Texas floods: search continues with dozens dead or missing

The Guardian

9 hours ago

Update:
Date: 2025-07-06T11:30:53.000Z
Title: Camp Mystic
Content: Hundreds of rescuers searching for those missing in devastating floods including girls from , a Christian youth camp
Texas continues grim flood recovery
Yohannes Lowe
Sun 6 Jul 2025 13.30 CEST
First published on Sun 6 Jul 2025 10.47 CEST
From
10.47am CEST
10:47
We are restarting our live coverage of the devastating Texas floods.
Hundreds of rescuers are desperately searching for people missing in central Texas, after torrential rains caused devastating flooding that killed at least 51 people, including 15 children.
The total number of missing people is not yet clear, but officials say that 27 of them are girls who had been attending , a Christian youth camp located along the River Guadalupe in Kerr County, the area worst affected by the flood.
The river rose more than 20 feet in less than two hours overnight into the July 4 holiday.
The flooding in Kerr County killed at least 43 people, including 15 children, and at least eight people died in nearby counties, including Travis County and Tom Green County.
Searchers used helicopters, boats and drones to look for victims and to rescue people stranded in trees and from camps isolated by washed-out roads.
Authorities said about 850 people had been rescued, with more than 1,700 people involved in the search-and-rescue operation.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott vowed that authorities will work around the clock and said new areas were being searched as the water receded. He declared Sunday a day of prayer for the state.
In a post on X, he wrote that was 'horrendously ravaged in ways unlike I've seen in any natural disaster' and vowed that rescuers would find 'every girl who was in those cabins'.
Stay with us as we bring you the latest updates on the floods throughout the day.
1.30pm CEST
13:30
Jonathan Porter, the chief meteorologist at AccuWeather, a private weather forecasting company that uses National Weather Service data, said it appeared evacuations and other proactive measures could have been undertaken to reduce the risk of fatalities.
In a statement, he said:
People, businesses, and governments should take action based on flash flood warnings that are issued, regardless of the rainfall amounts that have occurred or are forecast.
As we mentioned in a previous post, local officials in Texas have said they had not expected such an intense downpour that was the equivalent of months' worth of rain for the area.
'We know we get rains. We know the river rises,' said Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, the county's top elected official. 'But nobody saw this coming.'
As much as 10 inches of intense rainfall fell within a few hours overnight in central Kerr County on Friday, causing the Guadalupe River's banks to burst at about 4am local time.
1.13pm CEST
13:13
Pope Leo has sent condolences to the families of devastating floods in Texas which killed at least 51 people and left nearly 30 others missing, many of them children.
Following Angelus prayers, the pontiff said:
I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were in a summer camp in the disaster caused by flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas. We pray for them.
12.30pm CEST
12:30
Here are some of the latest images coming out from Texas after devastating floods forced authorities to launch one of the largest search-and-rescue efforts in the state's recent history:
Updated
at 12.31pm CEST
12.02pm CEST
12:02
US president Donald Trump addressed the deadly floods on Saturday. On his Truth Social platform, he said his administration was working with state and local officials on the ground in Texas to respond 'to the tragic flooding' that occurred a day before.
'Our Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, will be there shortly,' Trump wrote.
Speaking at a press conference alongside Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Saturday, Noem pledged that the Trump administration would use all available resources to help the state in its rescue efforts, including by bringing in more fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters to aid with operations.
She said the government would make it a priority to upgrade National Weather Service technology used to deliver warnings.
Noem said:
We know that everyone wants more warning time, and that's why we're working to upgrade the technology that's been neglected for far too long to make sure families have as much advance notice as possible.
For context: Some state and local officials have said the NWS failed to provide accurate forecasts ahead of Friday's destructive flooding.
'The original forecast that we received Wednesday from the National Weather Service predicted 3-6 inches of rain in the Concho Valley and 4-8 inches in the Hill Country,' Texas emergency management chief W. Nim Kidd told journalists on Friday. 'The amount of rain that fell at this specific location was never in any of those forecasts.'
11.35am CEST
11:35
The father of Blair, 13, and Brooke Harber, 11, confirmed to CNN yesterday that his daughters had died in the Texas flooding after having gone missing in Kerr County.
RJ Harber told CNN that Blair 'was a gifted student and had a generous kind heart' and that Brooke 'was like a light in any room, people gravitated to her and she made them laugh and enjoy the moment'.
Neither Blair or Brooke were at when they went missing.
Updated
at 11.39am CEST
11.03am CEST
11:03
Questions have arose as to why the severity of the flooding in the middle of the night on the Fourth of July holiday caught many officials by surprise.
Here is an extract from a story by my colleagues Oliver Milman, José Olivares and Robert Mackey who have looked into the preparations for the flood and examined how federal policy may have impacted local projection capabilities:
Officials defended their preparations for severe weather and their response but said they had not expected such an intense downpour that was, in effect, the equivalent of months' worth of rain for the area.
One National Weather Service (NWS) forecast this week had called for only 3-6in (76-152mm) of rain, said Kidd, of the Texas division of emergency management.
'It did not predict the amount of rain that we saw,' he said.
Saturday's deaths renewed questions about whether it was wise for the Trump administration to implement deep budget and job cuts at the NWS – among other federal government agencies – since his second presidency began in January.
Updated
at 11.06am CEST
10.54am CEST
10:54
, a nearly century-old Christian girls camp, had 700 girls in residence at the time of the flood, according to Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick.
Early Friday morning, shortly after the deluge hit, over 100 game wardens and an aviation group tried to access the camp, but they weren't able to enter to start rescuing children until after midday, CNN reports.
One of the girls attending the camp, Renee Smajstrla, who was nine years old, was confirmed to be among the dead by her uncle.
'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,' Shawn Salta wrote on Facebook. 'We are thankful she was with her friends and having the time of her life.'
said in an email to parents of the campers that if they had not been contacted directly, their child had been accounted for.
Another girls' camp in the area, Heart O' the Hills, said on its website that co-owner Jane Ragsdale had died in the flood but no campers had been present as it was between sessions.
Updated
at 11.06am CEST
10.47am CEST
10:47
We are restarting our live coverage of the devastating Texas floods.
Hundreds of rescuers are desperately searching for people missing in central Texas, after torrential rains caused devastating flooding that killed at least 51 people, including 15 children.
The total number of missing people is not yet clear, but officials say that 27 of them are girls who had been attending , a Christian youth camp located along the River Guadalupe in Kerr County, the area worst affected by the flood.
The river rose more than 20 feet in less than two hours overnight into the July 4 holiday.
The flooding in Kerr County killed at least 43 people, including 15 children, and at least eight people died in nearby counties, including Travis County and Tom Green County.
Searchers used helicopters, boats and drones to look for victims and to rescue people stranded in trees and from camps isolated by washed-out roads.
Authorities said about 850 people had been rescued, with more than 1,700 people involved in the search-and-rescue operation.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott vowed that authorities will work around the clock and said new areas were being searched as the water receded. He declared Sunday a day of prayer for the state.
In a post on X, he wrote that was 'horrendously ravaged in ways unlike I've seen in any natural disaster' and vowed that rescuers would find 'every girl who was in those cabins'.
Stay with us as we bring you the latest updates on the floods throughout the day.