Texas Flood Death Toll: Families desperate as number reaches 52; 27 girls still unaccounted for as searches continue
Kerr County: 44 confirmed dead. Most victims were swept away along the Guadalupe River near Hunt and Ingram, where floodwaters rose over 25 feet in under an hour.
Travis County: 5 dead. Several cars were caught on flooded roads west of Austin.
Burnet County: 2 dead. A father and daughter were found in a trailer near Lake Buchanan.
Kendall County: 1 confirmed dead. A woman's body was recovered near Comfort after her car was washed off a rural crossing.
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The missing and the waiting
A region known for danger
Frantic rescues, bitter questions
Families swept away
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When the rain came, it wasn't gentle. It battered central Texas in the early hours of Friday, turning the Guadalupe River into a raging force that rose 26 feet in just 45 minutes. By Saturday night, the floods had killed at least 52 people, 15 of them children, and left rescuers combing through debris and mud for the missing.In Kerr County alone, 43 lives were lost. Many were campers at Camp Mystic , a Christian summer retreat that had stood along the river for nearly a century. It's here that 27 girls are still unaccounted for.'The camp was completely destroyed,' said Elinor Lester, 13, one of the survivors. 'A helicopter landed and started taking people away. It was really scary.'The death toll from the flash floods that ripped through Texas Hill Country has climbed to 52, including 15 children. Search teams are still combing through debris and swollen rivers, with 27 girls from Camp Mystic still missing. Here's what we know so far about where victims were found:Search teams have rescued more than 850 people so far — some from trees, others from rooftops. But there's a grim sense that time is slipping away. Dalton Rice, Kerrville City Manager, said, 'We're tracking the 'known missing' — the 27 — but there could be others. We simply don't know yet.'At an elementary school acting as a reunification centre, families wait for news. Some cling to hope. Others brace for the worst.'We still have people coming here looking for their loved ones. We've had a little success, but not much,' said Bobby Templeton, superintendent of Ingram Independent School District.This part of Texas has a nickname: flash flood alley . It's earned. The Hill Country is all rugged slopes and shallow soils that shed rain like a tin roof.'When it rains, water doesn't soak into the soil,' said Austin Dickson, CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country. 'It rushes down the hill.'In the past, officials had considered setting up a flood siren system along the river — like the tornado sirens in the Midwest. 'We know we get rains. We know the river rises. But nobody saw this coming,' said Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly. He admitted the plan for flood warnings never got off the ground, partly because of the cost.Inside Camp Mystic, the chaos came fast. Some campers crossed bridges roped together in knee-high water. Others were lifted out by helicopter. An 8-year-old girl from Alabama was among the confirmed dead. Jane Ragsdale, co-owner of Heart O' the Hills, another nearby camp, died in the flooding too.Governor Greg Abbott declared a state of disaster and urged Texans to pray. '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.Yet there's anger too. AccuWeather claimed its warnings, along with alerts from the National Weather Service, should have given officials enough time to evacuate vulnerable camps. 'These warnings should have provided officials with ample time to evacuate camps such as Camp Mystic and get people to safety,' the company said.Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem admitted the forecast had fallen short. 'A moderate flood watch issued on Thursday… did not accurately predict the extreme rainfall,' she said.Former NOAA director Rick Spinrad put it more bluntly: 'People's ability to prepare for these storms will be compromised. It undoubtedly means that additional lives will be lost and probably more property damage.'There's no shortage of horror stories. Erin Burgess and her teenage son clung to a tree for an hour after water poured into their house. 'My son and I floated to a tree where we hung onto it, and my boyfriend and my dog floated away. He was lost for a while, but we found them,' she said.Barry Adelman watched water drive his entire family — including his 94-year-old grandmother and his 9-year-old grandson — into the attic. 'I was having to look at my grandson in the face and tell him everything was going to be OK, but inside I was scared to death.'W. Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, promised that no one will give up. 'The process is going to keep going,' he said. 'We're not going to stop until we find everyone that's missing.'President Donald Trump offered prayers and federal aid. 'Our Brave First Responders are on site doing what they do best,' he posted.Yet for many families in the Hill Country, the truth is harder than any headline. Tonia Fucci summed up the mood as she stood in Comfort, a town downstream from Camp Mystic. 'Complete shock. I'm still in shock today. And with the rescues going on and helicopters, you just know 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.'Here's the thing. In places like this, rain can turn deadly overnight. The question is whether this time, someone should have seen it coming.(With inputs from Agencies)
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India Today
2 hours ago
- India Today
Texas flash floods kill 89, dozens missing including children at Camp Mystic
At least 89 people have been confirmed dead due to catastrophic flash floods in Texas. Torrential rain swept through Kerr County and surrounding areas, particularly along the Guadalupe River, causing widespread devastation. Among those missing are several girls attending Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp in the RAINFALL HITS OVERNIGHTAs reported by the Associated Press, the flooding began in the early hours of Friday, catching many residents off guard while they were asleep. The National Weather Service had issued a flood watch Thursday afternoon, followed by an urgent warning around 4 a.m. In just 45 minutes, the Guadalupe River rose by 26 feet after over a foot of rain fell overnight. The Texas Hill Country's dry and compact soil, unable to absorb water quickly, worsened the climb over debris on a bridge atop the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area. Officials in Kerr County reported 75 fatalities, including 27 reported by Reuters, A Christian all-girls camp in central Texas said on Monday that 27 campers and counsellors 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 Greg Abbott confirmed on Sunday that 41 individuals were officially listed as missing statewide. Local authorities are facing tough questions about the timing of flood alerts. Survivors described the event as a 'pitch-black wall of death' and said no emergency warnings reached them before the waters surged. Officials acknowledged communication gaps, citing power outages and limited cell coverage in rural are now underway to evaluate the region's emergency alert systems and potentially implement a more robust flood warning protocol. The flooding destroyed infrastructure, homes, and entire search for missing people along the banks of the Guadalupe River after recent flooding on Sunday.'It will take a long time to clean up, let alone rebuild,' said Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly. Relief efforts have begun, and President Donald Trump has announced plans to visit the affected area on Friday.- EndsMust Watch
Indian Express
3 hours ago
- Indian Express
Girls camp grieves loss of 27 campers and counselors in Texas floods that killed nearly 90 people
Flash flood warning systems: Crews picked through mountains of debris and waded into swollen rivers Monday in the search for victims of catastrophic flooding that killed nearly 90 people over the July Fourth weekend in Texas, including more than two dozen campers and counselors from an all-girls Christian camp. With additional rain on the way, more flooding still threatened in saturated parts of central Texas. Authorities said the death toll was sure to rise as crews looked for many people who were missing. Operators of Camp Mystic, a century-old summer camp in the Texas Hill Country, said they lost 27 campers and counselors, confirming their worst fears after a wall of water slammed into cabins built along the edge of the Guadalupe River. 'We have been in communication with local and state authorities who are tirelessly deploying extensive resources to search for our missing girls,' the camp said in a statement. Authorities later said that 10 girls and a counselor from the camp remain missing. The raging flash floods — among the nation's worst in decades — slammed into riverside camps and homes before daybreak Friday, pulling sleeping people out of their cabins, tents and trailers and dragging them for miles past floating tree trunks and automobiles. Some survivors were found clinging to trees. Piles of twisted trees sprinkled with mattresses, refrigerators, coolers and canoes now litter the riverbanks. Search-and-rescue teams used heavy equipment near Kerrville to remove large branches while volunteers covered in mud sorted through chunks of debris, piece by piece. In the Hill Country area, home to Camp Mystic and several other summer camps, searchers have found the bodies of 75 people, including 27 children, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said. Fourteen other deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, according to local officials. Gov. Greg Abbott said Sunday that 41 people were unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing. Authorities vowed that one of the next steps will be investigating whether enough warnings were issued and why some camps did not evacuate or move to higher ground in areas long vulnerable to flooding. Search-and-rescue crews at one staging area said Monday that more than 1,000 volunteers had been directed to an area of hard-hit Kerr County. Families were allowed to look around Camp Mystic beginning Sunday morning. A man whose 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. One family left with a blue footlocker. A teenage girl had tears running down her face as they slowly drove away and she gazed through the open window at the wreckage. Reagan Brown said his parents, in their 80s, managed to escape uphill as water inundated their home in the town of Hunt. When the couple learned that their 92-year-old neighbor was trapped in her attic, they went back and rescued her. 'Then they were able to reach their tool shed up higher ground, and neighbors throughout the early morning began to show up at their tool shed, and they all rode it out together,' Brown said. Among those confirmed dead were an 8-year-old girl from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who was at the camp, and the director of another camp up the road. Two school-age sisters from Dallas were missing Sunday after their cabin was swept away. Their parents were staying in a different cabin and were safe, but the girls' grandparents were unaccounted for. On Thursday the National Weather Service 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 step that alerts the public to imminent danger. Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months of rain. Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said one of the challenges is that many camps are in places with poor cellphone service. President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration Sunday for Kerr County and said he would likely visit Friday. He said it wasn't the time to talk about whether he was still planning to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency and added that he doesn't plan to rehire any of the federal meteorologists who were fired this year as part of widespread government spending cuts. 'This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it,' the president said. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said recent cuts to FEMA and the National Weather Service did not delay any warnings. 'There's a time to have political fights, there's a time to disagree. This is not that time,' Cruz said. 'There will be a time to find out what could been done differently. My hope is in time we learn some lessons to implement the next time there is a flood.'
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Time of India
Texas flooding: Kerr County said no to alert sirens over cost — now it's facing the consequences
Kerr County Siren System Rejected Over Cost Concerns State Bill to Improve Alerts Failed in Senate Lawmakers Now Rethinking Their Vote Live Events Flash Flood Strikes While Residents Slept No Backup Alert System in Place Governor Acknowledges Need for Change FAQs (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel When the Guadalupe River rose from one foot to over 34 feet in just a few hours, inundating parts of Kerr County in the early morning on Friday while most residents were asleep and by the time many realized what was happening, it was already too late, as per a report. This has led to increased scrutiny about Kerr County's past decisions to reject an outdoor siren alert system because of cost concerns, as reported by Latin Kerr County is located in a flood-prone region of the Texas Hill Country, there were proposals for siren-based warning systems, but they were previously rejected because of the financial burden on local taxpayers, according to the this year, an effort at the state level to improve the emergency communication infrastructure, House Bill 13, failed in the Texas Senate, as reported by Latin Times. Bill 13 was to fund the improved disaster alert systems and provided grants for counties to build infrastructure like sirens and radio towers, as per the READ: Trump's tariffs may split the world into 3 rival blocs — here's where each nation could land But a few lawmakers, like state Rep. Wes Virdell, had voted against it because of its projected $500 million cost, though several now are saying that they would reconsider their stance as flash flooding killed about 82 people statewide, with 68 of them in Kerr County alone, according to Latin Times who were killed were attending camps or camping along the river, and even though mobile alerts were issued via the National Weather Service, many residents are believed to have not seen the warnings because they were issued in the early morning hours, or many even lacked access to mobile devices, as per the READ: Flyers fume as Southwest Airlines shocks passengers with policy changes — key updates you need to know According to the report, only a county-wide siren system could have served as a secondary, audible layer of alert, which Kerr County never implemented. Now the local and state officials are trying to search, conduct rescue operations, and support survivors, as per Latin Gov. Greg Abbott now admitted to the potential value of better alert systems and highlighted that future legislation might address the issue, but he declined to commit to including it in the special session beginning July 21, as reported by Latin READ: Wolfspeed stock soars over 100% after shock CFO appointment — who is Gregor van Issum? The county had considered outdoor sirens in the past but rejected the idea, citing cost rains caused the Guadalupe River to rise over 34 feet in just a few hours, as per Latin Times.
