Texas flood witness recalls furniture, trees and RVs swept down river
A drone view shows the Guadalupe River and damage from flooding near Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, U.S. July 5, 2025. REUTERS/Evan Garcia
COMFORT, Texas - Tonia Fucci, a Pennsylvania resident visiting her grandmother for the Independence Day weekend, woke early on Friday to the sound of heavy rain "coming down in buckets."
Along with the rain, she heard something else - loud, startling cracking noises.
"It's indescribable, the sounds, of how loud they were, which turned out to be ... the massive cypress trees that came down along the river," she told a Reuters reporter in an interview the next day.
Flash floods in central Texas have killed at least 43 people, including 15 children, authorities said on Saturday as rescuers continued a frantic search for dozens more campers, vacationers and residents who were still missing. Hardest hit was Camp Mystic, a nearly century-old girls camp, where dozens of young girls were swept away in the flood waters, leaving many dead and many more still missing.
Fucci, who was staying in Comfort on the banks of the overflowing Guadalupe River, filmed on her phone a torrent of muddy water flooding the road to her grandmother's house and two recreational vehicles in a parking lot, with their wheels submerged in water.
Reuters verified the location of the video by matching buildings and vehicles to satellite imagery and confirmed the date by checking the metadata.
"I'm still in shock today," Fucci told Reuters.
Top stories
Swipe. Select. Stay informed.
Singapore First BTO project in Sembawang North to be offered in July launch
Singapore TTSH to demolish century-old pavilion wards, keeping one as heritage marker
Singapore Red Lions and naval divers join forces for Jump of Unity at NDP 2025
World 'Formed to give you back your freedom': Elon Musk says he has created a new US political party
Singapore His world crashed when he got F9 in O-level Tamil but PropNex co-founder Ismail Gafoor beat the odds
Asia HIV surge in the Philippines amid poor sex education, policy gaps
Tech Graduates are not screwed if they study engineering: James Dyson in response to Economist article
Business When a foreign wife failed to turn up for a $10m divorce
She said she had little hope anyone would be found alive.
"There's so many missing children and missing people. You just want them to be found for the sake of the families. But, you know, it's not going to be a good ending... There's no way people could have survived the swiftness of the water."
Fucci said she had received National Weather alerts on her phone hours after the flood had already hit. The residents of the town had to rely on one another, as they ran to their neighbors to see who needed help before rescue teams arrived.
"Something I've never seen before. You knew it was tragedy," Fucci said, recalling how quickly the river flooded the town.
"It wasn't slowing, it wasn't slowing. And debris and furniture and RVs were coming down the river." REUTERS
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
5 hours ago
- Straits Times
Swiss weather havoc forces Swedes to change training plan
THUN, Switzerland - Sweden had to change their planned training session as soaring temperatures that have affected the Women's Euros gave way to torrential rain on Monday that soaked the pitch in Lucerne where they face Poland in their second Group C game on Tuesday. With several games played in temperatures of over 30 degrees Celsius, a sudden change saw the weather cool quickly as violent rainstorms broke out on Monday that forced organisers to impose some restrictions on the Swedes' training on the stadium pitch. "We had planned a training session today and were told that we are not allowed to have plastic guys (defenders used for drills) or poles on the pitch," Sweden coach Peter Gerhardsson told reporters ahead of their session. "That's the first time I had ever heard that you are not allowed to put them out. I suppose it's to protect the pitch." In keeping with the Swedish saying that "there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes", Gerhardsson said his side would train, regardless of the rain. "We're going to do this hour, there should be waterproofs and all those kinds of things," he said. REUTERS
Straits Times
6 hours ago
- Straits Times
Texas girls' camp confirms 27 children, counsellors died in floods as search teams face more rain
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox A search and rescue team searching for survivors along the Guadalupe River near Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, on July 7. KERRVILLE, Texas - A Christian all-girls camp in central Texas said on July 7 that 27 campers and counselors were among those who perished in the catastrophic flooding over the July 4 weekend, while emergency responders still searching for dozens of missing people faced the prospect of more heavy rains and thunderstorms. The death toll from July 4's floods has reached 78, including 28 children, and officials have said it is likely to rise as search teams waded through mud-laden riverbanks and flew over the flood-stricken landscape. The bulk of the dead were in the riverfront Hill Country Texas town of Kerrville, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said. The Guadalupe River that runs through Kerrville was transformed by pre-dawn torrential downpours into a raging torrent in less than an hour on July 4. The waters tore through Camp Mystic, a nearly century-old Christian girls' retreat on the banks of the Guadalupe River. 'Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy,' the camp said in a statement on July 7. Mr Richard 'Dick' Eastland, 70, the co-owner and director of Camp Mystic, died trying to save the children at his camp during the flood, multiple media including the Austin American-Statesman reported. Eastland and his wife Tweety Eastland have owned the camp since 1974, according to the camp's website. '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,' Mr Eastland's grandson, George Eastland, wrote on Instagram. In Hill Country where the worst flooding occurred, 5cm to 10cm of more rain were expected to fall, with isolated areas getting up to 25cm of rain, said Ms Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Centre in College Park, Maryland. Ms Santorelli said that the potential new floods could be particularly dangerous because of the water-saturated soil and all the debris already in and around the river. The weather service issued a flood watch through 7pm on July 7 in the region. State emergency management officials had warned on July 3, ahead of the Fourth of July holiday, that parts of central Texas faced the possibility of heavy showers and flash floods based on National Weather Service forecasts. Confluence of disaster But twice as much rain as was predicted ended up falling over two branches of the Guadalupe just upstream of the fork where they converge, sending all of that water racing into the single river channel where it slices through Kerrville, City Manager Dalton Rice said. Mr Rice and other public officials, including Governor Greg Abbott, said the circumstances of the flooding, and the adequacy of weather forecasts and warning systems, would be scrutinised once the immediate situation was brought under control. In the meantime, search-and-rescue operations were continuing around the clock, with hundreds of emergency personnel on the ground contending with a myriad of challenges. 'It's hot, there's mud, they're moving debris, there's snakes,' Mr Freeman Martin, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told reporters on July 6. Mr Thomas Suelzar, adjutant general of the Texas Military Department, said airborne search assets included eight helicopters and a remotely piloted MQ-9 Reaper aircraft equipped with advanced sensors for surveillance and reconnaissance missions. Officials said on July 5 that more than 850 people had been rescued, some clinging to trees, after the sudden storm dumped up to 15 inches of rain across the region, about 140km north-west of San Antonio. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was activated on July 6 and was deploying resources to Texas after President Donald Trump issued a major disaster declaration, the Department of Homeland Security said. US Coast Guard helicopters and planes were aiding search and rescue efforts. First responders searches under a bridge that spans over the Guadalupe River, in Hunt, Texas, on July 6. PHOTO: EPA Scaling back federal disaster response Mr Trump said on July 6 that he would visit the disaster scene, probably on July 11. He 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 themselves. 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. Mr Trump's administration has overseen thousands of job cuts from the National Weather Service's parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), leaving many weather offices understaffed, former Noaa director Rick Spinrad said. Mr Trump pushed back when asked on July 6 if federal government cuts hobbled the disaster response or left key job vacancies at the Weather Service under Mr Trump's oversight. 'That water situation, that all is, and that was really the Biden setup,' he said, referencing his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. 'But I wouldn't blame Biden for it, either. I would just say this is a 100-year catastrophe.' Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Fox News on July 7 that there did not appear to be a specific breakdown in the National Weather Service systems. 'The alerts went out several hours in advance, but the rise in the level of water, and how quickly that happened, just really was unprecedented for this area,' she said. REUTERS
Straits Times
11 hours ago
- Straits Times
Wimbledon day eight
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox FILE PHOTO: Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 5, 2025 Serbia's Novak Djokovic in action during his third round match against Serbia's Miomir Kecmanovic REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo Highlights of the eighth day at the Wimbledon tennis championships on Monday (times GMT): 1006 PLAY UNDER WAY Play began under overcast skies at the All England Club, with the temperature hovering around 17 degrees Celsius (62.6°F) and expected to climb to 21 degrees, and cool and dry conditions expected throughout the day. READ MORE: PREVIEW-Milestone hunter Djokovic set for De Minaur test Sabalenka stands tall, Norrie survives to reach Wimbledon quarter-finals You cannot be serious! Wimbledon line-calling system under fire after major glitch Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore Eligible S'poreans to get up to $850 in GSTV cash, up to $450 in MediSave top-ups in August Singapore Four golf courses to close by 2035, leaving Singapore with 12 courses Singapore Fewer marriages and births in Singapore in 2024; greater stability for later cohorts Singapore Construction starts on Cross Island Line Phase 2; 6 MRT stations in S'pore's west ready by 2032 Asia 72-year-old man on diving trip to Malaysia's Pulau Tioman found dead on the beach Singapore $1.46b nickel scam: Ng Yu Zhi opts to remain silent after judge calls for his defence Asia Bali flights nixed after huge Indonesia volcano eruption Life How to cope with the heat when travelling: 5 expert-backed tips Anisimova ends Czech three-peat hopes with victory over Noskova Alcaraz resists red-hot Rublev to reach Wimbledon quarter-finals Norrie sees off ace-monster Jarry in thriller to reach last eight Siegemund stops lucky loser Sierra to reach Wimbledon quarter-finals Sabalenka passes Mertens test to reach Wimbledon quarter-finals Pavlyuchenkova beats Kartal to reach last eight despite line-calling glitch WIMBLEDON ORDER OF PLAY ON MONDAY (prefix number denotes seeding) CENTRE COURT (Play begins at 1230 GMT) 11-Alex de Minaur (Australia) v 6-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) 7-Mirra Andreeva (Russia) v 10-Emma Navarro (U.S.) 1-Jannik Sinner (Italy) v 19-Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria) COURT NUMBER ONE (Play begins at 1200 GMT) 18-Ekaterina Alexandrova (Russia) v Belinda Bencic (Switzerland) 10-Ben Shelton (U.S.) v Lorenzo Sonego (Italy) 8-Iga Swiatek (Poland) v 23-Clara Tauson (Denmark) COURT NUMBER TWO (Play begins at 1000 GMT) Marin Cilic (Croatia) v 22-Flavio Cobolli (Italy) 19-Liudmila Samsonova (Russia) v Jessica Bouzas Maneiro (Spain) REUTERS
