Search for Texas flood victims enters third day, with more rain forecast
The search for more than two dozen children missing from a girls' summer camp hit by flash floods in Texas entered a third day on Sunday, as rescuers faced the threat of more flooding and the death toll in the region reached at least 43.
Local officials warned the number of dead will likely rise and were due to give an update Sunday morning, as search and rescue teams raced to find 27 girls missing from a camp near the Guadalupe River, which broke its banks after torrential rain fell in central Texas on Friday, the U.S. Independence Day holiday.
Officials said more than 850 people had been rescued, including some clinging to trees, after a sudden storm dumped up to 38 centimetres of rain across Texas Hill Country, about 140 kilometres northwest of San Antonio. It was unclear how many people in the area were still missing.
Some experts questioned whether cuts to the federal workforce by the Trump administration, including to the agency that oversees the National Weather Service, led to a failure by officials to accurately predict the severity of the floods and issue appropriate warnings ahead of the storm.
Many U.S. weather offices understaffed
U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration have overseen thousands of job cuts at the National Weather Service's parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, leaving many weather offices understaffed, said former NOAA director Rick Spinrad.
He said he did not know if those staff cuts factored into the lack of advance warning for the extreme Texas flooding, but said they would inevitably degrade the agency's ability to deliver accurate and timely forecasts.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees NOAA, said a "moderate" flood watch issued on Thursday by the National Weather Service had not accurately predicted the extreme rainfall and said the Trump administration was working to upgrade the system.
More rain was expected in the area on Sunday. The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for Kerr County, the epicentre of the disaster, until 1 p.m. local time.
The disaster unfolded rapidly on Friday morning as heavier-than-forecast rain drove river waters rapidly to as high as nine metres.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, told a press conference on Saturday he had asked Trump to sign a disaster declaration, which would unlock federal aid for those affected. Noem said Trump would honour that request.
Trump has previously outlined plans to scale back the federal government's role in responding to natural disasters, leaving states to shoulder more of the burden.
WATCH | Search operations continue after Texas floods:
Search continues for Texas flood victims as death toll rises
17 hours ago
Duration 3:49
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott expanded the state's disaster declaration to include more counties on Saturday in the wake of catastrophic flash floods that have killed dozens. Rescuers used helicopters, boats and drones to look for the missing, including more than two dozen children from a girls camp.
At least 15 of the confirmed dead are children, local officials said. The 27 missing girls were from the Camp Mystic summer camp, a nearly century-old Christian girls' camp, which had 700 girls in residence at the time of the flood.
A day after the disaster struck, the camp was a scene of devastation. Inside one cabin, mud lines indicating how high the water had risen were at least 1.83 metres from the floor. Bed frames, mattresses and personal belongings caked with mud were scattered inside. Some buildings had broken windows, and one had a missing wall.
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CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
Death toll in central Texas flash floods rises to 82 as sheriff says 10 campers remain missing
Volunteers search for missing people along the banks of the Guadalupe River after recent flooding on Sunday, July 6, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Rodolfo Gonzalez) KERRVILLE, Texas — Families sifted through waterlogged debris Sunday and stepped inside empty cabins at Camp Mystic, an all-girls summer camp ripped apart by flash floods that washed homes off their foundations and killed at least 82 people in central Texas. Rescuers maneuvering through challenging terrain, high waters and snakes including water moccasins continued their desperate search for the missing, including 10 girls and a counselor from the camp. For the first time since the storms began pounding Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott said there were 41 people confirmed to be unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing. In Kerr County, home to Camp Mystic and other youth camps in the Texas Hill Country, searchers have found the bodies of 68 people, including 28 children, Sheriff Larry Leitha said in the afternoon. He pledged to keep searching until 'everybody is found' from Friday's flash floods. Ten other deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, according to local officials. The death toll is certain to rise over the next few days, said Col. Freeman Martin of the Texas Department of Public Safety. The governor warned that additional rounds of heavy rains lasting into Tuesday could produce more life-threatening flooding, especially in places already saturated. As he spoke at a news conference in Austin, emergency alerts lit up mobile phones in Kerr County that warned of 'High confidence of river flooding' and a loudspeaker near Camp Mystic urged people to leave. Minutes later, however, authorities on the scene said there was no risk. Families were allowed to look around the camp beginning Sunday morning. One girl walked out of a building carrying a large bell. A man, who said his daughter was rescued from a cabin on the highest point in the camp, walked a riverbank, looking in clumps of trees and under big rocks. A woman and a teenage girl, both wearing rubber waders, briefly went inside one of the cabins, which stood next to a pile of soaked mattresses, a storage trunk and clothes. At one point, the pair doubled over, sobbing before they embraced. One family left with a blue footlocker. A teenage girl had tears running down her face looking out the open window, gazing at the wreckage as they slowly drove away. Searching the disaster zone While the families saw the devastation for the first time, nearby crews operating heavy equipment pulled tree trunks and tangled branches from the water as they searched the river. With each passing hour, the outlook of finding more survivors became even more bleak. Volunteers and some families of the missing who drove to the disaster zone searched the riverbanks despite being asked not to do so. Authorities faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in an area long vulnerable to flooding and whether enough preparations were made. President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration Sunday for Kerr County, activating the Federal Emergency Management Agency to Texas. The president said he would likely visit Friday. 'I would have done it today, but we'd just be in their way,' he told reporters before boarding Air Force One back to Washington after spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. 'It's a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible.' The destructive, fast-moving waters rose 26 feet (8 meters) on the river in only 45 minutes before daybreak 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. 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. Prayers in Texas - and from the Vatican Gov. 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, '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.' The hills along the Guadalupe River are dotted with century-old 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. Harrowing escapes from floodwaters 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 wouldn't 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. Among those confirmed dead were an 8-year-old girl from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who was at Camp Mystic, and the director of another camp up the road. Two school-age sisters from Dallas were missing after their cabin was swept away. Their parents were staying in a different cabin and were safe, but the girls' grandparents were unaccounted for. Locals know the Hill Country 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. Warnings came before the disaster 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. At the Mo-Ranch Camp in the community of Hunt, officials had been monitoring the weather and opted to move several hundred campers and attendees at a church youth conference to higher ground. At nearby Camps Rio Vista and Sierra Vista, organizers also had mentioned on social media that they were watching the weather the day before ending their second summer session Thursday. Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months' worth of rain for the area. Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said authorities are committed to a full review of the emergency response, including how the public was alerted to the storm threat. Trump, asked whether he was still planning to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said that was something 'we can talk about later, but right now we are busy working.' He has previously said he wants to overhaul if not completely eliminate FEMA and has been sharply critical of its performance. Trump also was asked whether he planned to rehire any of the federal meteorologists who were fired this year as part of widespread government spending reductions. 'I would think not. This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it. Nobody saw it. Very talented people there, and they didn't see it,' the president said. Jim Vertuno and John Seewer, The Associated Press Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press writers Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Cedar Attanasio in New York; Sophia Tareen in Chicago; Michelle Price in Bridgewater, N.J.; and Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed.
CTV News
4 hours ago
- CTV News
Death toll in central Texas flash floods rises to 79 as sheriff says 10 campers remain missing
People look at debris on the banks of the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area Saturday, July 5, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) KERRVILLE, Texas — Families sifted through waterlogged debris Sunday and stepped inside empty cabins at Camp Mystic, an all-girls summer camp ripped apart by flash floods that washed homes off their foundations and killed at least 79 people in central Texas. Rescuers maneuvering through challenging terrain continued their desperate search for the missing, including 10 girls and a counselor from the camp. For the first time since the storms began pounding Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott said there were 41 people confirmed to be unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing. In Kerr County, home to Camp Mystic and other youth camps in the Texas Hill Country, searchers have found the bodies of 68 people, including 28 children, Sheriff Larry Leitha said in the afternoon. He pledged to keep searching until 'everybody is found' from Friday's flash floods. Ten other deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, according to local officials. The death toll is certain to rise over the next few days, said Col. Freeman Martin of the Texas Department of Public Safety. The governor warned Sunday that additional rounds of heavy rains lasting into Tuesday could produce more life-threatening flooding, especially in places already saturated. Families were allowed to look around the camp beginning Sunday morning. One girl walked out of a building carrying a large bell. A man, who said his daughter was rescued from a cabin on the highest point in the camp, walked a riverbank, looking in clumps of trees and under big rocks. A woman and a teenage girl, both wearing rubber waders, briefly went inside one of the cabins, which stood next to a pile of soaked mattresses, a storage trunk and clothes. At one point, the pair doubled over, sobbing before they embraced. One family left with a blue footlocker. A teenage girl had tears running down her face looking out the open window, gazing at the wreckage as they slowly drove away. Searching the disaster zone While the families saw the devastation for the first time, nearby crews operating heavy equipment pulled tree trunks and tangled branches from the water as they searched the river. With each passing hour, the outlook of finding more survivors became even more bleak. Volunteers and some families of the missing who drove to the disaster zone searched the riverbanks despite being asked not to do so. Authorities faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in an area long vulnerable to flooding and whether enough preparations were made. President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration Sunday for Kerr County, activating the Federal Emergency Management Agency to Texas. The president said he would likely visit Friday. 'I would have done it today, but we'd just be in their way,' he told reporters before boarding Air Force One back to Washington after spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. 'It's a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible.' The destructive, fast-moving waters rose 26 feet (8 meters) on the river in only 45 minutes before daybreak 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. 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. Prayers in Texas - and from the Vatican Gov. 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, '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.' The hills along the Guadalupe River are dotted with century-old 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. Harrowing escapes from floodwaters 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 wouldn't 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. Among those confirmed dead were an 8-year-old girl from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who was at Camp Mystic, and the director of another camp up the road. Two school-age sisters from Dallas were missing after their cabin was swept away. Their parents were staying in a different cabin and were safe, but the girls' grandparents were unaccounted for. Locals know the Hill Country 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. Warnings came before the disaster 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. At the Mo-Ranch Camp in the community of Hunt, officials had been monitoring the weather and opted to move several hundred campers and attendees at a church youth conference to higher ground. At nearby Camps Rio Vista and Sierra Vista, organizers also had mentioned on social media that they were watching the weather the day before ending their second summer session Thursday. Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months' worth of rain for the area. Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said authorities are committed to a full review of the emergency response, including how the public was alerted to the storm threat. Trump, asked whether he was still planning to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said that was something 'we can talk about later, but right now we are busy working.' He has previously said he wants to overhaul if not completely eliminate FEMA and has been sharply critical of its performance. Trump also was asked whether he planned to rehire any of the federal meteorologists who were fired this year as part of widespread government spending reductions. 'I would think not. This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it. Nobody saw it. Very talented people there, and they didn't see it,' the president said. Jim Vertuno and John Seewer, The Associated Press Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press writers Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Cedar Attanasio in New York; Sophia Tareen in Chicago; Michelle Price in Bridgewater, N.J.; and Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed.
Calgary Herald
6 hours ago
- Calgary Herald
Deadly floods reinforce challenges for Texas as crisis epicentre
Article content There should be inquiries made into whether staffing cuts at the National Weather Service played a contributing role, Representative Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat whose district covers parts of San Antonio, said Sunday on CNN's State of the Union. The weather service has been under scrutiny since President Donald Trump took office, with staffing cuts and retirements hitting the agencies. Article content Still, Castro emphasized that there's no clear evidence to show conclusively that the staff cuts impacted the outcome of forecasts. Article content At least 20.3 inches of rain fell in Streeter, Texas, about 100 miles northwest of Austin and 18 in nearby Hext. In some areas, flooding started around midnight on Friday morning. Article content Many residents in the area said they didn't receive weather service warnings to their phones before 7 a.m. But reports are mixed. Andy Brown, a Travis County judge, said during a press conference that he met with survivors in one flooded area who told him they had received alerts from the National Weather Service at noon, before the event began, and then during the night. Article content Article content Federal officials will look into whether more warnings could have been provided, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a briefing. At the same event, she also said there were federal resources 'here on the ground since the beginning of this crisis started, since this weather event did start and even before it came, we were alerted.' Article content Climate change has driven more extreme rainfall around the world. A warmer atmosphere can hold more water, upping the odds of deluges like the one that struck Texas. Article content Scientists haven't yet examined these floods for the fingerprints of climate change. A rapid analysis by Colorado State University climatologist Russ Schumacher shows the six-hour rainfall totals made this a 1,000-year event — that is, it had less than a 0.1 per cent chance of occurring in any given year. Article content Storms are getting so devastating that insurers are struggling to keep pace with natural-catastrophe claims. Article content Article content For Texas, this portends outsized consequences — the state alone accounts for roughly a third of all damages caused by extreme weather in the U.S. during the last 10 years. Article content The state is being walloped by extreme weather again and again. The onslaught illustrates a phenomenon that's on the rise because of climate change: 'compound events,' when the weather goes haywire in back-to-back or overlapping spells. Compound events can be instances of the same kind of dangerous weather — one hurricane on the heels of another, say — or of different types, such as a heat wave coinciding with a drought. Article content From 1980 through 2024, Texas has logged 190 weather disasters costing $1 billion or more, according to the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Information. That's the highest tally in the country. The U.S. has stopped collecting data on these disasters after Trump started his second term.
