KERR COUNTY, Texas (AP)—A July Fourth weekend deluge in Texas caused catastrophic flash flooding that has killed at least 89 people.
Camp Mystic in Kerr County says Monday morning that it is “grieving the loss” of 27 campers and counselors as the search continues for victims of the disaster. The flooding sent a wall of water through the century-old summer camp Friday.
The risk of life-threatening flooding was still high in central Texas with more rain on the way.
The Texas Hill Country is home to several summer camps. Searchers there have found the bodies of 75 people, including 27 children. Fourteen other deaths have been reported in other parts of Texas.
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Moisture powered the storm from many directions
The warm water of the Gulf fueled the moist atmosphere, and even more moisture came from areas over the Pacific Ocean to the west.
Remnants of moisture from Tropical Storm Barry also lingered over Texas because the jet stream, a current of air that moves weather patterns, wasn’t there to push it away.
The combination gave the storm plenty of fuel once it got started.
Meteorologists said that an atmosphere warmed by human-caused climate change can hold more moisture and allow bad storms to dump more rain, though it’s hard to connect specific storms to a warming planet so soon after they occur.
A Camp Mystic nurse captured the escape in a series of TikTok videos
A video posted by Devon Paige shows girls on a bus singing the lyrics to “Pass It On,” a Christian hymn written by Kurt Kaiser.
“I wish for you, my friend,” they chant, their bus rolling past toppled trees, and a rescue vehicle, flashers on. “This happiness that I’ve found.”
As the bus passes a National Guard Jeep, the terrified chorus sings, “I’ll shout it from the mountaintop.” In unison, they shout, “Praise God.”
The Mexican consulate in San Antonio is helping 30 Mexican people affected by the floods
Most of those requesting assistance needed help replacing their passports, President Claudia Sheinbaum said. Nine people asked for help to return to Mexico.
Sheinbaum said proudly that two Mexican girls helped to rescue other girls.
She said that the consulate is “in constant communication with the families, and when weather conditions permit, they will visit the shelters.”
Cruz says recent cuts to FEMA and the National Weather Service didn’t impact late warnings
“This is not a time for partisan finger-pointing and attacks,” the Republican senator said. “There will be a time to find out what could have been done differently. My hope is, in time, we learn some lessons to implement the next time there is a flood.”
Sen. Ted Cruz says he picked up his daughter from a camp in the area just a week ago
Cruz said the situation in Kerr County is “every parent’s nightmare.”
“The pain and agony of not knowing your children’s whereabouts is the worst thing imaginable,” Cruz said during a news conference with local officials.
Kerr County’s death toll rises to 75
The bodies of 27 children are among those that have been recovered, officials said during a news conference.
Ten campers and one counselor remain missing, officials said.
Officials had previously said the death toll in Kerr County was 68. Ten other deaths have been reported in other parts of Texas.
Forecasters issue a flood watch for San Antonio and Austin
Slow-moving, heavy rainfall is expected to reach up to 4 additional inches, the National Weather Service said.
The flood watch lasts through 7 p.m. local time.
Officials to hold a news conference on the search and rescue effort
The 10 a.m. Central news conference will be the first official update since Camp Mystic officials confirmed early this morning that they lost 27 campers and counselors when a wall of water swept through the campground in the middle of the night on the Fourth of July.
The floods were at their worst when many people were asleep
The Texas Hill Country in the central part of the state is naturally prone to flash flooding due to the dry dirt-packed areas where the soil lets rain skid along the surface of the landscape instead of soaking it up.
Friday’s flash floods started with a particularly bad storm that dropped most of its 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain in the dark, early morning hours.
Officials face scrutiny over flash flood warnings
Survivors have described the floods as a “pitch black wall of death” and said they received no emergency warnings.
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, who lives along the Guadalupe River, said Saturday that “ nobody saw this coming.” Various officials have referred to it as a “100-year-flood,” meaning that the water levels were highly unlikely based on the historical record.
And records behind those statistics don’t always account for human-caused climate change.
Additionally, officials have come under scrutiny about why residents and youth summer camps along the river were not alerted sooner than 4 a.m. or told to evacuate.
Officials noted that the public can grow weary from too many flooding alerts or forecasts that turn out to be minor.
Kerr County officials said they had presented a proposal for a more robust flood warning system, similar to a tornado warning system, but that members of the public reeled at the cost.
Search and rescue teams are heading back out to look for flood victims
Organizers at a staging area in Center Point said more than 1,000 volunteers have been directed to the area about 8 miles (13 kilometers) south of Kerrville, and more are being sent.
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KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — With more rain on the way, the risk of life-threatening flooding was still high in central Texas on Monday even as crews search urgently for the missing following a holiday weekend deluge that killed at least 82 people, including children at summer camps. Officials said the death toll was sure to rise.
Residents of Kerr County began clearing mud and salvaging what they could from their demolished properties as they recounted harrowing escapes from rapidly rising floodwaters late Friday.
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 toolshed up higher ground, and neighbors throughout the early morning began to show up at their toolshed, and they all rode it out together,” Brown said.
A few miles away, rescuers maneuvering through challenging terrain filled with snakes continued their search for the missing, including 10 girls and a counselor from Camp Mystic, an all-girls summer camp that sustained massive damage.
Gov. Greg Abbott said 41 people were unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing.
In the Hill Country area, home to several summer camps, searchers have found the bodies of 68 people, including 28 children, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said.
Ten other deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, according to local officials.
The governor warned that additional rounds of heavy rains lasting into Tuesday could produce more dangerous flooding, especially in places already saturated.
Families were allowed to look around the camp beginning Sunday morning. One girl walked out of a building carrying a large bell. 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.
Searching the disaster zone
Nearby crews operating heavy equipment pulled tree trunks and tangled branches from the river. With each passing hour, the outlook of finding more survivors became even more bleak.
Volunteers and some families of the missing came to the disaster zone and searched despite being asked not to do so.
Authorities faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in an area long vulnerable to flooding and whether enough preparations were made.
President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration Sunday for Kerr County and said he would likely visit Friday: “I would have done it today, but we’d just be in their way.”
“It’s a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible,” he told reporters.
Prayers in Texas — and from the Vatican
Gov. 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 Rome, Pope Leo XIV offered special prayers for those touched by the disaster. The first American pope spoke in English at the end of his Sunday noon blessing, saying, “I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were in summer camp, in the disaster caused by the flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas in the United States. We pray for them.”
Desperate refuge and trees and attics
Survivors shared terrifying stories of being swept away and clinging to trees as rampaging floodwaters carried trees and cars past them. Others fled to attics, praying the water wouldn’t reach them.
At Camp Mystic, a cabin full of girls held onto a rope strung by rescuers as they walked across a bridge with water whipping around their legs.
Among those confirmed dead were an 8-year-old girl from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who was at Camp Mystic, and the director of another camp up the road.
Two school-age sisters from Dallas were missing after their cabin was swept away. Their parents were staying in a different cabin and were safe, but the girls’ grandparents were unaccounted for.
Warnings came before the disaster
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 alert notifying of imminent danger.
Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months’ worth of rain for the area.
Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said authorities are committed to a full review of the emergency response.
Trump, asked whether he was still planning to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said that was something “we can talk about later, but right now we are busy working.” He has said he wants to overhaul if not completely eliminate FEMA and sharply criticized its performance.
Trump also was asked whether he planned to rehire any of the federal meteorologists who were fired this year as part of widespread government spending cuts.
“I would think not. This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it. Nobody saw it. Very talented people there, and they didn’t see it,” the president said.
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Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Cedar Attanasio in New York; Sophia Tareen in Chicago; Michelle Price in Morristown, N.J.; and Nicole Winfield in Rome.