Watch live: Gov. Greg Abbott to provide update on Central Texas flooding
Rescuers scoured flooded riverbanks littered with mangled trees Saturday and turned over rocks in the search for more than two dozen children from a girls' camp and many others missing after a wall of water blasted down a river in the Texas Hill Country. The storm killed at least 27 people, including nine children.
The destructive fast-moving waters rose 26 feet in just 45 minutes before daybreak Friday, washing away homes and vehicles. The danger was not over as torrential rains continued pounding communities outside San Antonio on Saturday and flash flood warnings and watches remained in effect.
Searchers used helicopters, boats and drones to look for victims and to rescue stranded people in trees and from camps isolated by washed-out roads.
"People need to know today will be a hard day," said Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring, Jr. "Please pray for our community."
Authorities were coming under growing scrutiny Saturday over whether the camps and residents in places long vulnerable to flooding received proper warning and whether enough preparations were made.
The hills along the Guadalupe River in central Texas are dotted with century-old youth camps and campgrounds where generations of families have come to swim and enjoy the outdoors. The area is especially popular around the July Fourth holiday, making it more difficult to know how many are missing.
"We don't even want to begin to estimate at this time," said City Manager Dalton Rice said on Saturday morning.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
4 minutes ago
- CBS News
Alaska's capital sees record glacier-related flooding as river tops 16.6 feet
Alaska's capital city faced record floodwaters Wednesday stemming from a basin dammed by Alaska's Mendenhall Glacier, which released an "outburst flood" that threatened parts of Juneau. Water levels in the Mendenhall River reached unprecedented heights in the early morning hours and peaked at around 7:15 a.m. local time before beginning to fall, the National Weather Service said. At its peak, the river's flood stage rose to 16.65 feet, topping the previous record of 15.99 feet set last year, according to forecasters. Some Juneau residents in the flood zone evacuated Tuesday, heeding guidance from officials who warned the community: "Don't wait, Evacuate TONIGHT." On Tuesday morning, authorities confirmed water had started escaping the ice dam, with flooding expected into Wednesday. The Mendenhall Glacier is about 12 miles from Juneau, home to 30,000 people, and is a popular tourist attraction due to its proximity to Alaska's capital city and easy access on walking trails. Homes on the city's outskirts are within miles of Mendenhall Lake, which sits below the glacier, and many front the Mendenhall River, into which the glacial outburst is flowing. The National Weather Service said it expected flooding to to peak around 8 a.m. to noon local time (noon-4 p.m. ET) on Wednesday. Later, the NWS said the peak was probably going to occur closer to 8 a.m. local time. "This will be a new record, based on all of the information that we have," Nicole Ferrin, a weather service meteorologist, told a news conference Tuesday. Flooding from the basin has become an annual concern since 2011, and in recent years has swept away houses and swamped hundreds of homes. Government agencies installed temporary barriers this year in hopes of protecting several hundred homes in the inundation area from widespread damage. The flooding happens because a smaller glacier near Mendenhall Glacier retreated — a casualty of the warming climate — and left a basin, known as Suicide Basin, that fills with rainwater and snowmelt each spring and summer. When the water creates enough pressure, it forces its way under or around the ice dam created by the Mendenhall Glacier, enters Mendenhall Lake and eventually flows down the Mendenhall River, as it did Tuesday. Before the basin began overtopping, the water level was rising rapidly — as much as 4 feet per day, according to the National Weather Service. The city saw successive years of record flooding in 2023 and 2024 — with the river last August cresting at 15.99 feet, about a foot over the prior record set a year earlier — and flooding extending farther into the Mendenhall Valley. This year's flooding was predicted to crest at between 16.3 and 16.8 feet, the weather service said, but then said an even higher 16.75 feet was more likely. Last year, nearly 300 residences were damaged. Video posted on social media two years ago showed towering trees behind a home falling into the rushing Mendenhall River as the water ate away at the bank. Eventually, the home, teetering at the edge, also collapsed into the river. A large outburst can release some 15 billion gallons of water, according to the University of Alaska Southeast and Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center. That's the equivalent of nearly 23,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. During last year's flood, the flow rate in the rushing Mendenhall River was about half that of Niagara Falls, the researchers say. City officials responded to concerns from property owners this year by working with state, federal and tribal entities to install a temporary levee along roughly 2.5 miles of riverbank in an attempt to guard against widespread flooding. The 10,000 "Hesco" barriers are essentially giant sandbags intended to protect more than 460 properties completely during an 18-foot flood event, said emergency manager Ryan O'Shaughnessy. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is at the start of what's expected to be a yearslong process of studying conditions in the region and examining options for a more permanent solution, such as a levee. The timeline has angered some residents, who say it's unreasonable. Outburst floods are expected to continue as long as the Mendenhall Glacier acts as an ice dam to seal off the basin, which could span another 25 to 60 years, according to the university and science center researchers.
CBS News
4 minutes ago
- CBS News
Flood watch in effect for Philadelphia region as heat, humidity and storms make comeback
We knew it wouldn't last. The somewhat cooler and drier start to the week is over, and the muggy air is now making a not-so-subtle return. High pressure over the western Atlantic, what we call the "Bermuda High," is pulling warmer, stickier air into our region today. Dew points will climb into the low to mid 70s, and with afternoon highs in the upper 80s to low 90s, it will feel more like the upper 90s. No heat advisory is in effect, but the combination of warmth and humidity will make it feel noticeably uncomfortable compared to the past week. A cold front pushing in from the west will be the trigger for late-day and evening showers and thunderstorms. The setup favors slow-moving storms, meaning heavy downpours could quickly lead to localized flash flooding. The Storm Prediction Center has us in a marginal risk for severe weather, while the Weather Prediction Center flags the area for possible excessive rainfall. Damaging winds are possible, but flooding is the main concern. The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch from 2 p.m. until 1 a.m. for most of the CBS News Philadelphia coverage area through late Wednesday night. The watch includes Philadelphia, Delaware and parts of Chester and Montgomery counties in Pennsylvania, Camden, Gloucester, Mercer, Middlesex, Salem, Somerset and parts of Burlington counties in New Jersey and New Castle County in Delaware. The front won't fully clear right away. It's expected to stall nearby Thursday. This means clouds will hang around, and scattered showers or storms could pop up again during the day. Temperatures will still be warm, topping out in the mid to upper 80s, though the humidity will stay high. By Friday, the system will finally drift offshore, and high pressure from the north will start to move in. That will help lower humidity levels, especially north and west of the city, but it will still be seasonably hot with highs near 90 degrees. The comfortable stretch is over, at least for now. We're in for a classic August combo: heat, humidity and the chance for drenching thunderstorms, before things dial back just a touch heading into the weekend.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Record Chattanooga rainfall leaves 3 dead, prompts state of emergency
Torrential rain slammed the Chattanooga, Tennessee, area Tuesday night, leading to water rescues, flooded roadways, and toppled trees. In East Ridge, a suburb just south of the city, a falling tree crushed a car after midnight, killing a man, woman and their child, according to the Associated Press. Hamilton County's mayor declared a local state of emergency after downpours shattered Chattanooga's daily rainfall record. "Officially at the airport, Chattanooga had 6.42 inches of rainfall yesterday, with most of that falling between noon and 8 p.m.," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dan Pydynowski said. "That was a record amount of rainfall for the date, easily breaking the old record of 1.93 inches of rainfall that fell on August 12, 2013." An AccuWeather Ambient weather station in Rising Fawn, Georgia, south of Chattanooga, reported 8.39 inches of rain during the event. More storms to the west of the city Tuesday morning caused flood warnings between Tullahoma and South Pittsburg, Tennessee. Roads were also reported underwater near Lynchburg. A flash flood watch is in effect for much of central and eastern Tennessee into early Wednesday night as more showers and thunderstorms can occur today into tonight, and some of them can contain additional flooding downpours. More showers and thunderstorms are expected across the eastern part of the state through the weekend, Pydynowski says. Storm coverage will be more widespread Thursday, then become less active on Friday and the weekend. Solve the daily Crossword
