Closing summary
It’s just before 9pm in central Texas and we’re about to close this live blog. Here’s a recap of the latest key news lines, and you can find our full report here. Thanks for following along.
The death toll from flash floods that have wreaked devastation in central Texas passed 100 by Monday late afternoon and was expected to rise further as more victims were found and additional rain threatened the region.
Camp Mystic confirmed that 27 children and counsellors died. Ten girls and a counsellor from the Christian girls’ summer camp beside the Guadalupe River were still unaccounted for, officials said on Monday.
Search-and-rescue personnel clawing through tons of muck-laden debris as aircraft flew overhead and hopes of finding more survivors dimmed. Weather forecasts on Monday predicted up to four more inches of rain in Texas Hill Country, with isolated areas possibly receiving up to 10in (25cm).
The bulk of the death toll from Friday’s flooding was concentrated around the riverfront Hill Country town of Kerrville, including the Camp Mystic grounds. By Monday afternoon, the bodies of 84 flood victims – 56 adults and 28 children – were recovered in Kerr county, most of them in Kerrville, the local sheriff said.
Twelve other flood-related fatalities were confirmed across five neighbouring south-central Texas counties as of midday Sunday, state and local officials said, and 41 other people were still listed as missing outside Kerr county.
The flooding disaster caused an estimated $18-22bn in total damage and economic loss, according to a preliminary estimate from AccuWeather.
Contextualising the disaster, AccuWeather climate expert and senior meteorologist Brett Anderson said: “A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, which can unleash extreme rainfall rates that rivers, streams and drainage systems are struggling to handle. We face a future with warmer air and higher ocean temperatures, increasing the odds of more extreme rainfall events and more people in harm’s way living and visiting in flood-prone and high-risk areas.”
The White House conflated concerns over whether adequate warnings were sent out to people soon enough with accusing the administration of responsibility for the flooding. “That was an act of God, it’s not the administration’s fault the floods hit when it did,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, insisting “there were early and consistent warnings”. Questions have been raised over whether the flood alerts were sent quickly and widely enough and if Donald Trump’s job cuts hampered the National Weather Service’s work.
Leavitt also attacked “some members of the media” as well as Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader who has reportedly called for an investigation from the commerce department inspector general into whether the weather service had enough staff in offices that would have forecast the storms.
Authorities overseeing the search for Texas flood victims have said they will wait to address questions about weather warnings and why some summer camps did not evacuate ahead of the catastrophic flooding.
Authorities lost one of their aviation assets on Monday when a privately operated drone collided in restricted airspace over Kerr county with a search helicopter, forcing the chopper to make an emergency landing. No injuries were reported but the aircraft was put out of commission, the sheriff’s office said.
– With news agencies
Updated
In another survival story, a Texas man says he is blessed to be alive after floods left him stranded with nothing but a small meter box to cling on to, CNN is reporting.
Christian Fell told the network he woke up to thunder in the early morning hours of 4 July to find half of his home ripped away by flash flooding.
“I get up to investigate, and when I swing my feet over the side of the bed I realised I was standing in water,” said Fell, who lives in Hunt, the location of the all-girl Camp Mystic that has confirmed it lost 27 campers and counsellors to the floods.
Fell said he clung to the electric box on the side of his home for three hours.
He told CNN:
It definitely is, I think, a blessing that the meter box was there, because I don’t even think I remembered was on that side of the building.
As I started to climb it, I just realised I needed to get out of the water as quickly as I could and just find something to hold on to so the water couldn’t take me away.
As he clung to the meter box, Fell says the rapid flood waters carried away cars with their hazard lights flashing on and off, the report continues.
The prospect of death certainly crossed his mind, he added.
Standing there with nothing else to hold on to but a metal pipe screwed into a wall – it’s not like an ideal situation.
Updated
In the area of Austin, the Texas capital, the flooding’s death toll has risen to at least 13 while 15 people are still reported missing, local media is reporting.
The Austin American-Statesman cites officials as saying seven have been confirmed dead in Travis county, two in Williamson county and four in Burnet county.
The newspaper also reports that parts of Travis county pounded by flood waters over the weekend were bustling on Monday with volunteers and residents organising support for those affected.
Volunteers brought food and bottled water to residents, some of whom didn’t have running water in their homes, the newspaper says, quoting a woman, Kaleena Schumaker, as saying watching the community come together has been amazing.
The Statesman’s report continues:
Schumaker said she was sleeping when her daughter called her about 1:50 a.m. Saturday to tell her about the flooding … Schumaker said she rushed through the door of the trailer [where she lives] to save the family’s goats. In hindsight, she realized that probably was a bad idea. By the time she reached their pen, the water had risen from her calves to her hips.
“I got stuck kind of,” Schumaker said.
She had to turn around, leaving the goats.
The family, four adults and seven children, escaped to higher ground along with two cats and nine kittens. The goats floated away.
Now, trying to figure out where to start with recovery is overwhelming. They don’t have running water … “Our bills are gone, our papers are gone,” Schumaker said.
Updated
Further to the previous post, Senator Ted Cruz said recent government spending cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service did not delay any Texas flood warnings.
“There’s a time to have political fights, there’s a time to disagree. This is not that time,” the Texas Republican said, quoted by the AP.
“There will be a time to find out what could been done differently. My hope is in time we learn some lessons to implement the next time there is a flood.”
Ted Cruz has had quite a week. On Tuesday, the Texas senator ensured the Republican spending bill slashed funding for weather forecasting, only to then go on vacation to Greece while his state was hit by deadly flooding, a disaster critics say was worsened by cuts to forecasting, reports Oliver Milman.
Cruz, who infamously fled Texas Texas for Cancun when a crippling winter storm ravaged his state in 2021, was seen visiting the Parthenon in Athens with his wife, Heidi, on Saturday, a day after a flash flood along the Guadalupe River in central Texas killed more than 100 people, including dozens of children and counsellors at a camp.
The Greece trip, first reported by the Daily Beast, ended in time for Cruz to appear at the site of the disaster on Monday morning to decry the tragedy and promise a response from lawmakers.
… The National Weather Service has faced scrutiny in the wake of the disaster after underestimating the amount of rainfall that was dumped upon central Texas, triggering floods that caused the deaths and around $20bn in estimated economic damages ...
Before his Grecian holiday, Cruz ensured a reduction in funding to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s efforts to improve future weather forecasting of events that cause the sort of extreme floods that are being worsened by the human-caused climate crisis.
You can read the Guardian’s full report here:
Rescue helicopter collides with private drone
The city of Kerrville has called on people to ground their drones while search operations continue, saying a private drone has collided with a helicopter and forced it out of action.
On X, Texas lawmaker Chip Roy said “URGENT” above city hall’s message, which warns that flying a drone in a restricted area is not just illegal but puts rescuers and the public at serious risk.
The city hall statement says in full:
PLEASE GROUND YOUR DRONES UNTIL CURRENT FLOOD SEARCH AND RESUE OPERATIONS ARE COMPLETE.
This afternoon, a private drone illegally operating in restricted airspace collided with a helicopter involved in emergency operations in Kerr County. The helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing, and a critical piece of response equipment is now out of service until further notice.
This was entirely preventable.
Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) are not suggestions. They are federal airspace rules designed to protect lives during emergency situations. When you fly a drone in restricted areas, you’re not just breaking the law – you’re putting first responders, emergency crews, and the public at serious risk.
URGENT: pic.twitter.com/01y5YscKmD
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) July 7, 2025
Updated
Here are some of the latest images from central Texas coming in over the newswires as the search continues for survivors or remains of people swept up in the flash flooding.
Authorities overseeing the search for flood victims in central Texas have said they will wait to address questions about weather warnings and why some summer camps did not evacuate ahead of the catastrophic flooding.
The Kerr county officials spoke only hours after the operators of Camp Mystic announced they lost 27 campers and counsellors to the flood waters, the Associated Press reports.
Search-and-rescue teams, meanwhile, carried on with the search for the dead, using heavy equipment to untangle trees and wading into swollen rivers. Volunteers covered in mud sorted through chunks of debris, piece by piece, in an increasingly bleak task.
Authorities vowed that one of the next steps would be investigating whether enough warnings were issued and why some camps did not evacuate or move to higher ground in a place long vulnerable to flooding that some local residents refer to as “flash flood alley”.
That would include a review of how weather warnings were sent out and received. One of the challenges was that many camps and cabins were in places with poor cellphone service, said Kerrville city manager Dalton Rice.
We definitely want to dive in and look at all those things. We’re looking forward to doing that once we can get the search and rescue complete.
Some camps were aware of the dangers and monitoring the weather. At least one moved several hundred campers to higher ground before the floods.
The weather service first advised of potential flooding on Thursday and then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies.
Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months of rain. Some residents said they never received any warnings.
Updated
A spokesperson for the Texas military department told a news conference there had been 525 rescues and evacuations.
At least 104 dead in Texas floods
In Kerr County, at least 84 bodies have been recovered which includes 56 adults and 28 children.
Kerr County Sheriff’s Office said: “At present, 10 Camp Mystic campers and one counselor remain unaccounted for.
“We share our deepest condolences with all affected by this tragedy.”
Updated
The Houston Astros are donating $1 million to support the recovery from the flooding that has devastated Texas.
The baseball team said in addition to the initial “short-term” investment in relief efforts, the Astros Foundation will start an initiative to mobilize their fan base to provide sustained support for rebuilding and recovery.
“It’s important to the entire Astros organization to send immediate support to our fellow Texans throughout the Hill Country during this devastating time,” Astros owner and chairman Jim Crane and his wife Whitney Crane said in a statement.
“There is a lot still unknown as recovery efforts are ongoing, but the Astros are committed to supporting Central Texas communities in the long term through the coming days, months and years to help rebuild and heal. We also want to acknowledge and personally thank all of the First Responders for their continued heroic efforts.”
NFL teams the Houston Texans and Dallas Cowboys announced over the weekend that they each are donating $500,000 to the recovery efforts.
Kerr County has enforced a burn ban after fires interfered with search and recovery efforts.
The ban will be in place until at least next Monday.
“People burning debris were causing an issue with ongoing, primary search-and-rescue operations in and along the Guadalupe River,” the county said in a statement shared on social media.
Don Harris, Kerr County commissioner for Precinct Four - where much of the flooding occurred - said: “We understand that everyone has got plenty of debris.
“We know that. But pile it up and wait. “
Death toll from Texas floods increases to 95
The death toll from the Texas floods has risen to at least 95.
Four deaths have been confirmed in Burnet County, officials said, bringing the death toll to 95 across the state of Texas, CNN and NBC are reporting.
The vast majority of those killed by the flash floods were in Kerr County, where 75 people have died.
Following criticism of whether cuts at the National Weather Service affected the forecasting agency’s response to the flooding in Central Texas, the NWS has defended its forecasting and emergency management in a statement.
It added that it assigned extra forecasters to the San Antonio and San Angelo offices over the holiday weekend, Reuters reports.
Here is a montage of images of one of the US’s deadliest floods in decades which has claimed over 90 lives in central Texas, with over 40 still missing.
Five million people in central Texas remain under flood watch
NBC News reports that five million people in central Texas are still covered by flood watches, including residents of San Angelo, Killeen, Kerrville, San Antonio and Austin.
Slow-moving showers and storms with heavy rain continue to impact parts of the already-saturated region, according to NBC.
The day so far
Donald Trump will travel to Texas later this week, but the White House didn’t provide further details about the timing of the trip other than it was tentatively scheduled to go forward on Friday.
The extreme flash flood disaster along the Guadalupe River and parts of the Texas hill country over the 4 July holiday weekend, which killed at least 91 people, also caused an estimated $18bn to $22bn in total damage and economic loss, according to a preliminary estimate from AccuWeather. Contextualizing the disaster, AccuWeather climate expert and senior meteorologist Brett Anderson added: “A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, which can unleash extreme rainfall rates that rivers, streams and drainage systems are struggling to handle. We face a future with warmer air and higher ocean temperatures, increasing the odds of more extreme rainfall events and more people in harm’s way living and visiting in flood-prone and high-risk areas.”
The White House conflated concerns over whether adequate warnings were sent out to people soon enough (most of the alerts were sent in the middle of the night while people were sleeping) with accusing the administration of responsibility for the flooding. “That was an act of God; it’s not the administration’s fault the floods hit when it did,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, before insisting that “there were early and consistent warnings”. As we’ve reported, there have been a number of questions raised over whether the flood alerts were sent quickly and widely enough, and if Trump’s job cuts hampered the work of the National Weather Service.
Leavitt also attacked “some members of the media” as well as Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader who has reportedly called for an investigation from the commerce department inspector general into whether the National Weather Service had enough staff in offices that would have forecast the storms. Schumer wrote a letter to acting Commerce Department inspector-general Roderick Anderson today calling for an investigation into vacancies at the National Weather Service, according to the letter obtained by Politico. He asked the inspector general to look into whether staffing shortages contributed to deaths during the flooding, the letter said.
Texas flash flooding causes estimated $18-22bn in damage and loss, according to AccuWeather
The extreme flash flood disaster along the Guadalupe River and parts of the Texas hill Country over the 4 July holiday weekend, which killed at least 91 people, caused an estimated $18bn to $22bn in total damage and economic loss, according to a preliminary estimate from AccuWeather.
“This is the latest disaster in an area with a long and tragic history of deadly and destructive flash floods,” AccuWeather chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter said. “The damage, impacts on future tourism, cost of search and recovery efforts, extensive cleanup that will be needed, as well as insurance claims after this catastrophic flash flood, will have long-lasting economic impacts in the Hill Country region of Texas.”
A dangerous combination of meteorological conditions culminated in the disaster, the organization said, with heavy rainfall that exceeded 12 inches in some areas sending river levels rapidly rising roughly 30 feet in the span of one hour.
Contextualizing the disaster, AccuWeather climate expert and senior meteorologist Brett Anderson added:
A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, which can unleash extreme rainfall rates that rivers, streams and drainage systems are struggling to handle. We face a future with warmer air and higher ocean temperatures, increasing the odds of more extreme rainfall events and more people in harm’s way living and visiting in flood-prone and high-risk areas.
Updated
Here are some pictures from Camp Mystic, where at least 27 camp counsellors and children lost their lives.
Updated
At least 91 dead in Texas floods, says White House
Karoline Leavitt began the press briefing by stating that 91 people have now died in the floods – two more than we previously knew of.
Updated
Floods were 'an act of God ... it's not the administration's fault,' says White House
Karoline Leavitt again conflated concerns over whether adequate warnings were sent out to people soon enough (most of the alerts were sent in the middle of the night while people were sleeping) with accusing the administration of responsibility for the flooding.
“The alerts were sent out before the flood when people were sleeping because the flood hit in the very early hours of the morning,” said Leavitt.
“People were sleeping in the middle of the night when the flood came. That was an act of God; it’s not the administration’s fault the floods hit when it did,” she went on, before insisting that “there were early and consistent warnings”.
There have been a number of questions raised over whether the flood alerts were sent quickly and widely enough, and if Donald Trump’s job cuts hampered the National Weather Service.
Updated
White House press secretary says critics of flood warnings should be 'deeply ashamed'
Here are the full comments from Karoline Leavitt, attacking those who have questioned whether the National Weather Service was adequately prepared to warn of the deadly flash floods in Texas.
The White House press secretary cited “some members of the media” as well as Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader who has reportedly called for an investigation from the commerce department inspector general into whether the National Weather Service had enough staff in offices that would have forecast the storms.
“Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie, and it serves no purpose during this time of national mourning. Here are the facts: in the lead-up to this tragic natural disaster, the National Weather Service did its job despite unprecedented rainfall,” Leavitt said.
She continued:
To any person who has deliberately lied about these facts surrounding this catastrophic event, you should be deeply ashamed. At this time, the administration’s focus will be … on giving the victims in their communities the support they deserve during these recovery efforts in this tragic time. May God bless the great people of Texas, especially the parents who have lost their children. President Trump loves you. We are praying for you, and he will be traveling to see you later this week.
Schumer wrote a letter to acting Commerce Department inspector-general Roderick Anderson today calling for an investigation into vacancies at the National Weather Service, according to the letter obtained by Politico. He asked the inspector general to look into whether staffing shortages contributed to deaths during the flooding, the letter said.
Updated
Trump will travel to Texas later this week, says White House
Karoline Leavitt also said that Donald Trump will travel to Texas later this week, but she didn’t provide further details about the timing of the trip.
President Trump loves you. We are praying for you, and he will be traveling to see you later this week.
She added shortly after that the trip was tentatively scheduled to go forward on Friday.
But of course, we want to do it at the most appropriate time on the ground for state and local officials. We don’t want to interrupt the recovery efforts.
'Blaming Trump for floods is a depraved lie,' says White House
“Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie,” Karoline Leavitt said at the White House briefing, accusing the Democrats of weaponizing the disaster. “It serves no purpose during this time of national mourning,” she said.
People have not been accusing Trump of being responsible for the flooding. Experts and others have been questioning whether the cuts to the federal workforce carried out by his administration, including to thousands to the the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - the agency that oversees the National Weather Service – leaving many weather offices understaffed, led to a failure by officials to accurately predict the severity of the floods and issue appropriate warnings ahead of the storm.
As we reported earlier, ahead of the floods, the NSW office near San Antonio, which oversees warnings issued in Kerr County, for example, had one key vacancy - a warning coordination meteorologist, who is responsible for working with emergency managers and the public to ensure people know what to do when a disaster strikes. The person who served in that role for decades was among hundreds of NSW employees who accepted early retirement offers and left the agency at the end of April.
Updated
Death toll across Texas reaches 89
As we heard earlier, the death toll in Kerr county rose to 75, bringing the total number of victims from the flash flooding in Texas to 89. Here is the latest count from the affected areas:
Kerr county - 75 people, including 27 children
Travis county - six people
Burnet county - three people
Kendall - two people
Williamson - two people
Tom Green - one person
Updated
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is due to brief reporters shortly and will surely face questions about the deadly flash flooding in Texas. We’ll be covering her briefing in detail over on our US politics live blog, and I’ll also bring you any relevant lines here.
'Anything Texas needs, the answer is yes,' Trump tells Cruz
At the press conference earlier, Ted Cruz said he had spoken to Donald Trump, who told him that anything Texas needs “the answer is yes”.
Answering questions about whether the warning system in place had been adequate, the senator said there will be a period of retrospection, and batted away what he called “partisan finger pointing”.
He also said the idea that Doge cuts to the National Weather Service had impacted the warning system was “contradicted by the facts”, saying extra staff were working at the time.
We reported his comments here.
Updated
Louisiana’s governor Jeff Landry has sent 14 swift-water rescue personnel to Texas to assist in the flood response, including a task force leader, three boat operators, three boat bowmen and three boat support personnel.
“Louisiana will always answer the call to help our neighbors in need. Our first responders are among the best in the nation, and these men and women will always step up when disaster strikes,” Landry said in a statement. “Louisiana stands with Texas, and we are committed to doing whatever it takes to assist in their recovery.”
The day so far
The desperate search for missing campers, vacationers and residents continues after catastrophic flooding over the 4 July weekend killed at least 82 people in Texas, including more than two dozen campers and counsellors from an all-girls Christian camp.
Texas senator Ted Cruz has pushed back on what he called “partisan finger-pointing” that has blamed staff cuts at the National Weather Service for failures to predict the intensity of the rainfall last week over the Guadalupe river headwaters. But he did say that, in hindsight, it was regrettable that the most vulnerable areas hadn’t been evacuated.
It comes as some experts are questioning whether cuts to the federal workforce by the Trump administration, including to thousands to the the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - the agency that oversees the National Weather Service – leaving many weather offices understaffed, led to a failure by officials to accurately predict the severity of the floods and issue appropriate warnings ahead of the storm. Ahead of the floods, the NSW office near San Antonio, which oversees warnings issued in Kerr County, had one key vacancy - a warning coordination meteorologist, who is responsible for working with emergency managers and the public to ensure people know what to do when a disaster strikes. The person who served in that role for decades was among hundreds of NSW employees who accepted early retirement offers and left the agency at the end of April.
Ten campers and one counsellor from Camp Mystic remain missing, according to Larry Leitha, the Kerr County sheriff. An earlier statement from the camp confirmed that some 27 campers and counsellors were dead after the flooding.
Slow-moving thunderstorms are expected to continue through early afternoon across parts of the Texas Hill Country, with flash flooding likely, according to the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center. In its latest update, the center reported that thunderstorms producing localized rainfall rates over 3 inches per hour are ongoing and expected to continue into the early afternoon.
The National Weather Service office for Austin and San Antonio also issued a flash flood warning for Llano County in south-central Texas this morning. As of 10:01am CT, the agency said that radar indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rainfall across the area. Between 1 and 4 inches of rain have fallen already, with an additional 1 to 3 inches possible.
Texas senator Ted Cruz was in Kerr County today talking to reporters about the warnings that were issued before the Guadalupe river burst its banks after heavy rains, killing 82 including 27 children.
Amid criticisms of the lack of warnings about the severity of the storm to local residents, Cruz said:
Now, obviously, most people at 1am and 4am are sleeping, so I think we will have a reasonable conversation about are there any ways to have earlier detection? Some of the limits of the flash flood are that they’re very difficult because they can arise so quickly. But everyone would agree, in hindsight, if we could go back and do it again, we would evacuate, particularly those in the most vulnerable areas.
He then pushed back on what he called “partisan finger-pointing” that has blamed staff cuts at the National Weather Service for failures to predict the intensity of the rainfall last week over the Guadalupe river headwaters.
Some are eager to point at the National Weather Service and saying that cuts there led to to a lack of warning. I think that’s contradicting by the facts and and if you look in the facts in particular number one and these warnings went out hours before the flood became a true emergency.
It’s worth noting that the National Weather Service Union, which has been very critical of the Doge cuts, has publicly said that they don’t believe that a reduction of staffing had any impact whatsoever on their ability to warn of this event.
Here is a clip featuring timelapse footage provided by a witness shows flood waters rising over a causeway in Kingsland, Texas, and completely submerging it in the span of a few minutes.
The flooding occurred after torrential rain fell in the central Texas area on Friday 4 July, the US Independence Day holiday.
The death toll from catastrophic floods reached at least 80 on Monday, including 28 children, as the search for girls missing from a summer camp continued and fears of more flooding prompted evacuations of volunteer responders.
The news conference has ended.
“Evacuation is a delicate balance” Dalton Rice, the Kerrville city manager, said at the news conference. “If you evacuate too late, you then risk putting buses, or cars, or vehicles or campers on roads, into low water areas, trying to get them out, which then can make it even more challenging.”
“It’s very tough to make those calls, because what we also don’t want to do is cry wolf” he said. “It’s very difficult, very challenging.”
Rice explained that some of these areas take a lot of time to get out to so even when the first responders were on the ground at 3:30 in the morning, “we had first responders that were getting swept away, actually responding to the first areas of rainfall” he said, “that’s how quick it happened.”
In a post on Facebook Monday morning, Kerrville city officials said search and rescue efforts remain underway across both the city and Kerr County.
“Rescue teams worked throughout the night and ground teams are searching the river corridor” officials wrote. “We are not slowing down.”
City leaders urged the public to stay away from affected areas, noting that heavy traffic – largely from sightseers – slowed emergency response efforts on Sunday.
Sightseers, they said, “are making things worse.”
“If you’re not from here, don’t come here to see flood damage” officials added. “If you live here, avoid the river corridor so our first responders can do their jobs.”
Cruz insists 'now is not a time for partisan finger pointing and attacks'
“After we come through search and rescue, after we come through the process of rebuilding, there will naturally be a period of retrospection, where you look back and said what exactly transpired, what was the timeline, and what could have been done differently to prevent this loss of life” the Texas senator said.
“My hope is, in time, we learn some lessons to implement the next time there is a flood” he added.
Updated
“Those children, those little girls, who were lost at Camp Mystic, that’s every parent’s nightmare” Cruz said. “The pain and agony of not knowing your children’s whereabouts is the worst thing imaginable.”
Updated
Ted Cruz: 'Texas is grieving right now'
“Texas is grieving right now” said Texas senator Ted Cruz at the news conference on Monday morning.
“The pain, the shock, of what has transpired these last few days has broken the heart of our state” he said. “As of yesterday the confirmed death toll was 82 and those numbers are continuing to go up.”
Cruz said that there have been over 850 high water rescues since this flooding began.
Updated
“This will be a rough week” Joe Herring Jr, the mayor of Kerrville, said at the news conference.
“Primary search continues, and we remain hopeful, every foot, every mile, every bend of the river, our work continues” he said.
“We need your prayers” Herring Jr added.
Dalton Rice, the City Manager of Kerrville, said at the news conference said that search and rescue operations will continue today in North Kerr County to Canyon Lake and Comal County.
“This is unprecedented, unprecedented flood events” Rice said. “We are still currently in the primary search phase, which is the rapid one, they are running it, we have different segments that are gridded out. Each one of those segments are taking anywhere between an hour to three hours, up to 2km for each segment.”
“They are running into a lot of technical challenges with terrain, with water, even potentially with weather and the rising fields” he added.
10 campers and one counsellor remain missing from Camp Mystic
Larry Leitha, the Kerr County sheriff, said that 10 campers and one counsellor from Camp Mystic remain missing.
“We continue to offer our condolences to those affected” he said. “Reuniting the families remains our top priority.”
Updated
75 killed in Kerr county
As of Monday morning, 75 people have died in Kerr county, including 27 children and 48 adults, Kerr county sheriff Larry Leitha said.
Leitha added that the identities of 15 adults and 9 children are still pending confirmation.
Updated
Search and rescue operations are ongoing in Kerr Country, Kerr County sheriff Larry Leitha said.
Kerr County officials are holding a news conference.
Slow-moving thunderstorms are expected to continue through early afternoon across parts of the Texas Hill Country, with flash flooding likely, according to the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center.
In its latest update, the center reported that thunderstorms producing localized rainfall rates over 3 inches per hour are ongoing and expected to continue into the early afternoon.
“Some significant instances of flash flooding are possible, especially given the sensitive flood-prone terrain of central TX” the center added.
Flash flood warning issued for south-central Texas
The National Weather Service Office for Austin and San Antonio has issued a flash flood warning for Llano County in south-central Texas this morning.
As of 10:01 am CT (11:01 am ET), the agency said that radar indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rainfall across the area. Between 1 and 4 inches of rain have fallen already, with an additional 1 to 3 inches possible.
“Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly” the agency said.
Updated
A camp counsellor at Camp Mystic helped evacuate 14 of her campers during the catastrophic flooding in the area early on Friday morning.
Emma Foltz, from Alexandria, Louisiana, was recognized by Louisiana governor Jeff Landry for her efforts in a post on Instagram. Landry said:
She played an instrumental role in helping evacuate 14 of her campers to safety. Please join me in thanking Emma for all her hard work and bravery under immense pressure.
Foltz is a rising senior at Louisiana Tech. This was her third year as a camp counsellor at Camp Mystic, according to Landry. He added:
We continue to pray for all those affected by this travesty. Louisiana is here to help!
At least 80 people killed in Texas flooding including 27 campers and counsellors from girls camp
Crews trudged through debris and waded into swollen riverbanks on Monday in the search for victims of catastrophic flooding over the 4 July weekend that killed more 80 people in Texas, including more than two dozen campers and counselors from an all-girls Christian camp.
With more rain on the way, the risk of more flooding was still high in saturated parts of central Texas, the Associated Press reports, with authorities sure the death toll would rise as crews looked for the many people who were still missing.
The floods, among the nation’s worst in decades, swept away people sleeping in tents, cabins and homes along the river in the middle of the night on Friday.
Reagan Brown told the AP his parents, in their 80s, managed to escape uphill as water inundated their home in the town of Hunt. When the couple learned that their 92-year-old neighbor was trapped in her attic, they went back and rescued her.
Then they were able to reach their tool shed up higher ground, and neighbors throughout the early morning began to show up at their tool shed, and they all rode it out together.
A few miles away, rescuers manoeuvring through challenging terrain filled with snakes kept up the search for the missing.
Governor Greg Abbott said yesterday that 41 people were unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing.
In the Hill Country area, home to several summer camps, searchers have found the bodies of 68 people, including 28 children, Kerr County sheriff Larry Leitha said.
Ten other deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, according to local officials.
Updated
Kristi Noem says she is not aware of any breakdown in flood warning systems
Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem said today that she’s not aware of any breakdown in emergency warning systems that could have contributed to the high death toll in the Texas floods.
Asked on Fox & Friends this morning whether there was any breakdown, Noem responded:
Not that we found so far. The National Weather Service put out the alerts when they received them and, unfortunately, in many places in our country we have flash floods like this that do occur, and the notification was proactive and out there.
But she added:
Would everybody like more time? Absolutely. So many situations when we see terrible events like this and these national weather disasters, more notification is always extremely helpful.
She said the weather service under Donald Trump “has been working to put in new technology and a new system because it has been neglected for years”, but did not expand on what that new technology entails or its relevance to the question of whether it would have helped lessen the floods’ death toll.
It’s an ancient system that needed to be upgraded and so President Trump recognized that right away and got to work on it when he came into office in January but that installation is not complete and that technology isn’t fully installed.
Asked whether the disaster either underscores or changes the administration’s plans to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), Noem said:
I think what we’ve seen here is exactly what President Trump has envisioned for Fema, is immediately allowing the state to do the response and supporting them every way that they can.
Aligned with Trump, Noem has advocated for phasing out Fema, starting with weaning states off funding. Just last month she said the disaster relief agency “fundamentally needs to go away” and be “eliminated as it exists today”.
And just five days ago she said on Instagram that the controversial “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention facility in Florida would be funded largely by Fema’s Shelter and Services Program.
Updated
A US Coast Guard rescue swimmer has been hailed as a hero for helping to save 165 people from flooding in Texas during the first mission of his career, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official.
Scott Ruskan was among the Coast Guard members deployed after Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration yesterday. He was in charge of triage at Camp Mystic, the girls’ summer camp that saw some of the worst of the flooding.
“He is an American hero whose selfless courage embodies the spirit and mission of the USCG,” DHS said.
Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem also praised the 26-year-old as “an American hero” in a post on X.
Ruskan played down his role and praised his colleagues in an interview with the New York Post, telling the publication:
Honestly, I’m mostly just a dude. I’m just doing a job.
This is what I signed up for, and I think that any single Coast Guard rescue swimmer or any single Coast Guard pilot, flight mechanic, whoever it may be, would have done the exact same thing in our situation.
That’s what we were asked to do and we’re gonna do it. Any one of us, if anyone else was on duty that day, they would have done the same thing as us. We just happened to be the crew that got the case.
The Texas agriculture commissioner has said there has been no time to even begin calculating the damage done to the region’s agriculture industry during the floods, with more than 40 people still unaccounted for.
Sid Miller told Fox News that cattle and livestock have been found “on the tops of trees” following the deadly flooding, which he said had “caught everybody off guard”.
We’ve lost hundreds of miles of fencing, barns, all kinds of buildings, structures.
We are still so focused on search and rescue of the over 40 people that are still unaccounted for, that we haven’t even had time to start calculating about the agriculture loss.
But it’s been devastating. It’s a 26ft wall of water, 3am in the morning ... caught everybody off guard.
Tavia Hunt, the wife of Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, has confirmed that one of the victims of the devastating Texas floods was a member of their family, nine-year-old Janie Hunt.
Janie, a young cousin in the family, was one of the girls at Camp Mystic, the popular summer camp perched on the banks of the Guadalupe River that has become a focus of the search after suffering significant damage in the deluge.
In an Instagram post, Tavia Hunt wrote:
Our hearts are broken by the devastation from the floods in Wimberley and the tragic loss of so many lives – including a precious little Hunt cousin, along with several friend’s little girls.
How do we trust a God who is supposed to be good, all knowing and all powerful, but who allows such terrible things to happen – even to children?
Janie, a great-granddaughter of the oil baron William Herbert Hunt, is reportedly the eldest of three children. Camp Mystic said in a statement earlier today that 27 campers and counselors died in the catastrophic flooding.
Residents of Kerr County began clearing mud and salvaging what they could from their demolished properties as they recounted harrowing escapes from rapidly rising floodwaters late Friday.
Reagan Brown said his parents, in their 80s, managed to escape uphill as water inundated their home in the town of Hunt.
When the couple learned that their 92-year-old neighbour was trapped in her attic, they went back and rescued her.
“Then they were able to reach their toolshed up higher ground, and neighbors throughout the early morning began to show up at their toolshed, and they all rode it out together,” Brown said.
Updated
Here is a map, which shows the layout of Camp Mystic in Texas and its proximity to the Guadalupe river…
‘No warning at all’: Texas flood survivors question safety planning and officials’ response
As Texas marshals a formidable response to the flash floods that have already killed dozens, questions are now being posed about warnings that were given on Thursday and early Friday about the severity of the approaching storm and the co-ordination between local officials and the National Weather Service.
New flood alerts were issued for Texas “hill country” on Sunday, prompting rescue services to suspend the search for missing people, including at least 11 from Camp Mystic, the summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River hard hit by Friday’s flash flood.
At an early evening press briefing, Kerr county authorities said they were suspending the search and evacuating first responders from the river valley. They confirmed that 68 had died there, including 28 children. Not all have been identified, with officials still examining the bodies of 18 adults and 10 children.
Extraordinary tales of resilience have also emerged alongside videos of the destruction and loss that are circulating on social media. On Sunday, a video was posted on X of girls from Camp Mystic being evacuated from the camp and singing the hymns Pass It On and Amazing Grace as they crossed a bridge over the still torrential Guadalupe River.
The new round of rainfall in the area prompted an alert of a “dangerous and life-threatening situation”, it said, adding: “Do not attempt to travel unless unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order.”
The co-ordination between Kerr county officials and the National Weather Service has become a flashpoint of its own.
Updated
Camp Mystic confirms 27 campers and counsellors killed
Some 27 campers and counsellors are dead after flooding at Camp Mystic, a statement from the camp said.
“Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy. We are praying for them constantly,” the camp wrote in a statement on their website.
It went on:
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.
We ask for your continued prayers, respect and privacy for each of our families affected. May the Lord continue to wrap His presence around all of us.
Here are some of the latest images of the devastation caused by the tragic flash flooding in Texas…
People have recounted their ordeal after deadly flooding swept through central Texas on Friday morning…
President Donald Trump, who said on Sunday he would visit the disaster scene, probably this coming Friday, has previously outlined plans to scale back the federal government’s role in responding to natural disasters, leaving states to shoulder more of the burden themselves.
Some experts questioned whether cuts to the federal workforce by the Trump administration, including to the agency that oversees the National Weather Service, led to a failure by officials to accurately predict the severity of the floods and issue appropriate warnings ahead of the storm, Reuters reported.
Trump’s administration has overseen thousands of job cuts from the National Weather Service’s parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, leaving many weather offices understaffed, former NOAA director Rick Spinrad said.
Ahead of Friday’s floods, the Weather Service office near San Antonio, which oversees warnings issued in Kerr County, had one key vacancy - a warning coordination meteorologist, who is responsible for working with emergency managers and the public to ensure people know what to do when a disaster strikes.
The person who served in that role for decades was among hundreds of Weather Service employees who accepted early retirement offers and left the agency at the end of April, media reported.
Trump pushed back when asked on Sunday if federal government cuts hobbled the disaster response or left key job vacancies at the Weather Service under Trump’s oversight.
“That water situation, that all is, and that was really the Biden setup,” he said referencing his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. “But I wouldn’t blame Biden for it, either. I would just say this is 100-year catastrophe.”
As the death toll continues to rise after deadly flash flooding in central Texas, a frantic search is under way for missing campers, vacationers and residents.
Hunt resident Macon Ware’s five granddaughters had just finished a summer camping session at Camp Mystic, the all-girl camp where dozens of campers were swept away in the flood.
“Some of their friends were there for the second session and my heart goes out to all those little girls,” he says.
See the full video below…
Pope Leo extends condolences to Texas flood victims: ‘We pray for them’
Pope Leo XIV on Sunday voiced his sympathies for the families whose lives have been upended by the flooding in Texas’s Hill Country, which left about 80 dead – many of them children – and others missing.
After reciting Angelus prayers at the Vatican, the American-born pontiff remarked in English: “I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were in a summer camp in the disaster caused by flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas.
“We pray for them.”
The worldwide Roman Catholic church leader’s comments were notable in that they addressed what is the deadliest natural disaster in his home country since he became the first US-born pope ever in May.
They were also ecumenical in the sense that the girls’ summer camp to which he referred is a Christian – though not specifically Catholic – institution.
Updated
Search teams scour Texas flood zone for dozens still missing
Hello and welcome to the Texas floods live blog. I am Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you the latest news lines over the next few hours.
Residents in central Texas were observing a day of prayer on Sunday for at least 82 people killed and dozens missing in Friday’s devastating flash flooding, as a search and rescue operation for survivors began to morph into a grim exercise of recovering bodies.
Relatives continued an anxious wait for news of 10 girls and one camp counselor still unaccounted for from a riverside summer camp that was overwhelmed by flash flooding from the Guadalupe River, which rose 26ft (8 meters) in 45 minutes on Friday morning after torrential pre-dawn rain north of San Antonio.
Kerr county’s sheriff, Larry Leitha, said at a briefing on Sunday afternoon that 68 people have been confirmed dead there, including 28 children, with the search continuing for the missing girls and their counselor from Camp Mystic, along the river.
Texas’s governor, Greg Abbott, said in an earlier briefing that another 10 fatalities have been confirmed in neighboring counties. Abbott said that officials were still searching for 41 known missing persons across the state.
“We are seeing bodies recovered all over up and down,” Kerrville’s city manager, Dalton Rice, told reporters at an earlier briefing on Sunday. Authorities said about 850 people had been rescued, with more than 400 people involved in the search and rescue operation.
By Sunday morning, water levels had fallen to just a foot or two higher than before the flood. On Sunday afternoon, people in Kerrville received an emergency alert on their phone, reading: “High confidence of river flooding at North Folks of river. Move to higher ground.”
Further rain on Saturday and into Sunday morning hampered search efforts of crews using boats, helicopters and drones. Abbott promised responders would remain at the scene until every individual was recovered. He said he instructed responders to assume all missing persons were still alive.
Read our full report here:
Here are the latest headlines from Texas:
Ten other deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, Associated Press cited local officials as saying.
Abbott said additional stretches of heavy rain lasting into Tuesday could produce more dangerous flooding, especially in places already saturated.
Relatives continued an anxious wait for news of 10 girls and one camp counsellor from the riverside Camp Mystic still unaccounted for after it was overwhelmed by flash flooding from the Guadalupe River, which rose 26ft (8 meters) in 45 minutes on Friday morning. Families were allowed to look around the camp from Sunday morning as nearby searches continued.
The Texas Division of Emergency Management chief said on Sunday he was receiving unconfirmed reports of “an additional wall of water” flowing down some of the creeks in the Guadalupe Rivershed as rain continued to fall on soil in the region already saturated from Friday’s rains. “We’re evacuating parts of the river right now because we are worried about another wall of river coming down in those areas,” Nim Kidd said.
Authorities faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in an area long vulnerable to flooding and whether enough preparations were made. Kerrville city manager Dalton Rice said there would be a full review of the emergency response.
President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration on Sunday for Kerr county and said he would likely visit on Friday, calling what took place “absolutely horrible”. Asked whether he was still planning to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), he said that was something “we can talk about later, but right now we are busy working”.
