Hope of finding Texas flood survivors dims as search efforts go on
The search efforts benefited from improving weather. The storms that battered the Hill Country for the past four days began to lighten up, although isolated pockets of heavy rain were still possible.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott planned to make another visit Tuesday to Camp Mystic, the century-old all-girls Christian summer camp where at least 27 campers and counselors died during the flash floods. Officials said Monday that 10 campers and one counselor have still not been found.
A wall of water slammed into camps and homes along the edge of the Guadalupe River before daybreak Friday, pulling 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.
Questions are mounting about what, if any, actions local officials took to warn campers and residents who were spending the July Fourth holiday weekend in the scenic area long known to locals as 'flash flood alley.'
At public briefings, officials in hard-hit Kerr County have deflected questions about what preparations and warnings were made as forecasters warned of life-threatening conditions.
'We definitely want to dive in and look at all those things,' Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said Monday. 'We're looking forward to doing that once we can get the search and rescue complete.'
Some camps were aware of the dangers and monitoring the weather. At least one moved several hundred campers to higher ground before the floods. But many were caught by surprise.
Searchers have found the bodies of 84 people, including 28 children, in Kerr County, home to Camp Mystic and several other summer camps near the river, officials said.
Nineteen deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, local officials said.
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.
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 a cabin window to escape. Her daughter fled up the hillside as floodwaters whipped against her legs. Both survived.
Search-and-rescue teams used heavy equipment to untangle trees and move large rocks as part of the massive search for missing people. Hundreds of volunteers have shown up to help with one of the largest rescue operations in Texas history.
Piles of twisted trees sprinkled with mattresses, refrigerators and coolers littered the riverbanks.
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Reuters
5 hours ago
- Reuters
Texas flood death toll rises to 131 as new storms loom
July 14 (Reuters) - The official tally of storm-related deaths across Texas rose to 131 on Monday as authorities warned of yet another round of heavy rains 10 days after a Hill Country flash flood that transformed the Guadalupe River into a killer torrent. A National Weather Service flood watch forecasting heavy downpours of up to half a foot of rain was posted until Tuesday morning for a wide swath of central Texas extending from the Rio Grande east to San Antonio and Austin. The advisory included Kerr County and other parts of Texas Hill Country along the Guadalupe still recovering from the July 4 flood disaster, which ravaged the county seat of Kerrville and a riverside Christian summer camp for girls in the nearby town of Hunt. Riverfront residents as well as search teams still combing the banks of the waterway were advised to seek higher ground until the latest danger had passed. The search for additional victims along the Guadalupe was likewise suspended due to flood concerns on Sunday. Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Monday said storms had claimed at least 131 lives in Texas since July 4, the bulk of those deaths in and around Kerrville, up from 120 reported on Friday. He said 97 people were still listed as missing in the greater Kerrville area, down from the 160-plus who authorities said were unaccounted for last week. About a third of the Kerr County fatalities are children, most of whom perished at Camp Mystic when floodwaters raged through the girls-only summer retreat before dawn on July 4. Authorities have not rescued anyone alive since the day of the floods, when more than a foot of rain fell in less than an hour in the heart of a region known as "flash flood alley," sending a deadly wall of water down the Guadalupe River basin. Abbott said state lawmakers would investigate the circumstances of the flooding, disaster preparedness and emergency response to the flooding at a special legislative session set to convene later this month. The high casualty toll, ranking as one of the deadliest U.S. flood events in decades, has raised questions about the lack of flash-flood warning sirens in Kerr County and vacancies left at National Weather Service offices amid staffing cuts under the Trump administration.
Telegraph
9 hours ago
- Telegraph
Camp Mystic boss did not evacuate children until hour after first flood warning
The owner of Camp Mystic has been accused of failing to evacuate campers until an hour after the first official alert warning of oncoming catastrophic Texas floods. Richard 'Dick' Eastland, the camp's executive director, did not immediately order an evacuation after the first text notification from the National Weather Service on July 4, the Washington Post reported. Eastland died trying to save girls from the devastating flooding, which claimed the lives of 27 campers and counsellors. At least 130 people have died in total. Cabins of some of the youngest girls staying in the camp just off the Guadalupe River were washed away in a matter of minutes. The camp is situated on the banks of the Guadalupe River, a well-studied, high-risk flood zone, according to mapped data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema). Some of the cabins were located in what is known as 'the floodway', with some low-lying cabins located on the 'flats' – just 225ft from the river bank. On the night of the disaster, the first 'life-threatening' flash flood alert from the National Weather Service was issued to all Kerr County residents in Texas at approximately 1.14am. The warning, which did not include an evacuation order, 'came fast' Richard Eastland Jr, Dick Eastland's son, told the newspaper. Eastland immediately notified some adults at the camp via walkie talkie, and ordered them to 'assess the situation' as it unfolded, according to the Washington Post. The camp's loud speaker system ran on electricity and was unusable during the chaos that followed. The girls staying at Camp Mystic were also generally not allowed access to their phones or other electronic devices, per 2025 summer policies and procedures. Eastland waited until 2.30am to begin evacuating campers, his family reportedly told the newspaper in a statement. He later died trying to evacuate the youngest campers from the scene. Counsellors in the cabins closest to the river had to deal with the unfolding tragedy as the river swelled some 26ft in the space of 45 minutes. Camp Mystic's Bubble Inn cabin, which was located less than 500ft from the river, was quickly swept away. No survivors have been reported. Jeff Carr, the Eastland family spokesman, told the newspaper that the family would be taking time to process the tragedy before making further comments. 'It will be important to go through this process and avoid sharing information on a piecemeal basis,' he said. Dick and Tweety Eastland are the third generation to own and run the Christian all-girls camp, which has remained in their family since 1939, according to the camp's website. It has a long history of flooding, according to reports. In 1987, following the deaths of 10 children at a nearby camp, Dick Eastland successfully pushed for a new flood warning system to be installed. However the system was said to have been shut down in 1999 as it had become 'unreliable' due to lack of repair and maintenance, local media reported. Kerr County officials have come under fire for their failure to install a new flood warning system in the area, having suggested such a measure would be too 'extravagant'. In a tribute to Dick Eastland on social media, George Eastland, his grandson, said: 'If he wasn't going to die of natural causes, this was the only other way—saving the girls that he so loved and cared for.' He added: 'Although he no longer walks this earth, his impact will never fade in the lives he touched.' Further heavy rain in Texas on Sunday temporarily paused the week-long search for victims, as storms damaged homes, stranded motorists and put some residents under evacuation orders.
BreakingNews.ie
9 hours ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Yellow thunderstorm warning in place for four counties
A yellow rain and thunderstorm warning is currently in place for four counties. Met Éireann said the warning is in place for Clare, Galway, Kerry and Limerick. Advertisement The are warning of heavy spells of rain with thunderstorms possible. Potential impacts include surface water flooding, lightning damage and difficult travelling conditions. The warning is valid from 7pm on Monday evening until 7am on Tuesday morning. ⚠️Status Yellow Rainfall Warning ⚠️ Heavy spells of rain with thunderstorms possible⛈️ • Surface water flooding🌊 • Lightning damage⚡️ • Difficult travelling conditions🚗🚴♀️🚶♀️ Areas: Clare, Galway, Kerry & Limerick Valid: 14/07 7pm to 15/07 7am ℹ️ — Met Éireann (@MetEireann) July 14, 2025 Cloudy with further thundery spells of rain early on Tuesday with local thunderstorms. Brightening up from the west through the morning with a mix of sunny spells and showers, with mainly dry conditions developing in the west for the afternoon and extending eastwards in the evening. Advertisement Highest temperatures of 16 to 20 degrees with moderate to fresh northwest winds developing, strong at first near southern coasts. Met Éireann said it will be mixed and changeable overall through the coming week. Cooler and fresher than recently but turning a little milder around mid-week. Any mist and fog will clear during Wednesday morning and it will be bright for a time in the north and east with some hazy sunshine, but cloud with outbreaks of rain and drizzle in the southwest will gradually extend northeastwards over the country through the day. It will be mostly cloudy with outbreaks for rain on Thursday breaking up into showers and sunny spells during the afternoon and evening. Some of the showers will be heavy with a chance of isolated thunderstorms. Highest temperatures of 18 to 23 degrees with light to moderate south to southwest winds. Friday will see some sunshine and scattered showers. Highest temperatures of 17 to 21 degrees in light southwest or variable breezes. Met Éireann said next weekend looks unsettled overall with low pressure dominating bringing showers or longer spells of rain at times. Temperatures around average.
