Who are the Texas flood victims?
Julian Ryan, 27 - Died saving his family
Heroic father Julian Ryan (left), 27, used his final moments to save his family from the fast-moving waters. The father-of-two selflessly punched through a window of their home in Kerrville, just off the Guadalupe River, to help his mother, his fiancée and the couple's 6-year-old and 13-month-old children escape to the roof. Despite the severe injury, Ryan stayed focused on getting his family out safely. But with emergency responders unable to reach them in time, the father of two succumbed to his wounds hours later. But, the glass tore through his arm, severing an artery and nearly detaching the limb. His final words were, 'I'm sorry, I'm not going to make it. I love y'all.'
Reece and Paula Zunker
High school soccer coach, Reece Zunker (top right), and his wife, Paula (top left) were among those who died in the devastating floods that swept through Texas on Friday. Reece was teacher and soccer coach at Tivy High School in Kerrville, and Paula was formerly a teacher at the school. The couple's two young children, Lyle (left) and Holland (right), were both still missing as of Sunday afternoon. 'It is with profound sadness that we share the heartbreaking news of the passing of one of our beloved teachers, Reece Zunker, and his wife, Paula, who tragically lost their lives in the flash flood on July 4th,' the Kerrville Independent School District said in a statement. 'Reece was a passionate educator and a beloved soccer coach. His unwavering dedication to our students, athletes, and the Tivy community touched countless lives and will never be forgotten. 'Paula, a former Tivy teacher, also left a lasting mark on our community. The care and impact she shared with her students continue to be felt, even years later.'
Jeff Wilson, 55 - Beloved teacher
Renee Smajstrla, 8
Janie Hunt, 9 - Cousin of the Kansas City Chiefs owner
Sarah Marsh, 8
Alabama native Sarah Marsh (pictured) died after the waters swept through Camp Mystic, according to her family. 'Thank you for the outpouring of love and sympathy! We will always feel blessed to have had this beautiful spunky ray of light in our lives. She will live on in our hearts forever! We love you so much sweet Sarah,' her grandmother said, according to The Kerrville Daily Times.
Lila Bonner, 9 - Attending camp with her best friend
The family of Lila Bonner (right), who was sharing a cabin at the camp with her best friend Eloise Peck, confirmed her passing to NBC News. 'In the midst of our unimaginable grief, we ask for privacy and are unable to confirm any details at this time,' the family said. 'We ache with all who loved her and are praying endlessly for others to be spared from this tragic loss.'
Eloise Peck, 8
Dallas girl Eloise Peck (right), who recently finished second grade at Bradfield Elementary with her best friend Lilia, also died in the flood. 'Eloise was literally friends with everyone. She loved spaghetti but not more than she loved dogs and animals,' her mother, Missy Peck, told FOX 4 . 'She passed away with her cabinmate and best friend Lila Bonner who also died. Eloise had a family who loved her fiercely for the 8 years she was with us. Especially her Mommy.'
Blair Harber, 13 - Died holding on to younger sister
Two sisters, Blair (left) and Brooke Harber (right), were among those who were killed in the deadly Texas floods. They were not attending Camp Mystic when the natural disaster struck. The sisters were with their grandparents at a cabin along the Guadalupe River when they were swept away, reported FOX 4. The girls' parents were staying at another cabin and are safe. Their grandparents, Charlene and Mike Harber, are missing. As the parents were desperately searching for the girls, they checked their phones and saw they each received a text from their daughters that read 'I love you', timestamped at 3.30am. The girls also sent a similar message to their grandfather in Michigan.
Brooke Harber, 11
Brooke Harber (center), Blair's younger sister, was confirmed dead over the holiday weekend. The sisters were found holding hands. Blair (left of center) and Brooker were eighth grade and sixth grade students respectively at St. Rita Catholic School, according to their priest, Father Joshua J. Whitfield. 'Even if we may never fully understand why such tragedies happen, we are called to respond with love, compassion, and prayer,' Whitfield said. 'We will honor Blair and Brooke's lives, the light they shared, and the joy they brought to everyone who knew them.'
Richard 'Dick' Eastland, 70 - Hero camp director
Beloved Camp Mystic Director Richard 'Dick' Eastland (pictured), 70, died while trying to rescue campers from the biblical rushing waters. Eastland's nephew, Gardner Eastland, confirmed the death in a Facebook post on Saturday. The camp director's wife, Tweety, was found safe at their home, according to Texas Public Radio. Father-of-four Eastland died in a helicopter on the way to a Houston hospital, Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly told the Washington Post. The Eastlands have owned and operated Camp Mystic since 1974, and many viewed him as a father figure at the camp.
Chloe Childress, 18
Camp Mystic counselor Chloe Childress (pictured) also lost her life in the disaster. The Kinkaid School graduate was about to start studying at the University of Texas at Austin in the fall. 'Whether it was sharing her own challenges to ease someone's burden or quietly cheering a teammate or classmate through a tough day, Chloe made space for others to feel safe, valued, and brave,' Jonathan Eades, the head of The Kinkaid School, wrote in a letter to the school community. 'She understood what it meant to be part of a community, and more than that, she helped build one.'
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Daily Mail
33 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Texas flood survivors search for the missing and sift through ruins as they ask why there were no warnings
The stench of death still hangs over the Guadalupe River, three days after the watercourse spectacularly burst its banks and flooded the small Texas towns of Ingram, Kerrville, Center Point, and Hunt early on Independence Day. T he tragedy has claimed at least 89 lives, while 41 people are still missing including 10 young girls from a Christian summer camp. Most of the victims were swept away in the early hours of Friday morning after the river rose 23ft in a matter of minutes. Alerts that should have woken them to the impending danger never arrived, with many in areas with no signal or with alarms that didn't sound. 'There were no warnings on my phone until about eight in the morning which is long after this happened,' said Jamie Flick, 48, who lives in Ingram. 'That's crazy. The best thing I can think of is that they just didn't expect this here, but we have a lot of smaller tributaries that run into the Guadalupe. 'If it rains up that way, you're gonna be hit here, right? We don't know why the warnings weren't here, but they just weren't. It's scary.' Flick was speaking to the Daily Mail while searching a local trailer park, upended by the floods, for missing pets. All around are the signs of desolation. Hidden among loblolly pines that once lined the river banks are the corpses of deer and other wildlife killed in the disaster, rotting in the 84F Texas heat. The reek of dead fish flipped out of the water adds to the stench which mingles gruesomely with the smell of smoke emanating from the bonfires of tumbled tree branches set by cleanup crews. Bridges, some caved in, are swarmed with rescue teams accompanied by cadaver dogs hunting desperately for any sign of life among the devastation. Once an oasis of rural peace, there is quiet no more. Sirens constantly blare as police teams and first responders screech past on Highway 39, the country road that connects Kerrville with Ingram and the tiny town of Hunt where 27 children lost their lives at Camp Mystic. Stories of near misses and death are everywhere. Flick tells of a friend from the same trailer park who woke in the small hours to find water pouring into her home. 'They got out through a back window,' Flick said. 'She was able to get out with her dog and her cat, they got stuck in a tree, her with her cat on her head. 'Her dog was on a harness, but she let him go at some point for whatever reason and couldn't get him back. Eventually a neighbor saved her and the cat.' Bambi Harrell, 62, spent Sunday helping friends pick up the shattered pieces of their lives, told Daily Mail she had never witnessed disaster of this scale in her 25 years in the area She added: 'They keep downplaying it, but I've never seen anything like this. They keep saying that 30 or 50 years ago, we had something like this. 'These trees are hundreds of years old, and they're uprooted and they're down. 'We've always had these huge trees, and the huge trees are gone now. So, it's nothing that's ever seen here before.' Flick is not alone in her assessment of the devastation wrought by the floods. Bambi Harrell, 62, who spent Sunday helping friends pick up the shattered pieces of their lives, said: 'I've lived here 25 years and I've seen a lot of flash flooding but nothing like this. 'We have some amazing first responders here that are going above and beyond.' She added: 'I thought I was prepared for this, but I was not. I've never seen anything like this. It's devastating.' Driving through Kerrville and the neighboring towns of Ingram and Center Point, the scale of the devastation quickly becomes clear. A road bridge across the river was partially caved in, while huge loblollies lie snapped in half like discarded toothpicks. Crushed cars are mangled on the Guadalupe's banks while upturned boats were scattered around – ripped from their moorings by the sheer force of the current. Elsewhere, homes are ripped up, including in River's Edge – a small leafy row of trailer homes just a few feet from the Guadalupe in Ingram. It was there that dad-of-two Julian Ryan, 27, died a hero after punching through a window so his family could escape – at the cost of almost severing his arm. Speaking to CBS affiliate KHOU in the aftermath, his devastated widow Christine Wilson said: 'It severed his artery in his arm and almost cut it clean off.' Julian Ryan, 27, is being hailed a hero after he used his final moments to save his family from the fast-moving waters. He died after punching through a window of their trailer home and severing his artery Inside Ryan's trailer, flood marks almost reached the ceiling while the family's furniture was tossed around like toys by the water Heartbreakingly, despite repeated 911 calls, Ryan could not be saved – telling his family, 'I'm sorry, I'm not going to make it. I love y'all.' Daily Mail photos of the trailer home show the catastrophic damage it suffered, with flood marks almost reaching the ceiling while the family's furniture was tossed around like toys. Mud is splattered up the inside walls while one side of the property was cracked and bent, with bits of the corrugated iron exterior ripped off. Other trailers in the neighborhood had been shifted off their foundations – with some landing three streets away. 'It's just total devastation,' said neighbor Ray Lackey. Like Ryan's, his trailer home was wrecked in the flood and is now filled with mud that has destroyed most of his possessions – including irreplaceable photographs of his late father and sister. 'There are families that lost their lives, people who were killed that I know. It's hard. I lost everything and everybody here – and I mean everybody here – lost everything.' Lackey, a carpenter, was out of town when the flood hit but, with no insurance, he now faces an uphill battle to get his life back on track. 'Hopefully somebody will help us out somehow. I wish I would have had insurance, really, right?' he said. 'I never would have thought anything like this would have happened. The river has never come up. That's why I don't, and I've lived here for a good amount of time.' On nearby streets, houses still stood but were packed with smelly river mud while another property – which had been named Paradise by its distraught owner – was playing host to a phalanx of police vehicles. Meanwhile, the usually serene TX-39 highway that cuts through town had been turned into a snarl of cop cars and big rigs hauling specialist gear, such as air boats and cherry pickers equipped with tracks. 'Before this, this was just a beautiful, peaceful, lovely place,' said Lackey. 'It was very quiet. Nobody messed with nobody. 'Everybody helped out around here. And now everybody is kind of coming together. It helps having people like them around and now they're coming out to help.'
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Eight more deaths confirmed in Texas floods - bringing total to at least 90
At least 90 people have died in the flash floods that have left a trail of destruction across Texas, officials said. Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said on Monday that 75 bodies had been recovered from the area, which is seven more than the previous figure for the county. Sheriff Leitha said the number of dead includes 48 adults and 27 children. The total figure is seven higher than the 68 deaths that had earlier been confirmed in Kerr County. In a separate news conference in Williamson County, officials there said a second person had been confirmed dead in the area. One official warned that debris was posing a threat to rescuers out searching for bodies, adding: "The bodies that we're looking for could be hidden beneath 20ft of mud, trees and debris". An official also warned rescuers had to be wary of "snakes and skunks" in the water. He asked people to keep away from the floodwater. One death had earlier been confirmed in Tom Green, while there had been four fatalities in Burnet, six fatalities in Travis County and two in Kendall. Sheriff Leitha has said 15 of the 90 confirmed dead were still unidentified. In Kerr County, at least 27 deaths were confirmed after some of the worst flooding struck a girls' summer camp called Camp Mystic. Among those killed were campers as young as eight, a camp counsellor and the camp's director. At least 41 people are still missing in the state - including 10 girls from the camp. Texas Senator Ted Cruz spoke at the same news conference where the latest death figures were confirmed and said: "Texas is grieving right now, the pain, the shock of what has transpired these last few days has broken the heart of our state. "Those numbers [the number of dead] are continuing to go up... that's every parent's nightmare, every mum and dad." He said he had picked up his own daughter from a camp in the area last week. 3:25 Mr Cruz added: "Over the last several days, I've spoken to multiple parents, scared out of their minds. "There's still ten girls and one counsellor from Camp Mystic that are not accounted for. "And the pain and agony of not knowing your child's whereabouts, it's the worst thing imaginable." He added: "You know what I'd do? What I did when this happened? Just go hug your kids. "Because I've got to tell you, I hugged my girls with tears in my eyes." The flooding comes after the Trump administration made cuts to the National Weather Service (NWS) - with Texas officials having criticised the weather service by claiming it failed to warn the public about the impending danger. Meanwhile, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer asked the Department of Commerce's acting inspector general on Monday to probe whether staffing vacancies at the NWS's San Antonio office contributed to "delays, gaps, or diminished accuracy" in forecasting the flooding. The NWS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Mr Schumer's letter but earlier defended its forecasting and emergency management. Apparently referencing people who might claim the Trump administration's cuts played a role in worsening disaster, Mr Cruz said at the news conference: "I think this is not a time for partisan finger-pointing and attacks." Dalton Rice, the city manager of Kerrville in Kerr County, was asked whether evacuation warnings could have been issued earlier. He said: "It's very tough to make those calls because we also don't want to cry wolf. "You know, we want to make sure that we activated [it] at the right time." He added: "We had first responders getting swept away, responding to the first areas of rainfall. That's how quick it happened. "They were driving to these areas and one of them got swept off the road." Texas Game Wardens had arrived at Camp Mystic on Friday afternoon and began evacuating campers. A rope was tied so girls could hang on as they walked across a bridge, the floodwaters rushing around their knees. Elinor Lester, 13, said she was evacuated with her cabinmates by helicopter after wading through floodwaters. She recalled startling awake around 1:30am as thunder crackled and water pelted the cabin windows. Ms Lester was among the older girls housed on elevated ground known as Senior Hill. Cabins housing the younger campers, who can start attending at age eight, are situated along the riverbanks and were the first to flood, she said. "The camp was completely destroyed," she said. "It was really scary." Her mother, Elizabeth Lester, said her son was nearby at Camp La Junta and also escaped. A counsellor there woke up to find water rising in the cabin, opened a window and helped the boys swim out. 1:04 Camp La Junta and nearby Camp Waldemar said in Instagram posts that all campers and staff were safe. It comes after Texas agriculture minister Sid Miller told Fox News that cattle and livestock were found on the "tops of trees" in the state due to a "26ft wall of water". More heavy rain is expected in the region over the next two days, with flood alerts in place until 7pm local time today. US President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration yesterday and says he will "probably" visit Texas on Friday. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Here is where the flash flooding has hit Texas
Maps show the extent of the devastating flash flooding in central Texas, which has left 95 people dead and over 40 more missing. The Guadalupe River surged to nearly 35 feet in Comfort, Texas, on Friday, rising by 20 feet in roughly 95 minutes. Maps revealed that nearby Kerr County was disproportionately impacted, with authorities announcing in a Monday press conference that 75 people had been killed, including 48 adults and 27 children. In Austin, a dozen people were also killed in associated flooding, and 14 remain unaccounted for, according to My San Antonio. Three people were reported to have died in Burnett County, two in Williamson County, one in Tom Green County, and two more in Kendall County, KXAN reported. In Kerr County, search and rescue operations were continuing but first responders were running into technical challenges. There were also power outages, and 40 downed power lines. Officials said 10 girls from Camp Mystic – a Christian girls' summer camp – and one counselor remained missing. The camp reported Monday that 27 members had been killed. 'That's every parents' nightmare,' Republican Sen. Ted Cruz told reporters. Responding to a question about an emergency warning system, Cruz said there had always been a risk of flooding along the river and that everyone would evacuate people if they could go back in time. 'Evacuation is a delicate balance,' said Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice at the same press conference. 'Because if you evacuate too late, you then risk putting buses or cars or vehicles or campers on roads into low-water areas trying to get them out, which then can make it even more challenging. Because these flash floods happen very quickly.' He noted that first responders had been swept off the road while trying to help. City leadership and local forecasters have been the subject of intense scrutiny regarding emergency response, including over the timing of alerts and how information from the National Weather Service was disseminated on Friday morning. Forecasters had warned about a 'particularly dangerous situation,' with between five and 10 inches falling in south-central Kerr County over a period of just three to six hours. Other meteorologists and former National Weather Service employees have defended the actions of the San Antonio, Austin, and San Angelo offices. But, officials have repeatedly said there was more rain than had been predicted. '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 reporters last week. 'The amount of rain that fell at this specific location was never in any of those forecasts.' Flood watches and warnings remained in effect throughout the day on Monday near the Rio Grande River. 'There remains a threat of flash flooding from slow moving heavy rains overnight and through the day on Monday somewhere over the watch area,' the City of Kerrville warned on Facebook.
