?
AUSTIN (KXAN) – In the overnight hours of July 3 and 4, heavy and persistent showers fell across Central Texas. Rainfall totals in Mason County exceeded 16 inches, with Kerr County receiving more than 10 inches. Floodwaters caused the Guadalupe River to rise to 23.4 feet by 4:30 a.m. on July 4. Then, on July 5, storms stalled over western Travis County, prompting a Flash Flood Emergency overnight and continuing through the day. While forecast models gradually increased rain chances throughout the week, catastrophic flooding was not anticipated. So—what happened? It started back on June 28, when a short-lived, disorganized storm formed in the Gulf of Mexico. Tropical Storm Barry barely reached maximum sustained winds of 45 mph before making landfall near Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico, on June 29. Though the storm quickly dissipated, it continued to feed tropical moisture into Texas. A high-pressure system over East Texas funneled that moisture from Mexico, through South Texas, and into Central Texas over the course of five days. Mid-level circulation from Barry, combined with tropical moisture from the eastern Pacific, helped maintain that feed. As moisture pushed northward, rain chances for Central Texas increased—starting with a forecast for light showers on the morning of July 4 (as predicted on Monday), and eventually shifting to a full day of rain by Thursday morning. By early afternoon on Wednesday, July 3, the National Weather Service issued a Flood Watch for Kerr County and surrounding areas. By 8 p.m., the rest of the Hill Country was included. At that point, most of the heaviest rainfall remained outside Kerr County. But as the night wore on, storm cells began to merge. Low-level convergence interacting with tropical moisture likely contributed to the development and intensification of storms. Some cells stalled over Mason County after midnight. Shortly after, more storms merged over Kerr County, leading to a burst of intense rainfall and a rapid rise in the Guadalupe River. Upstream showers worsened the situation. A Flash Flood Warning was issued at 1 a.m. Flooding intensified between 1:45 and 2:15 a.m. By 3 a.m., a significant flash flood event was unfolding in Kerr County. The pattern repeated again overnight into July 5. A storm stalled over Lago Vista, Leander and Liberty Hill in western Travis County. The cell redeveloped on its backside into Burnet County before the low pressure center tracked back across the area—bringing additional rainfall to already saturated ground. While heavy showers are common in Central Texas, flooding of this magnitude is rare. Soil moisture levels had been low, so much-needed rain quickly turned into runoff when the ground became oversaturated—creating flash flood conditions. To make matters worse, much of the flooding occurred at night, while many people were asleep or just waking up to dangerous conditions. In the Lago Vista area, steep terrain and rolling roads made it difficult to find higher ground, and some roads were quickly overtaken by water. Since forecast models did not predict the storms would stall, most major warnings and alerts were issued as the events unfolded overnight. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
