Death toll from Texas flood hits triple digits as tally of missing tops 180

The Herald

09-07-2025

The Kerr County dead include 27 campers and counselors from Camp Mystic, a nearly century-old all-girls Christian summer retreat on the banks of the Guadalupe near the town of Hunt. The camp director also died.
Five girls and a camp counselor were unaccounted for on Tuesday, Abbott said, along with another child not associated with the camp.
As of Tuesday, 15 other flood-related fatalities had been confirmed across a swath of Texas Hill Country known as "flash flood alley", the governor said, bringing the total of lives lost to 109. Reports from local sheriffs and media have put the number of flood deaths outside Kerr County at 22.
However, authorities said they were bracing for the death toll to climb as flood waters recede and the search for victims gains momentum.
Law enforcement agencies have compiled a list of 161 people "known to be missing" in Kerr County alone, Abbott said. The roster was checked against those who might be out of touch with loved ones or neighbours because they were away on vacation or out of town, according to the governor.
He said 12 people were missing elsewhere across the flood zone, a sprawling area northwest of San Antonio.
"We need to find every person who is missing. That's job number one," Abbott said.
On Tuesday, San Antonio-born country singer Pat Green disclosed on social media that his younger brother and sister-in-law and two of their children were among those "swept away in the Kerrville flood".
Hindered by intermittent thunderstorms and showers, rescue teams from federal agencies, neighbouring states and Mexico have joined local efforts to search for missing victims, though hopes of finding more survivors faded as time passed. The last victim found alive in Kerr County was on Friday.
"The work is extremely treacherous, time-consuming," Lt-Col Ben Baker of the Texas game wardens said at a press conference.
"It's dirty work. The water is still there."
A water-soaked family photo album was among the personal belongings found in flood debris by Sandi Gilmer, 46, a US army veteran and certified chaplain volunteering in the search operation along the Guadalupe at Hunt.
"I don't know how many people in the album are alive or deceased," she said, flipping through images of two toddlers and a gray-haired man.
"I didn't have the heart to step over it without picking it up and hoping to return it to a family member."