Rescuers by Saturday had begun the grim task of recovering the bodies of children who were swept away in a deadly flash flood in Texas, caused by a powerful storm that killed dozens of people.
The exact number of missing people was not immediately known, but 24 of them were girls who had been attending Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp along the Guadalupe River. Torrential rain caused the river to rise 26ft (8 meters) in just 45 minutes before dawn on Friday, washing away homes and vehicles.
Some of the victims of the disaster have now been recovered and are being formally identified. One of the girls, Renee Smajstrla, who was nine years old, was confirmed to be among the dead by her uncle.
“Renee has been found and while not the outcome we prayed for, the social media outreach likely assisted the first responders in helping to identify her so quickly,” Shawn Salta wrote on Facebook. “We are thankful she was with her friends and having the time of her life.”
A number of camps were situated along the river for the Independence Day weekend, and up to 25 of about 750 campers remain unaccounted for, according to Larry Leitha, sheriff of Kerr county, who said that “catastrophic” rains had devastated the area, located to the north of San Antonio.
Leitha said at least 27 people were confirmed dead, among them nine children. Authorities said about 850 people had been rescued, with roughly 400 people involved in the search-and-rescue operation.
Searchers used helicopters and drones to look for victims and rescue people stranded by flood waters. The confirmed death toll is almost certain to rise, although hopes remain that some of those affected will be found alive. “They could be in a tree, they could be out of communication,” said Dan Patrick, Texas’s lieutenant governor. “We are praying for all of those missing to be found alive.”
The danger was not over as more heavy rains were expected Saturday, with flash flood warnings issued for parts of central Texas. “This is a PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION,” the National Weather Service (NWS) warned in a bulletin. “SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!”
Huge downpours like this are becoming more common around the world due to the climate crisis, with a warming atmosphere holding a greater amount of moisture. In eastern Texas, there has already been a 20% increase in the number of days with heavy rain or snow since 1900, with the intensity of extreme rain set to rise by another 10% in the next decade.
In the area affected by the floods in Texas, parents and families posted photos of missing loved ones and pleas for information. “The camp was completely destroyed,” said Elinor Lester, 13, one of hundreds of campers at Camp Mystic. “A helicopter landed and started taking people away. It was really scary.”
A raging storm woke up her and her cabin mates just after midnight Friday – and when rescuers arrived, they tied a rope for the girls to hold as they walked across a bridge with flood waters whipping around their legs, she said.
The flooding in the middle of the night on the Fourth of July holiday caught many residents, campers and officials by surprise. Officials defended their preparations for severe weather and their response but said they had not expected such an intense downpour that was, in effect, the equivalent of months’ worth of rain for the area.
One NWS forecast this week had called for only 3-6in (76-152mm) of rain, said Nim Kidd, the chief of the Texas division of emergency management.
“It did not predict the amount of rain that we saw,” he said.
Saturday’s deaths renewed questions about whether it was wise for the Trump administration to implement deep budget and job cuts at the NWS – among other federal government agencies – since his second presidency began in January.
“After media reports & experts warned for months that drastic & sudden cuts at the [NWS] by Trump could impair their forecasting ability & endanger lives during the storm season, TX officials blame an inaccurate forecast by NWS for the deadly results of the flood,” Ron Filipkowski, editor in chief of the liberal news website MeidasTouch, wrote on X.
Trump addressed the deadly floods shortly before 11am eastern time on Saturday. On his Truth Social platform, he said that his administration was working with state and local officials – and that he and the first lady, Melania Trump, were “praying for all of the families” affected.
One river gauge near Camp Mystic recorded a 22ft (6.7-meter) rise in about two hours, said Bob Fogarty, meteorologist with the NWS’s Austin/San Antonio office. The gauge failed after recording a level of 29.5ft (9 meters).
“The water’s moving so fast, you’re not going to recognize how bad it is until it’s on top of you,” Fogarty said.
On the Facebook page of the Kerr county sheriff’s office, people posted pictures of loved ones and begged for help finding them.
In Ingram, Erin Burgess woke to thunder and rain in the middle of the night on Friday. Just 20 minutes later, water was pouring into her home directly across from the river, she said. She described an agonizing hour clinging to a tree and waiting for the water to recede enough to walk up the hill to a neighbor’s home.
“My son and I floated to a tree where we hung on to it, and my boyfriend and my dog floated away,” she said. “He was lost for a while, but we found them.”
Of her 19-year-old son, Burgess said: “Thankfully he’s over 6ft tall. That’s the only thing that saved me – was hanging on to him.”
Matthew Stone, 44, of Kerrville, said police came knocking on doors but that he had received no warning on his phone.
“We got no emergency alert. There was nothing” until suddenly there was “a pitch-black wall of death”, Stone said.
At a reunification center set up in Ingram, families cried and cheered as loved ones disembarked from vehicles loaded with evacuees. Two soldiers carried an older woman who could not climb down a ladder. Behind her, a woman clutched a small white dog.
Later, a girl in a white Camp Mystic T-shirt and white socks stood in a puddle, sobbing in her mother’s arms.
Barry Adelman, 54, said water pushed everyone in his three-story house into the attic, including his 94-year-old grandmother and nine-year-old grandson. The water started coming through the attic floor before finally receding.
“I was horrified,” he said. “I was having to look at my grandson in the face and tell him everything was going to be OK, but inside I was scared to death.”
The forecast had called for rain, with a flood watch upgraded to a warning overnight for at least 30,000 people.
The lieutenant governor noted that the potential for heavy rain and flooding covered a large area.
“Everything was done to give them a heads-up that you could have heavy rain, and we’re not exactly sure where it’s going to land,” Patrick said. “Obviously, as it got dark last night, we got into the wee morning of the hours, that’s when the storm started to zero in.”
Asked about how people were notified in Kerr county so that they could get to safety, Judge Rob Kelly, the county’s chief elected official, said: “We do not have a warning system.”
When reporters pushed on why more precautions weren’t taken, Kelly said: “Rest assured – no one knew this kind of flood was coming.”
The area is known as “flash flood alley” because of the hills’ thin layer of soil, said Austin Dickson, chief executive officer of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, which was collecting donations to help non-profits responding to the disaster.
“When it rains, water doesn’t soak into the soil,” Dickson said. “It rushes down the hill.”
River tourism is a key part of the Hill Country economy. Well-known, century-old summer camps bring in kids from all over the country, Dickson said.
“It’s generally a very tranquil river with really beautiful clear blue water that people have been attracted to for generations,” Dickson said.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
