24 dead in Texas flash flooding, and search continues for more than 20 missing from camp
Category: News & Politics
Via: perrie-halpern • last year • 109 commentsBy: Rob Wile and Phil Helsel
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The death toll from sudden floods in the Texas Hill Country rose to 24 Friday night, officials said, as the search for more than 20 people missing from a girls summer camp continued through the night.
The water from the flooded Guadalupe River swept into Kerr County and other areas around 4 a.m. Friday after heavy rains, authorities said. Bodies were reported to have been found in cars swept from upstream.
Gov. Greg Abbott called it an "extraordinary catastrophe," and said that search and rescue missions will continue through the night.
"They will continue in the darkness of night, they will be taking place when the sun rises in the morning. They will be non-stop," Abbott said at a press conference Friday night.
The missing are from Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, which was hosting 750 children this week. Helicopters ferried dozens to safety Friday. Texas Game Wardens said in the evening that they were able to reach the camp with vehicles to bring out others.
Between 23 and 25 people from Camp Mystic are unaccounted for, Kerr County Sheriff Larry L. Leitha Jr. said.
Leitha said Friday night that the confirmed deaths in the county were 24, up from the 13 that he reported earlier in the day. A death was also reported in Kendall County, he said.
Texas Director of Public Safety Col. Freeman Martin called the disaster "a mass casualty event."
Men survey damage left by a raging Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas, on Friday. Eric Gay / AP
A raging Guadalupe River leaves fallen trees and debris in its wake in Kerrville, Texas, on Friday. Eric Gay / AP
Helicopters with hoists were used to rescue survivors, including people from trees, officials said. Adjutant General of Texas Major General Thomas Suelzer said that by Friday night 237 people had been rescued, 167 of whom were brought to safety by helicopter.
More than 400 people were on the ground responding to the disaster, Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick said.
The Department of Homeland Security said the U.S. Coast Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency had been activated. Patrick said he had been in contact with President Donald Trump.
Trump called the floods "terrible" when asked by reporters about the situation Friday night on Air Force One, and he said the U.S. government will help.
"We're working with the governor. It's a terrible thing," he said.
Helicopters Friday transported children from Camp Mystic to safety Friday, video from NBC affiliate WOAI of San Antonio showed.
Texas Game Wardens said on Facebook Friday evening: "Have made entry into Camp Mystic with vehicles and are beginning to bring campers out!"
Patrick said that even though around 20 children were unaccounted for, "that does not mean they've been lost."
"They could be in a tree. They could be out of communication," he said. "We're praying for all of those missing to be found alive. We're doing everything we can to get in there."
Parts of Kerr County got a little more than 10 inches of rain over 24 hours, the National Weather Service said at 4 p.m. Friday. Farther north, Llano County got 8 1/2 inches over that period.
"We lost everything. A lot of people lost everything," one survivor told WOAI in Kerrville. A local Walmart gave him a pair of shoes. "Nobody expected this," he said.
Another man in Kerrville told the station that his brother's house is missing after the flood — along with the brother, his wife and their two children.
Earlier in the day, Camp Mystic issued a statement telling parents: "If your daughter is not accounted for, you have been notified," while indicating girls located in other parts of the camp had beenfound safe.
The officials said the nearby highway was washed away and that the area remained without power, water or internet and was "struggling" to get more help.
"Please continue to pray and send any help if you have contacts to do so," the officials wrote.
The camp, about two hours west of Austin, is for girls between the ages of 7 and 17, and it was due to celebrate its 100th anniversary next year.
It's located near the Guadalupe River, which authorities said surged as much as 22 feet in just half an hour Friday morning to a height of 30 feet in the nearby town of Comfort in Kerr County, breaking a record that had stood for decades.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also issued a statement on X shortly after 4 p.m. ET.
"Please pray right now for everyone in the Hill Country, especially Camp Mystic," he wrote. "Today, I've spoken with Gov Abbott, Lt. Gov Patrick, the head of TDEM & President Trump. Multiple helicopters are performing search & rescue. President Trump committed ANYTHING Texas needs."
The force of the water in Ingram in Kerr County smashed the windows of homes and ripped off doors and paneling, video from WOAI showed.
Footage on social media showed an SUV swept away by raging floodwaters in Kerrville. The person who recorded it said the video was taken Friday morning.
The Guadalupe River had crested at Kerrville and Comfort by Friday evening, but other parts of the river downstream weren't forecast to crest until Saturday morning.
The Guadalupe River near Spring Branch was forecast to crest at 37.2 feet, classified as moderate flood stage, around 2 a.m. Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
NBC meteorologist Bill Karins said that the rain event "just sat here" in the area overnight into Friday morning in hilly terrain.
"It's not like the mountains in the Rockies or in the Appalachians, but there are hills — and so that water will rush down the hills and collect in the smaller streams, and then it all combines, and all into the Guadalupe," Karins said on NBC News Now.
Lina Hidalgo, the judge of Harris County, where Houston is, said five of the dead are from the Houston or Harris County area.
"All of Texas is impacted by this tragic event," she wrote on X.
Flood warnings throughout the state remain in place through the weekend.
"There is an ongoing threat for possible flash flooding from San Antonio to Waco for the next 24 to 48 hours, in addition to the continued risks in west and central Texas," Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement.
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Trump said, just like Crux, all they need is some prayer, food, shelter, internet, highway access, potable water, and to HEll with FEMA, what a waste of money, and NOAHH what else is, a department that can predict this kind of shit !
looks like all those doge personnel cuts to the national weather service and NOAA are working out great ... /s
What a pathetically inhuman post.
Yeah, it’s a total piece of shit post. Surprised? I’m not.
Just consider the source.
There’s a lot of that going around. I thought it was pretty inhuman to suggest that fires in California were our own fault because we didn’t rake the forests enough. Or that we could simply throw a switch to turn on water, but refused because we’re all just stupid liberals.
I think this is to be expected from anyone that the far, far left think victims are not liberals based on their geographic location.
Why would you attempt to deflect from or defend post 1?...
Not defending it at all. However I am someone who watched thousands of nearby homes be destroyed by fire - including of people I know personally - only to watch Trump and other self righteous conservatives lecture us about “raking the forest” and pretend to turn on some golden spigot of water to “save” us from ourselves.
Then these same assholes cheered while DOGE gleefully hacked staffing and funding from NOAA and the National Weather Service.
And today, they have the chutzpah to blame the NWS for not preventing this disaster.
So if my mixed feelings on the matter offend someone, that’s too bad, but you might try to understand. Or don’t. I’m not worried about it.
please point out any conservatives here mocking the death of children in the wildfires. The stories are up, should be easy.
Not all liberals are stupid, but most of their leaders are.
Guv Newsome and Mayor Bass both cut firefighting funding.
Another Wildfire Has Hit California and Newsom's Plan Is to Attack Trump
PolitiFact | What to know about the LA fire department’s budget and whether Mayor Karen Bass cut funding
Right wingers save their mockery for children killed in school shootings and the survivors. "Crisis actors" is the favorite lunatic fringe right wing nut job epithet.
Another deflection. When your own side mocks the deaths of kids right in front of you, you attack "right wingers." Be proud.
I see no reason to respond to your straw man.
Yep. About what I expected.
I didn't hear any of that, but yeah, it would have been just as shitty as people trying to make these floods political.
Seriously.... I won't ever understand people who try to make political points in the middle of a tragedy. Those people need professional help, preferably involving electric shock therapy.
My side? As opposed to your ridiculous comment, I am an individual with my own opinions as I've clearly expressed in my comments below.
There is no definitive evidence that NOAA budget cuts directly caused the Texas flooding tragedy, but they likely contributed to a strained forecasting system that may have underestimated the storm’s intensity. The NWS issued warnings, but the unprecedented rainfall, rapid flood onset, and local response delays were significant factors in the high death toll. Long-term cuts to research and staffing could exacerbate future risks, particularly in a warming climate prone to extreme weather.
NOAA Budget Cuts and Texas Flooding - Grok
Come now John, Jack asked you not to make this tragedy political, the problem is, you didn't, Trump and his 2025 author did.
Yeah, it was pretty upsetting.
I’m not going to judge anything that happened in Texas because I’m not there and I don’t have all the facts. Political statements made after the fact are a different matter.
Just review the comment you replied to.
There is no evidence whatsoever yet. Because decent people are concerned about the lives of little children rather than scoring an "I told you so" over some political dogma.
... the very essence of trump's big beautiful bill he just signed into law. /s
Imagine it this way.
Let's pretend for a moment that somewhere in your community three teenage girls were abducted and gang raped by a group of illegal immigrants. (similar events have actually been happening in England). We'll say one of those girls' bodies was found and two are still missing.
Now... those of us who are not complete fucking dickheads would be expressing concern about the safety of the two remaining girls and condolences to the heartbroken parents of these kids.
But .... reliably... it wouldn't take long at all for somebody to make it political, blaming Joe Biden or Kamala Harris for not enforcing the borders. We would rightfully label that hypothetical guy a complete piece of shit.
That applies no matter the political affiliation of the person in question. It's about behavior, not ideology.
I appreciate that. The water rose 26 feet in 45 minutes.
There were about 700 girls at Camp Mystic. They got all but about 25 to safety. The camp director died trying to save kids. So did the camp director at Heart O' the Hills.
I know how you felt about people politicizing the fires in LA. You're generally nicer than I am, and you certainly nicer about that particular behavior. People who make natural disasters about their politics can fuck right off. They are the worst form of religious zealots and deserve every bit of the misery in which they wallow.
Thanx to Trump and his
'behavior' millions around the word are predicted to unnecessarily die, so forgive my callous asz, it's just I'd prefer if people realized this, and I'm not the reason countless other US citizens will be dying due to lost insurance and food credits so as Trump and the extremely well off can benefit financially. The GOP, G roup O f P ussies, deserve all the credit their lame aszes should get for rolling over like a seal to play possum, because just about everythingthis feeble minded freak does is detremental to the damn humans on this planet. Fossil Fuel Fool ! Fck science, Fck the Truth, people elected Trump, cause they were media manipulated, and we are all left to suffer for the ignorance that runs rampant inthis country. All apologies to anyoneoffended by my opinion, but, I truly don't give a fck ! It's disgusting how this mental midget leads a ;Cult;, and it has me really not caring about the collateral damage, some are somehow now being so above the fray, because we haven't seen anything yet, but its coming, so get set. One more time, i'm all for prayers and any help available, but this 'party' seems to only care about certain peep holes, the ones that can't see through the piled bullshit, and had enough of sudden sympathetic feelings, when they allow this clown to plow through fields of dreams, disregarding all the screams, unless from their teams. Trump decides who might get aid by whetehr or not they voted for him, and that's not idealogy either. Trump fires those doing their job to investigate his criminal asz, and has fckd US something fierce, sorry for the possible 'collateral' damage, but expect a Hell of A LOT MORE
Riiiiight.
And a discussion about 20 missing little girls who have been swept away in a flood is most definitely the correct time and place for the batshit ramblings of your inane personal political manifesto.
Tell you what.... several of these girls' bodies have been recovered. Why don't you come protest at their funerals? Be sure to make copies of your batshit and hand them out to the families.
The NWS did its job; there was ample warning that flash flooding might occur.
Here's the Gross Anti-Trump Narrative Libs Are Peddling About the Horrific Flash Floods in Texas
None of your (leftists collectively) wild ass presumptions of supposed future prognostications ever come true.
Thousands are NOT going to die or starve because of the BBB
What other "contributions" will the cuts to weather forecasting end up making?
We'll never know now.
Very well said, Iggy. I totally agree.
‘Right wingers save their mockery for children killed in school shootings and the survivors. ’
Well, you said it, now prove it. At least that is what happens in court and a good lawyer will follow theough.
Unless it's a school shooting...
Gotta agree with you (except for the electric shock therapy), contrary to the opinion of some not everthing has to be used to make political points
Last I saw there were 70 confirmed dead this is a tragedy that's all. There will be time to assign blame, suggest/implement improvements after the dead are buried
And, you didn't point out any conservatives - 'bout what we expected.
You would have to be pretty out of touch not to know the sordid history of right wing mockery of school shooting survivors.
You actually need some examples? OK
GOP frontrunner for NC governor mocked school shooting survivors and once justified shooting protesters
Marjorie Taylor Greene mocked Parkland survivor in unearthed video: An 'idiot' who's trained 'like a dog'
Right-Wing Talking Heads Are Smearing the Parkland Survivors
Here is exactly what Alex Jones has said about the Sandy Hook massacre
Jones on Sandy Hook: “Staged,” “inside job,” “undoubtedly there’s a cover-up,” “giant hoax,” “the whole thing was fake,” “in my view, manufactured”
Alex Jones must pay $965 million in damages to families of 8 Sandy Hook victims
Expecting your deflection and denial.
By the way, I can't imagine you have any idea what happens in court or what a lawyer would do about anything.
What for? I don’t understand your complaint.
There is no deflection or denial;. What you posted was left wing rags that what you think is the conservatives mocking survivors, it is actually them mocking the adults that obviously had coached and used these kids as pawns in anti gun rhetoric. Unfortunately, because of these coached events, the kids were caught up in a losing left wing campaign.
There were reports that Hogg was not even on campus at the time, but because he became the face of the shooting, the left believed everything he said, hook, line and sinker. Now he is a pariah to the mainstream left because he dared to speak out against them.
You never disappoint.
If
you mean by proving you wrong relentlessly……you are
correct
That's funny. You haven't yet, and there is little to no chance you ever will. You have apologized numerous times to me and others for being incorrect, of course.
... especially funny, since it has never happened.
‘ You have apologized numerous times to me and others for being incorrect, of course’
If this were a court, a good ‘counselor’ would be able to back up claims made. Not seeing any of that here.
much easier to find elsewhere ...
he has?
uh, no ...
We're not in court. We're on a website and you know full well that my comment is absolutely true and correct. Or, your memory is failing badly.
Yes.
my legs are long enough you can stop pulling them now
he's much more polite and tactful than me ...
I wish I could learn how to call someone a turd without actually calling them a turd
the fecally inclined?
!
Being that you can’t
prove what you claim, you can continue with your echo chamber friends. I wouldn’t be proud, though.
that works
Yawn. Your feeble attempt at a defense doesn't get you too far.
never has and never will ...
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Your comment was repugnant and disgusting. That others tried to defend it with whataboutisms is equally so.
if only maga's concern for children encompassed all of them, instead of just the white thumper kids ...
Yet another running at the mouth, repugnant, vile comment from the party of "tolerance".
I believe we are at the point of nothing less.
a lightning strike must have taken out the obligatory lighted cross on the hilltop overlooking kerrville, rendering the region defenseless. too bad there wasn't an ark or whale handy. oh well, god's will ...
And some wonder why they are relentlessly mocked
While others, don't even realize it....
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Well, this is terrible.
Thinking about all the people killed and so many still missing is very disturbing and upsetting. Every time I hear mention of the girls missing from the camp I'm horrified.
We're several hundred miles away (Texas is a big place) but we know people who have property in the area. The good news is that they are continuing to find these girls, and most so far have been found alive. They found a couple this morning in a tree about 12 miles downstream.
But the death toll is over 30 now, and I think 14 are children.
Yeah. Definitely upsetting.
That is wonderful news!!! Thank you so much for sharing it. I'm feeling a great sense of relief. I hope everyone missing is found safe and alive.
My first impulse was to say that I can’t imagine how parents must feel, but I think I have some idea. My own kids took part in a camp near here that is set deep in one of our canyons. One year, we had a storm coming in and the camp my kid was going to was canceled for that reason.
I’m sure it’s not always an obvious choice to proceed or cancel, evacuate or shelter.
Actually, the next year, that camp was wiped out by a fire.
That's because they didn't sweep the forest...
Over 100 still missing/dead
It's awful.
We've stopped seeing people rescued. They're still looking, but it's mostly just recovering bodies at this point.
Yep, last I saw it was 172 missing, 119 dead. Tragic.
Exactly, they shouldn't be asking the government for a single dime when prayers will fix everything.
Now, now. You know rightwing conservatives only get pissed off about emergency aid money being paid to liberal and progressive States like California. Texas is still clinging to a Republican majority so it's okay to send them federal aid. Jeez, why are you so behind the times? /s
This story keeps getting worse as the water recedes and reporters gain access. A flash flood at 3 am is pretty close to a worse case scenario.
There's already a lot sorrow and it looks like there will be more. Sympathy seems inadequate.
and I would agree> Defunding the organizations that help predict such tragedies is inadequate and also not NOAHHA in, surely won't help anyone, but they pretended to save a lot of money, didn't they ?
Yeah because we know throwing boatloads of money fixes every problem. And nothing had been defunded before July 4th.
What was defunded was some research. I think OAR and NSSL were eliminated with some functions folded into the main NWS office. Weather forecasting was not cut. And the research funding can be restored during the FY2026 appropriations process. Congress still needs to put together a budget by Oct. 1; although a CR cycle in lieu of a budget is more likely.
So given your pathetic political bullshit on a tragedy, explain why other locations were able to evacuate but this one didn't? The notifications were made. From reports I've seen, those went out around 5 PM. Why did they not evacuate?
Well, that didn't take long. Blaming Trump for everydamnedthing. Sooooo predictable
Sooooo pathetic.
Benghazi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Oh how quickly you forget.)
point out anyone mocking the deceased within hours of their death?
I remember Hillary lying about the cause and then saying "what difference does it make" when asked about lying, but I don't remember anyone laughing about the victims, and they were adults and not kids.
You want to post the entire quote or should I? Cherry pick much?
Here ya go.... I know, context is your worst enemy here...
You have a good day Sean.
Exactly. She lied about the cause of the riot and then said "what difference does it make?" when pressed about misleading the public. The administration lied from day one.
Oh how quickly you deflect to unrelated nonsense.
You probably should read it again.
Also to note, you claim she lied, and yet you're lying right here in your post.
Your comment:
What was actually said:
" What difference at this point does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again".
Again, just to be clear, this horse died back on July 21st, 2016 but that hasn't stopped the mentally handicapped partisans from beating on it ever since.
m she lied, and yet you're lying right here in your post.
Lol. That's a guiness record book worthy dishonest post from you.
How could you possibly miss this:
So, should I thank you for confirming you lied? I'm not sure how this works.
You lied, and said she said "what difference does it make?" when what she said was "What difference at this point does it make?”. All on the same page? See how those are different words?
Then you say "That's a guiness record book worthy dishonest post from you." which, at best, would be a misconception? An outright lie at worst? Take your pick, neither one are true because my post was as honest as you can get.
You said she said something she didn't say, and I contradicted you and showed you what she actually said, then you said "See! That's what she said!". I can't fathom the ignorance it would take to rationalize something like that but oh well.
Again, if you're not getting this, is "what difference does it make?" the same exact words and meaning as "What difference at this point does it make?". If they are not the same words, then you sir, are a liar. If they are, then my eyes and ears are deceiving me.
Keep doubling down on your dishonest claims. Sinc you can’t defend Clinton on substantive grounds, that’s all you can do. She lied. You defend her lying, knowing she lied and the world keeps spinning. Nothing ever changes.
First, this is silly that you're so fucking desperate as to bring up 2016 in an attempt to claim superiority. Neither your ideology nor your race are superior to anyone else's, those are just wild delusions some people can easily fall into after years of indoctrination so hopefully, if that happened to you as it sounds like it has, you recover soon.
As for proving Hillary Clinton lied, you have yet to prove she lied about anything. Were there riots inspired by a Youtube video across many Arab countries? Yes. Did it later turn out that the attack on the embassy in question was a planned operation? Yes. On the night of the attack, and in the days following, did Clinton made public statements, like other administration officials, referencing the possibility of the attack being sparked by a protest against an anti-Muslim video? Yes. Did she ever definitively claim it was because of the anti-Muslim Youtube video? No. But you certainly won't hear sycophantic Trump supporters with their heads shoved so far up their leader's ass they can smell his breath admit that.
While initial public statements from the administration were later found to be inaccurate, there was ZERO FUCKING EVIDENCE that she deliberately lied or misled the media. Do I really care about Hillary nearly 10 years later? Of course not, only dumb fuck Trump supporters would keep bringing she and her husband up in a desperate attempt to deflect and distract from their KNOWN criminal and convicted felon in the oval office. Shit begets shit, and scum begets scum. We couldn't really expect anything different from rightwing conservatives nowadays. It's clearly all they have left before they just give up and try pointing their pathetic little AR-15's at the rest of us acting like they own the fucking world.
The most innocent of the innocent were lost.
Here is a time lapse of 30 minutes on the nearby Llano River. The Guadelupe was much worse. At one point, it reportedly rose 26 feet in 45 minutes.
Reports this morning confirm that alerts began about 5pm the previous evening and were escalated to "life threatening floods" by 1am. Camp Mystic had about 700 girls on site, and was able to evacuate all but about 28.
At nearby Camp la Junta, many of the camp counselors are Eagle Scouts, and they apparently organized some narrow escapes for the young campers. Reports are that one of the cabins was swept away in the water. When it was stopped momentarily by a tree, the Eagle Scout counselors managed to get all the boys to safety. No fatalities reported.
This awful tragedy has reminded me that when on my first trip to Texas we passed by what appeared to be a massive flatland, and the Texan I was with told me that the area was prone to flooding.
did a little quick math here .
water rose 26 ft in 45 mins according to something someone posted .
happened at 3 AM in the morning when most people are in bed and asleep.
26 ft is 312inches and to rise that high in 45 mins , the water was rising at a rate of not quite 7 inches a min .
at that rate of rise at that time , there was really no amount of warning that could have mattered even if one could wake everyone in the affected area .
That reminds me of seeing videos of the tsunami that hit Japan some years back, the one that took out the nuclear reactor.
Confirmation. Associated Press.
The Guadalupe River rose to 26 feet (7.9 meters) within about 45 minutes in the early morning hours, submerging its flood gauge.
let me be the first to state the obvious
that's a lot of rain
Something similar happened in Johnstown PA in 1977
Agreed.
Even faced with a horrrible tragedy such as this, there are those who ignore reality and will continue to chant "Drill baby drill". And so, America, you may have beat the Nazis, you may have beat the Empire of Japan, but you are NOT going to beat Nature.
Right on!
I hear trump is going down there to hand out paper towels again.