Dozens dead in Texas after devastating flash floods slam Hill Country, officials say

Dozens of people are dead in central Texas in what officials called a “mass casualty event” after devastating flash floods slammed Hill Country, with water rescues taking place along the Guadalupe River. While officials couldn’t confirm an exact number of those who remain unaccounted for, they said between 23 and 25 people were still missing from Camp Mystic, a children’s summer camp.

At least 27 fatalities have been reported so far, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said in an email Saturday morning. The dead include 18 adults and 9 children. Six of the adults and one child remain unidentified, Leitha said. Officials have conducted more than 160 air rescues, Leitha said. In total, 850 uninjured and 8 injured people have been rescued as of Saturday, he said. 

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a news briefing on Friday that there hadn’t been “a drop of rain until the tragedy struck” earlier in the day, and that the Guadalupe River had risen about 26 feet in 45 minutes. An alert went out around 4 and 5 a.m. local time, he said. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and several other officials also appeared at the news conference. 

Speaking to reporters late Friday night aboard Air Force One, President Trump called the floods a “terrible thing.”

On Saturday, Mr. Trump said his administration was working with state and local officials and that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem would be arriving in Texas shortly. DHS oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency. 

“Melania and I are praying for all the families impacted by this horrible tragedy,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Our Brave First Responders are on site doing what they do best. GOD BLESS THE FAMILIES, AND GOD BLESS TEXAS!” 

How did the Guadalupe River flood so quickly?

Dalton Rice, city manager for Kerrville, explained how the Guadalupe River flooded so quickly.

“When you look at the headwaters of the Guadalupe… there’s a north and a south fork,” Rice said Friday night. “Since 1987, under normal conditions, if you can call it that, you’ll hit water in one of those areas, and those two forks will converge into the Guadalupe, which comes through the city of Kerrville.”

“This rain event sat on top of that and dumped more rain than what was forecasted on both of those forks,” Rice continued. “When we got the report, it was about 7 feet or so on the south fork, and within a matter of minutes it was up to 29 feet, and all of that converged at Guadalupe.”

The Guadalupe River at Hunt reached its second-highest height on record, higher than the famous 1987 flood, the city said, citing the National Weather Service.

The Texas Division of Emergency Management had multiple meetings since Thursday to prepare, but the National Weather Service “did not predict the amount of rain that we saw,” officials said, adding that the original estimate was up to 8 inches of rain.

Officials said they were still concerned about the weather, adding that “if you do not live in area, do not come.”

Kerr County judge Rob Kelly said the area does “not have a warning system” and said that authorities were shocked by the ferocity of the floods. 

“We had no reason to believe that this was gonna be any, anything like what’s happened here. None whatsoever,” Kelly told CBS Evening News. 

Texas issued flash flood emergencies in five counties in West Texas on Friday as Hill Country continued to be slammed by severe rain and flooding. Between 5 and 11 inches of rain have fallen in northwestern Bandera County, Central Kerr County, Northeastern Tom Green County, East Central Kerr County and West Central Kendall County, according to the National Weather Service.   

Search and rescue operations are ongoing

There are hundreds of people on the ground from various units helping with search and rescue operations, officials said, which include drones and helicopters.

“We brought in over 100 troopers this morning,” Col. Freeman Martin, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said during Friday night’s news briefing. “And they’ve worked all day, rescues, high water vehicles, boats, rescue divers, seven rescue helicopters with hoist capabilities.”

The governor signed a disaster declaration for several counties during the news conference Friday night, saying it “ensures all the counties will have access to every tool, strategy, personnel that the state of Texas can provide to them, which will be limitless.”

“We will stop at nothing to ensure that every asset and person and plane, whatever is needed, is going to be involved in the process of rescuing every last person and ensure everybody involved in this is going to be fully accounted for,” Abbott said.

Earlier Friday, Abbott asked that Texas residents “heed guidance from state and local officials and monitor local forecasts to avoid driving into flooded areas.”

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said in a statement posted to social media that he had spoken to Mr. Trump, as well as other state officials.

“President Trump committed ANYTHING Texas needs,” Cruz said. 

Lorena Gullen, who owns a restaurant right next to an RV park that was affected by the floods, said “raging water” swept away vehicles, some with people still inside. Residents at the park had been celebrating the Fourth of July. 

“You could also see vehicles coming from up the river with the lights on and hear somebody honking, and they were washiing away but they kept going,” she told CBS Evening News. “It was impossible.” 

“Between 23 to 25” people still missing from Camp Mystic

“We don’t have an estimate” on how many people are missing, Sheriff Leitha said Friday night, adding that somewhere “between 23 and 25” campers were still believed to be missing from Camp Mystic. 

Earlier Friday, Patrick addressed parents of children at Camp Mystic, where there were about 750 children at summer camp when the floods hit. The lieutenant governor, who was acting as governor while Abbott was on vacation, said they are praying for all those missing “to be found alive.”

“If they are alive and safe, we will find them and bring them home to you,” Patrick said during an afternoon news conference.

The camp said in a statement, read by Patrick, that there has been a “catastrophic level” of flooding. 

Patrick said Camp Mystic is an all-girls summer camp in the area that has several camps with thousands of children attending for the summer. The camp said they have no power, no water and no Wi-Fi , adding that “the highway has washed away, so we are struggling to get more help.”

“Please pray for everyone in the Hill Country, especially Camp Mystic,” Cruz said in his social media statement. 

The summer camp sits on a strip known as “flash flood alley,” Austin Dickson, the CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, told the Associated Press. The foundation is a charitable endowment that is collecting donations to help nonprofits responding to the disaster.

“When it rains, water doesn’t soak into the soil,” Dickson said. “It rushes down the hill.”

13-year-old Elinor Lester told the Associated Press that she and her cabinmates were evacuated by helicopter. Her cabin was on elevated ground, but younger campers bunk in cabins situated along the riverbank, she said. Those were the first to flood. Younger campers came up the hill for shelter. 

“The camp was completely destroyed,” she told the Associated Press. “It was really scary. Everyone I know personally is accounted for, but there are people missing that I know of and we don’t know where they are.”

Her mother, Elizabeth Lester, told the Associated Press her son was at Camp La Junta, a nearby summer camp, and also survived after a counselor woke up, saw rising water and helped the boys swim out through a window. Camp La Junta and another camp on the river, Camp Waldemar, said in Instagram posts that all campers and staff there were safe.

“My kids are safe, but knowing others are still missing is just eating me alive,” Elizabeth Lester told the Associated Press.