Death toll in devastating central Texas flash floods climbs to 82, dozens still missing

At least 82 people are dead and at least 41 more are missing after devastating flash floods slammed Texas Hill Country, with water rescues taking place along the Guadalupe River, which rose rapidly early Friday morning to the height of a two-story building. Almost a dozen are still missing from Camp Mystic in Kerr County, a children’s summer camp, officials said Sunday.

Of the fatalities so far, 68 have occurred in Kerr County, its sheriff, Larry Leitha, said at a news conference Sunday afternoon — an increase from 43 deaths reported the previous night. The dead include 40 adults and 28 children, with 18 of the adults and 10 of the children unidentified. Camp Mystic, located along the river in Hunt, Texas, confirmed Monday that at least 27 campers and counselors died in the flooding.

“Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy. We are praying for them constantly,” the camp said in a statement. “We have been in communication with local and state authorities who are tirelessly deploying extensive resources to search for our missing girls. We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of support from community, first responders, and officials at every level.”

At least 10 Camp Mystic campers were still missing on Sunday, along with one counselor, Leitha said. That was the first solid number officials provided regarding campers who remained unaccounted for, after previously estimating that it could be as high as 27. There were about 750 children at Camp Mystic when the floods hit, the sheriff said earlier.

President Trump signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County, at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s request. On Saturday, Abbott said he visited the summer camp for the first time, calling the scene “horrendously ravaged” in a social media post. 

“Today I visited Camp Mystic. It, and the river running beside it, were horrendously ravaged in ways unlike I’ve seen in any natural disaster,” Abbott wrote. “The height the rushing water reached to the top of cabins was shocking. We won’t stop until we find every girl who was in those cabins. “

The governor said at a briefing Sunday afternoon that operations would continue around the clock to search for anyone affected by the deadly storm. In addition to the dead, officials have not been able to account for 41 people in various parts of the state, according to Abbott, who noted that figure may underrepresent how many people are truly missing.

“Especially in the Kerrville area, there were so many people camping out near the river, people in RVs and things like that,” he said. “There are people that are not known, confirmed missing because we do not know yet who they are.”

Abbott said searches will persist throughout the Guadalupe River system in hopes of locating anyone else and asked the public to contact local officials with information about friends or relatives believed lost.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Sunday he ordered three swiftwater rescue teams to Texas.

Mr. Trump on Sunday told reporters he would visit Texas “probably on Friday,” noting he had wanted to go Sunday but would have been “in their way.”

At the Vatican, Pope Leo extended a prayer to the flooding victims during Sunday mass, saying, “I express my sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were at summer camp, in the disaster caused by the flooding of the Guadalupe river in Texas in the United States.”

Although Kerr County was hit hardest by flooding, at least 13 others have been confirmed dead in different parts of Texas.
About 150 miles east of Camp Mystic, Travis County has confirmed at least six deaths, the county confirmed Sunday. Travis County includes the Texas capital city of Austin. 

At least three people were confirmed dead in Burnet County on Sunday, said Captain Mike Sorenson of the county sheriff’s office. Abbott said two people remain missing in Burnet: a 17-year-old girl and the county fire chief. Derek Marchio, the emergency management coordinator for the county, previously said more than 50 rescues had been conducted countywide since the flooding crisis unfolded.

Emergency management officials in Kendall County confirmed two deaths as of Sunday and said rescue and recovery operations were still underway, and another two deaths were confirmed in Williamson County by county officials. Earlier, in Tom Green County, the San Angelo Police Department confirmed Saturday the death of a 62-year-old woman identified as Tanya Burwick. Police said Burwick was driving when her vehicle became submerged by floodwaters.

Officials have conducted more than 160 air rescues, Leitha said in an earlier update, adding that 850 uninjured and eight injured people have been rescued overall as of Saturday. U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a social media post that the U.S. Coast Guard was responsible for saving 223 of those people, as dramatic video showed Guard members conducting aerial rescues near Kerrville on Thursday, while dark water covered the ground.

Noem also said Coast Guard rescue swimmer and Petty Officer Scott Ruskin “saved an astonishing 165 victims in the devastating flooding in central Texas. This was the first rescue mission of his career and he was the only triage coordinator at the scene.” She called Ruskin “an American hero.”

The Department of Homeland Security oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency. 

“We’ve been rescuing people out of these camps by the hundreds, you know, all day,” said Dalton Rice, the city manager for Kerville, on Saturday night. “There’s a lot of folks that are shelter in place, so we leave them in place to make sure that we get them food, water.”

Abbott originally signed a federal disaster declaration in the immediate aftermath of the floods early Friday, which he later updated to include several other counties in Texas that were damaged by storms.

Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said in Saturday’s briefing that his property was also devastated by the flooding and he “barely got home” on Friday. Kelly also said he had visited a funeral home and “got to see firsthand many of the body bags” before going on a helicopter ride with Sen. John Cornyn and Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring to survey the damage.

“It’s gonna be a long time before we’re ever going to be able to clean it up much less rebuild it,” Kelly said. “We didn’t know. We knew we’d get rain, we know the river rises but nobody saw this coming.”

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 a.m. and 5 a.m. local time Friday, he said. 

As questions circulate as to whether the flood warnings were sufficient and effective, another summer camp near the Guadalupe River, Presbyterian Mo-Ranch Assembly, has received praise for its rapid evacuation. Lisa Winters, the communications director for the camp, told the Associated Press that the facilities manager at Mo-Ranch noticed the river beginning to rise at about 1 a.m. local time Friday. Although camp leadership said they had not received evacuation guidance from local authorities, they quickly relocated about 70 children and adults who were staying overnight in a building near the water.

Speaking to reporters late Friday night aboard Air Force One, Mr. Trump called the floods a “terrible thing.” On Saturday, he said his administration was working with state and local officials “on the ground” in Texas to respond to the flooding.

“Melania and I are praying for all the families impacted by this horrible tragedy,” Mr. Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “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?

Meteorologists say storms in the area converged with remnant moisture from what was formerly Tropical Storm Barry, which made landfall in eastern Mexico early last week and moved northward. That produced exceptionally high rainfall totals in a region that is susceptible to flooding.

Rice, Kerrville’s city manager, 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 actually fell, officials said, adding that forecasters originally estimated up to 8 inches of rainfall for the area. 

Kerr County judge Rob Kelly said the area does “not have a warning system,” and 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. The operations have included drones, helicopters, rescue divers, boats and high-water vehicles, after Abbott signed a disaster declaration for several counties hit by flooding.

At a news conference, the governor said his declaration “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.

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 washing away but they kept going,” she told CBS Evening News. “It was impossible.” 

Over 2 dozen people still missing

Three girls from Dallas — 8-year-olds Hadley Hanna and Eloise Peck and 9-year-old Lila Bonner — were identified as missing Camp Mystic campers. Bonner’s family confirmed to CBS Texas on Saturday that she was among the children confirmed dead in the flood and Peck’s family on Sunday posted a note at their home saying she had died as well.

Two sisters from Dallas — 13-year-old Blair Harber and 11-year-old Brooke Harber — were also confirmed dead Saturday by the St. Rita Catholic Community church in Dallas. The sisters were not attending Camp Mystic, but were staying with their grandparents in an area along the Guadalupe River where the flooding occurred. Their grandparents remain unaccounted for, according to the church. The girls’ parents were in a separate cabin and were not harmed.  

Meanwhile, Rep. August Pfluger of Texas said Saturday that two of his three children were evacuated from Camp Mystic. 

“The last day has brought unimaginable grief to many families and we mourn with them as well as holding out hope for survivors,” Pfluger said in a post on X.

On Friday, Patrick addressed the parents of children at Camp Mystic. The lieutenant governor, who briefly acted 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 Friday.

Camp Mystic is an all-girls summer camp, which runs several camps attended by thousands of children during the summer, Patrick said. In a statement read Friday by the lieutenant governor, the camp said they did not have power, water or Wi-Fi in the aftermath of what it called a “catastrophic level” of flooding. The statement added that “the highway has washed away, so we are struggling to get more help.”

The 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 collects 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.”

Elinor Lester, 13, told the Associated Press that she and her cabinmates were evacuated by helicopter. Her cabin was on elevated ground, but younger campers bunked 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.