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New York Post
05-07-2025
- New York Post
Two girls at Texas Christian camp found dead as dozens remain missing
At least two of the missing Camp Mystic girls were found dead during Friday's overnight search and rescue in Texas, according to family and local reports. Renee Smajstrla and Janie Hunt were among as many as 25 campers who were washed away in the deadly Guadalupe River flash floods. 'Thank you to all our friends and family for all the prayers and outreach. Renee has been found and while not the outcome we prayed for, the social media outreach likely assisted the first responders in helping to identify her so quickly,' her uncle wrote on Facebook. Advertisement 4 Renee Smajstrla was found dead during flood searches, her family said. Shawn Salta /Facebook 'We are thankful she was with her friends and having the time of her life, as evidenced by this picture from yesterday. She will forever be living her best life at Camp Mystic. Please continue to pray for the other families in Kerrville.' Janie was also discovered dead, according to Corpus Christi Crónica. Advertisement The 9-year-old's mother had told CNN Friday that she had not heard anything about her daughter's whereabouts after the flood hit the camp. 'We are just praying,' Janie's mother had said. 4 Janie Hunt also perished in the floods, according to a report. CNN Weather It is not clear if any of the other campers had been found dead, but local reports indicate that some of the girls were rescued and were transported to family reunification centers. Advertisement Between 23 and 25 girls at the Christian sleep-away camp, which serves girls between the ages of 7 and 17, were swept away by the dangerous floods early Friday morning — including some who were in cabins that were washed out. The Guadalupe River — on which Camp Mystic is perched in the San Antonio suburb of Hunt — rose more than 20 feet in just 90 minutes, the National Weather Service reported, a level of flooding the area hasn't seen since 1987. A flood alert went out at 4 a.m. when most people were sleeping. 4 The camp was evacuated early Thursday, but some campers were washed away in the flood. KSATtv Advertisement 4 A photo shows flooding caused by a flash flood at the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas. AFP via Getty Images Gov. Greg Abbott revealed Friday night that the death toll had surged to 24, including children, but would not say whether any of the missing campers were among the dead. Searches went on Saturday morning as rain continued to fall across Hill County, with officials warning of the ongoing threat for possible flash flooding extended from San Antonio to Waco for the next 24 to 48 hours. The Guadalupe River previously flooded across Kerr County in 1987, overtaking a church bus and killing 10 teenagers. The campgrounds do not have a warning system in place, Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said.
New York Post
05-07-2025
- Climate
- New York Post
Two pals among those confirmed missing from Texas Christian camp after devastating flooding
The names of some of the nearly two dozen girls missing after floodwaters killed at least 13 people and swept away a Christian girls' summer camp in Texas are beginning to emerge as desperate families await news from search and rescue crews. About 23 girls are missing after torrential rains flooded the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, washing away cabins and buildings at Camp Mystic Thursday night into Friday. Most people were evacuated from the Christian girls' camp — attended by girls between the ages of 7 and 17 — as floodwaters rose, but some kids were left behind and believed to be lost in the rushing water. Advertisement 8 Camp Mystic, a Christian girls' camp, was evacuated Thursday night into Friday, but some girls were left behind and are not missing, officials said. KSATtv The Guadalupe River — on which Camp Mystic is perched in the San Antonio suburb of Hunt — rose more than 20 feet in just 90 minutes, the National Weather Service reported, a level of flooding the area hasn't seen since 1987 and forced evacuations throughout the region. At least 13 people have been killed in Kerr County as of Friday, though it remains unclear if any were the missing girls. Advertisement After Camp Mystic advised parents that if they haven't been directly contacted to assume their daughters are accounted for and safe, officials cautioned parents not to assume the worst. 'That does not mean they've been lost. They could be in a tree. They could be out of communication,' Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said at a press conference. 'We're praying for all those missing to be found alive.' Below are the Camp Mystic girls who have confirmed missing so far: 8 Hadley Hannah, 8, is among the 23 girls missing in the floods that hit Camp Mystic in Texas Thursday night into Friday WFAA 8 Hadley Hanna, 8 Advertisement Hadley Hanna's parents told WFAA their cherubic 8-year-old was among the girls confirmed missing, and that they've rushed to Hunt from their Dallas home to be on hand for the search. 8 Laiey Landry is among the missing campers. CNN Weather Lainey Landry, 9 The mother of 9-year-old camper Lainey Landry told CNN her missing daughter was 'brave and sweet.' 8 Eloise Peck and Lila Bonner, two pals from Dallas, are reportedly missing after devastating floods struck Camp Mystic. Keenan Willard/X Eloise Peck Advertisement The Dallas girl was in the same cabin as several friends who have also been reported missing, her parents told Fox 4. Lila Bonner A Dallas native, Lila was seen smiling with her arms around her missing friend, Eloise Peck, in a heart-wrenching photo circulated by her parents and shared by Fox 4. 8 Renee Smajstrla hasn't been found since flooding swept her and friends away. Keenan Willard/X Renee Smajstrla Young Renee was in the same cabin as Eloise and Lila, and her parents told NBC DFW she was confirmed missing with them. 8 Janie Hunt's parents say they're praying their daughter will be found. CNN Weather Janie Hunt 'We are just praying,' Janie's distraught mother told CNN. 8 Kellyanne Lytal hasn't been found since flooding swept through Camp Mystic. Keenan Willard/X Kellyanne Lytal Camper Kellyanne Lytal is also among the missing, according to Fox 4. Advertisement 8 Virginia Hollis is unaccounted for after flooding swept through Camp Mystic News Nation Virginia Hollis Virginia Hollis has also been confirmed missing, according to WANE. Greta Toranzo Greta Toranzo, who attends Sinclair Elementary School in Houston, was also confirmed missing, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
A Tornado Might Destroy Your Town. The Federal Government Might Never Show Up.
Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. The weather has been just horrific lately throughout the United States. Last week, Chicago and El Paso were hit with the worst dust storms they've seen since the literal Dust Bowl. Over the weekend, states across the Midwest and the South were slammed by at least 100 tornadoes, all followed by baseball-size hail and pummeling rainstorms. The onslaught continued well into Tuesday, damaging thousands of homes and buildings and parks across a trail of 11 states, from Indiana to Minnesota to Oklahoma to Alabama. CNN Weather reports that 28 people in three states have died as a result. A nor'easter is now making its way over to the East Coast, with 50-mph gusts and inches of rainfall in store for New England. Over Memorial Day weekend, severe thunderstorms are once again projected to slam middle and southern states, stretching from Nebraska down to Texas and out to Florida. And there may be little if any help arriving for the survivors, thanks to the Trump administration's mass government layoffs. On Tuesday, St. Louis' mayor told multiple news outlets that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had provided no ground support following the city's billion-dollar tornado disaster—despite direct requests from Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley and the state's Republican governor. (A few FEMA teams belatedly showed up on Wednesday, although Missouri has not yet been approved for emergency services.) In Kentucky, the agency's response was also delayed, and recovery further complicated by outages to Louisville's NOAA Weather Radio transmitters—because they were undergoing much-needed upgrades while storms were still racking the area. The National Weather Service outpost in Jackson, already so understaffed that it no longer operates 24/7, was forced to call in all of its meteorologists overnight to monitor the situation and blast out severe-weather updates. In Kansas, the NWS outfit in Goodland cut its own operating hours just a couple of days before the tornadoes landed. Galveston, Texas, which lies in the storm path, may face extra peril thanks to its broken NOAA radio (which hasn't been fixed since it got knocked out by a fire in March) and an NWS forecasting office with a 44 percent vacancy rate. These Americans are pulling themselves through a painful postdisaster recovery on the eve of hurricane season; others have been doing so for months and are still waiting for federal assistance. In mid-March, Mississippi was hit by 20 tornadoes that killed seven people and ruined hundreds of homes. But since President Donald Trump never approved a disaster declaration, several still-displaced Mississippians have received no help. Those March tornadoes also hit many of the same states suffering now, like Missouri and Oklahoma. Arkansas asked for federal emergency approval after those March storms, only to be denied at first; the state government appealed and finally got approved for disaster assistance last week, pushing FEMA to add face-to-face assistance sites across the Natural State. These delays aren't just red tape—they're the result of a hollowed-out federal system. The Trump administration, with the help of anti-government hucksters affiliated with DOGE and Project 2025, has been slashing public-sector jobs so thoroughly that even the nation's preeminent climate and disaster experts haven't been spared. Back in February, DOGE's rampage at the Department of the Interior led to 240 layoffs at the U.S. Geological Survey, an agency that monitors and studies large-scale natural disasters. That same month, the government fired members of the National Science Foundation—whose research has helped improve our weather systems—and axed 800 positions at the already inadequately staffed NOAA. Those funding shortfalls have cut into key NWS operations, like its forecast-modeling weather balloons, Doppler radars, and emergency-translation services (the latter of which were later restored). Earlier this month, the NWS put out a hiring call for dozens of meteorologists and staffers to fill in vacant positions at its field offices, including permanent meteorologists-in-charge for the aforementioned Jackson and Goodland outposts. As for FEMA, which resides under the Department of Homeland Security—nearly 2,000 employees have taken buyouts this year, meaning that the agency has been running at about four-fifths of its typical capacity. Earlier this month, a FEMA memo obtained by Wired indicated that the agency would stop sending agents to canvass door to door in disaster areas. A couple of weeks ago, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem fired the organization's acting administrator—because he had the temerity to tell Congress that Trump's idea of eliminating FEMA wholesale was probably not the best idea. His replacement, David Richardson, then scrapped FEMA's long-term strategic plan and ordered an internal review of the agency's capabilities. The explicit conclusion: 'FEMA is not ready' for this year's hurricane season, thanks to issues with 'staffing and contracts,' as well as general demoralization from Trump and Noem's disparagement of the agency. (Apparently, remaining staffers have so little respect for Richardson that they send memes to one another mocking the acting chief, per a report from Business Insider.) If you thought these past few months of catastrophe would inspire the Trump administration to retool its approach, think again. Just this Wednesday, 16 of FEMA's senior executives left the agency. Richardson is now stacking his executive team with DHS staffers who come from other departments—and have zero experience with natural disasters. Trump is also going through with a plan to slash hundreds of millions of dollars delegated to flood-prevention projects in Democratic-led states—and increase such funding to Republican-run states. On top of that, cuts to public-radio support will also leave even fewer channels for emergency communication in remote areas. It's all especially galling when you remember how the GOP responded to the disasters that hit the U.S. even before Trump's inauguration: the nonsensical critiques of local and federal preparedness for January's California wildfires; the conspiracy theory–fueled death threats aimed at firefighters, FEMA officers, and meteorologists in the wake of Hurricane Milton, demonstrably hobbling relief efforts; baseless claims from Trump and conservative media that Democrats had delayed aid to Republican-led districts and states in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and instead prioritized immigrants. Such delegitimization of already-underresourced federal institutions has only made it easier for the Trump administration to scythe them further, even as the effects come to harm Trump-friendly states. The long-term effects of this senseless sabotage will mean that as climate change ramps up the rate and severity of extreme disasters, we will be less able to prepare for them and to repair the damage. As Gabrielle Gurley muses in the American Prospect, the degradation of the U.S. government's world-class public weather systems is a deliberate effort to have private companies pick up the slack—a task that will be impossible for them to achieve at the same scale. The profit motive would keep such firms away from remote, sparsely populated, low-tech communities that need public weather infrastructure the most, such as Kentucky's Amish neighborhoods; it would also mean that these companies would charge for the costs of providing forecasts and information that the feds offer for free thanks to taxes. We're well on the way to a future of absolute weather uncertainty—no surety to forecasts, a weakened ability to transmit emergency alerts—that we'll nevertheless have to pay for out of our own pockets. What other choice will we have, as climate disasters arrive with more frequency and the federal government makes them even more dangerous?
Axios
13-05-2025
- Business
- Axios
Scoop: CNN to launch new "CNN Weather" app
CNN plans to launch a new app, "CNN Weather" by the end of the year, Axios has learned. Why it matters: It's part of a broader plan by the network to invest more in lifestyle and subscription news products as part of its digital transformation under its CEO Mark Thompson. The network also plans to introduce a new cross-platform streaming service this year. Zoom in: CNN Weather will combine expertise from CNN's meteorology and climate teams in a mobile-first app that will provide targeted local weather forecasts and 24/7 coverage of major regional and national weather events, CNN's EVP of digital products and services Alex MacCallum told employees in a town hall Tuesday. Thompson plans to officially announce the news at its advertising presentation in New York on Wednesday, a source said. The app will be available for free to start, but it's expected to eventually be paywalled. A spokesperson confirmed the launch and provided a comment from MacCallum, who said, "As we build out a subscription portfolio and offering for our users, we are looking to launch a series of lifestyle-oriented products that become essential to people's everyday lives. Weather is a natural fit for our audience and for the CNN portfolio." Zoom out: CNN has been beefing up its climate and weather teams ahead of launch. The company, which has decades of experience covering breaking weather events, is considered an authority in emergency weather events, especially internationally. The company was one of the first major international outlets on the ground to cover the catastrophic flooding in Libya in 2023, as well as the Turkey-Syria earthquakes that same year. CNN is nominated for an Emmy for Hurricane Milton coverage from last year. The big picture: CNN's digital evolution has been rocky amid leadership and ownership changes. The network launched a subscription streaming app, CNN+, in 2022, only to have it shuttered weeks after launch by its new owners, Warner Bros. Discovery. What's next: CNN Weather is likely the first of many lifestyle and subscription products that CNN will experiment with as it looks to find its future beyond cable.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Will hurricane season start early this year? Recent trends suggest yes
Atlantic hurricane season officially runs from June 1 through November 30, but Mother Nature does not always follow that calendar – and it looks like this year could also defy the timeline. In recent days, some forecasting models have hinted at the possibility of a head start to the 2025 season, showing the potential for storm development—specifically in the western Caribbean where conditions appear more favorable. In seven of the last 10 years, at least one named storm has formed before June 1. For comparison, there were only three years with early named storms from 2005 to 2014. After six years of storms forming early, the National Hurricane Center decided in 2021 to start issuing tropical weather outlooks beginning May 15—two weeks earlier than previously done. Some years have even seen multiple prior to the season's start. There were two ahead-of-schedule named storms in 2012, 2016 and 2020 – and 2020 nearly had three, with Tropical Storm Cristobal forming on June 1. When a hurricane season starts early, it doesn't necessarily mean there will be more storms. But there could be cause for concern this year, as the season's poised to be a busy one, with an above-average 17 named storms predicted, according to hurricane researchers at Colorado State University. Early activity has largely been thanks to unusually warm waters in the Atlantic, Caribbean or Gulf basins during the spring. It's a trend meteorologists and climate scientists have been watching for years. As our climate continues to warm, so do the oceans, which absorb 90% of the world's surplus heat. That can have a ripple effect on tropical systems around the globe. Warm water acts as fuel for hurricanes, providing heat and moisture that rises into the storm, strengthening it. CNN Weather The hotter the water, the more energy available to power the hurricane's growth. And a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, which in turn means more fuel for the tropical systems to pull from. Sea surface temperatures are already incredibly warm for this time of year, especially in the Gulf and southern Caribbean. This means any system passing through those regions could take advantage if other atmospheric conditions are favorable and develop into an early named storm. In the Caribbean, water temperatures are among some of the warmest on record for early May, and more in line with temperatures found in late June and July. The green area is where most tropical systems originate on the front end of Atlantic hurricane season. - CNN Weather The Eastern Pacific hurricane season has also seen some preseason activity in recent years, though not as frequent as the Atlantic. Part of the reason is because the Eastern Pacific season begins two weeks earlier, on May 15. In the last 20 years, the Eastern Pacific basin has only had three named tropical systems prior to that date—Andreas in 2021, Adrian in 2017 and Aletta in 2012. Another reason is the relationship between the two basins and storm formation. Generally, when the Atlantic basin is more active, the Pacific is less so due to a number of factors, including El Niño and La Niña. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at
