Flash floods in Texas killed no less than 121 individuals over the Fourth of July vacation weekend, together with ladies attending a summer time camp, and left others nonetheless lacking. On Monday, Camp Mystic confirmed no less than 27 campers and counselors had died within the flooding.
The devastation alongside the Guadalupe River, west of Austin and northwest of San Antonio, has drawn an enormous search effort as officers face questions over their preparedness and the velocity of their preliminary actions.
Here is what to know in regards to the lethal flooding, the colossal climate system that drove it in and round Kerr County, Texas, and ongoing efforts to determine victims.
Huge rain hit at simply the unsuitable time, in a flood-prone place
The floods grew to their worst on the midpoint of an extended vacation weekend when many individuals had been asleep.
The Texas Hill Nation within the central a part of the state is of course liable to flash flooding because of the dry dirt-packed areas the place the soil lets rain skid alongside the floor of the panorama as a substitute of soaking it up. An space of cliffs and steep hills referred to as the Balcones Escarpment can be an element.
“When heat air from the Gulf rushes up the escarpment, it condenses and might dump loads of moisture. That water flows down the hills shortly, from many various instructions, filling streams and rivers under,” Hatim Sharif, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at The College of Texas at San Antonio, wrote in an article in The Dialog.
Along with the geography, a number of climate components contributed to Friday’s heavy rainfall, meteorologists say.
“At the beginning, you had Barry,” a tropical system that had made landfall in jap Mexico early final week and was weakening, CBS Information Philadelphia meteorologist Kate Bilo stated Monday.
Moisture from that system was lifted northward “proper on up into Texas,” Bilo stated. There have been additionally different climate techniques — a low-level jet stream and an upper-level disturbance — including extra moisture.
“Nothing was actually shifting so that you simply had all of this rain coming down over the identical areas and heavy, heavy rainfall charges due to all of that deep, deep moisture within the ambiance,” Bilo defined.
After a flood watch discover noon Thursday, the Nationwide Climate Service workplace issued an pressing warning round 4 a.m. that raised the potential of catastrophic harm and a extreme menace to human life. By no less than 5:20 a.m., some within the Kerrville Metropolis space stated water ranges had been getting alarmingly excessive. The large rain flowing down hills despatched dashing water into the Guadalupe River, inflicting it to rise 26 toes in simply 45 minutes.
Dying toll is anticipated to rise as dozens stay lacking
Gov. Greg Abbott stated there have been dozens of individuals unaccounted for throughout the state and extra might be lacking.
In Kerr County, house to youth camps within the Texas Hill Nation, no less than 96 individuals, together with greater than 30 kids, have died, officers stated Thursday.
There have been 161 individuals recognized to be lacking in Kerr County as of Tuesday, Abbott stated, and no less than 12 individuals had been lacking in different elements of the state. The lacking included 5 ladies and a counselor from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer time camp alongside the river, as of Tuesday, Abbott stated throughout a information convention. One youngster not related to the camp can be lacking, Abbott stated.
The campers who died embody 8-year-old Linnie McCown of Austin, 8-year-old Eloise Peck of Dallas and 9-year-old Lila Bonner of Dallas, their households stated. Chloe Childress, an 18-year-old counselor from the Houston space, additionally died within the floods, in line with the Kinkaid Faculty, the place she had just lately graduated.
A search and rescue volunteer holds a pink backpack and a “Camp Mystic” T-shirt in Consolation, Texas, on July 6, 2025. “I hope I discover the particular person to return their belongings, to not discover closure,” he stated.
Photograph by Danielle Villasana for The Washington Put up through Getty Photos
Camp Mystic’s proprietor and director, Dick Eastland, died whereas making an attempt to save lots of ladies on the camp, in line with native media experiences. The obituary part of the Kerrville group information website was dotted with tributes to victims, together with Eastland.
Officers face scrutiny over flash flood warnings
Survivors have described the floods as a “pitch black wall of loss of life” and stated they acquired no emergency warnings.
Kerr County Choose Rob Kelly, who lives alongside the Guadalupe River, stated Saturday that “no person noticed this coming.” Numerous officers have referred to it as a “100-year flood,” that means the water ranges had been extremely unlikely primarily based on the historic document.
And data behind these statistics do not at all times account for human-caused local weather change. Although it is exhausting to attach particular storms to a warming planet so quickly after they happen, meteorologists say a hotter ambiance can maintain extra moisture and permit extreme storms to dump much more rain.
Moreover, officers have come underneath scrutiny about why residents and youth summer time camps alongside the river weren’t alerted ahead of 4 a.m. or informed to evacuate.
Officers famous that the general public can develop weary from too many flooding alerts or forecasts that grow to be minor.
Kelly stated authorities had been shocked by the ferocity of the floods. “We had no motive to imagine that this was gonna be any, something like what’s occurred right here. None in any respect,” Kelly informed “CBS Night Information.”
Kerr County officers stated they’d introduced a proposal for a extra sturdy flood warning system, just like a twister warning system, however that members of the general public reeled on the price. Tom Moser, a former Kerr County commissioner, informed CBS Information the county had beforehand utilized for a grant to construct the system, nevertheless it wasn’t permitted, resulting in considerations in regards to the native finances if the county had been to attempt to fund the system alone. He additionally famous there was native resistance over the likelihood that the sirens may inadvertently be triggered, inflicting undesirable noise locally.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick informed CBS Information on Monday that the state may probably step in to fund the system.
“If they cannot afford to do it, then allow us to do it,” he stated, including: “We’ve a particular session beginning two weeks from immediately, and I believe we are able to take that up and do another issues of funding these sirens.”
On Sunday, officers walked out of a information briefing after reporters requested them once more about delays in alerts and evacuations.
Seek for victims and monumental cleanup
Crews are looking out urgently for the lacking. Volunteers, search canine and drones have joined the hassle, with some rescuers maneuvering by way of difficult terrain crammed with snakes.
U.S. Division of Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem stated in a social media publish that the U.S. Coast Guard was liable for saving greater than 200 individuals, as dramatic video confirmed Guard members conducting aerial rescues close to Kerrville whereas darkish water lined the bottom.
The flash floods have erased campgrounds and torn houses from their foundations.
“It should be a very long time earlier than we’re ever in a position to clear it up, a lot much less rebuild it,” Kelly stated Saturday after surveying the destruction from a helicopter.
Different huge flooding occasions have pushed residents and enterprise house owners to surrender, together with in areas struck final yr by Hurricane Helene.
President Trump signed a serious catastrophe declaration Sunday for Kerr County and stated he would seemingly go to Friday: “I’d have achieved it immediately, however we might simply be of their approach.”
“It is a horrible factor that came about, completely horrible,” he informed reporters.
On the Vatican, Pope Leo prolonged a prayer to the flooding victims throughout Sunday Mass, saying: “I categorical my honest condolences to all of the households who’ve misplaced family members, particularly their daughters who had been at summer time camp, within the catastrophe brought on by the flooding of the Guadalupe river in Texas in america.”