Death toll in central Texas flash floods rises to 82 as sheriff says 10
campers remain missing
[July 07, 2025]
By JIM VERTUNO and JOHN SEEWER
KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Families sifted through waterlogged debris
Sunday and stepped inside empty cabins at Camp Mystic, an all-girls
summer camp ripped apart by flash floods that washed homes off their
foundations and killed at least 82 people in central Texas.
Rescuers maneuvering through challenging terrain, high waters and snakes
including water moccasins continued their desperate search for the
missing, including 10 girls and a counselor from the camp. For the first
time since the storms began pounding Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott said there
were 41 people confirmed to be unaccounted for across the state and more
could be missing.
In Kerr County, home to Camp Mystic and other youth camps in the Texas
Hill Country, searchers have found the bodies of 68 people, including 28
children, Sheriff Larry Leitha said in the afternoon.
He pledged to keep searching until “everybody is found” from Friday's
flash floods. Ten other deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall,
Tom Green and Williamson counties, according to local officials. The
death toll is certain to rise over the next few days, said Col. Freeman
Martin of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The governor warned that additional rounds of heavy rains lasting into
Tuesday could produce more life-threatening flooding, especially in
places already saturated. As he spoke at a news conference in Austin,
emergency alerts lit up mobile phones in Kerr County that warned of
“High confidence of river flooding" and a loudspeaker near Camp Mystic
urged people to leave. Minutes later, however, authorities on the scene
said there was no risk.
Families were allowed to look around the camp beginning Sunday morning.
One girl walked out of a building carrying a large bell. A man, who said
his daughter was rescued from a cabin on the highest point in the camp,
walked a riverbank, looking in clumps of trees and under big rocks.
A woman and a teenage girl, both wearing rubber waders, briefly went
inside one of the cabins, which stood next to a pile of soaked
mattresses, a storage trunk and clothes. At one point, the pair doubled
over, sobbing before they embraced.
One family left with a blue footlocker. A teenage girl had tears running
down her face looking out the open window, gazing at the wreckage as
they slowly drove away.
Searching the disaster zone
While the families saw the devastation for the first time, nearby crews
operating heavy equipment pulled tree trunks and tangled branches from
the water as they searched the river.
With each passing hour, the outlook of finding more survivors became
even more bleak. Volunteers and some families of the missing who drove
to the disaster zone searched the riverbanks despite being asked not to
do so.
Authorities faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were
issued in an area long vulnerable to flooding and whether enough
preparations were made.
President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration Sunday for
Kerr County, activating the Federal Emergency Management Agency to
Texas.
The president said he would likely visit Friday. “I would have done it
today, but we’d just be in their way,” he told reporters before boarding
Air Force One back to Washington after spending the weekend at his golf
club in Bedminster, New Jersey. “It’s a horrible thing that took place,
absolutely horrible.”
The destructive, fast-moving waters rose 26 feet (8 meters) on the river
in only 45 minutes before daybreak Friday, washing away homes and
vehicles. The danger was not over as flash flood watches remained in
effect and more rain fell in central Texas on Sunday.
Searchers used helicopters, boats and drones to look for victims and to
rescue people stranded in trees and from camps isolated by washed-out
roads. Officials said more than 850 people were rescued in the first 36
hours.
Prayers in Texas — and from the Vatican
Gov. Greg Abbott vowed that authorities will work around the clock and
said new areas were being searched as the water receded. He declared
Sunday a day of prayer for the state.
"I urge every Texan to join me in prayer this Sunday — for the lives
lost, for those still missing, for the recovery of our communities, and
for the safety of those on the front lines,” he said in a statement.
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A person salvages a bell from the main building at Camp Mystic along
the banks of the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through
the area Sunday, July 6, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio
Cortez)
In Rome, Pope Leo XIV offered special prayers for those touched by
the disaster. History’s first American pope spoke in English at the
end of his Sunday noon blessing, “I would like to express sincere
condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in
particular their daughters who were in summer camp, in the disaster
caused by the flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas in the United
States. We pray for them.”
The hills along the Guadalupe River are dotted with century-old
youth camps and campgrounds where generations of families have come
to swim and enjoy the outdoors. The area is especially popular
around the Independence Day holiday, making it more difficult to
know how many are missing.
Harrowing escapes from floodwaters
Survivors shared terrifying stories of being swept away and clinging
to trees as rampaging floodwaters carried trees and cars past them.
Others fled to attics inside their homes, praying the water wouldn’t
reach them.
At Camp Mystic, a cabin full of girls held onto a rope strung by
rescuers as they walked across a bridge with water whipping around
their legs.
Among those confirmed dead were an 8-year-old girl from Mountain
Brook, Alabama, who was at Camp Mystic, and the director of another
camp up the road.
Two school-age sisters from Dallas were missing after their cabin
was swept away. Their parents were staying in a different cabin and
were safe, but the girls’ grandparents were unaccounted for.
Locals know the Hill Country as “ flash flood alley” but the
flooding in the middle of the night caught many campers and
residents by surprise even though there were warnings.
Warnings came before the disaster
The National Weather Service on Thursday advised of potential
flooding and then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the
early hours of Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies — a
rare alert notifying of imminent danger.
At the Mo-Ranch Camp in the community of Hunt, officials had been
monitoring the weather and opted to move several hundred campers and
attendees at a church youth conference to higher ground. At nearby
Camps Rio Vista and Sierra Vista, organizers also had mentioned on
social media that they were watching the weather the day before
ending their second summer session Thursday.
Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such
an intense downpour, the equivalent of months’ worth of rain for the
area.
Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said authorities are committed to
a full review of the emergency response, including how the public
was alerted to the storm threat.
Trump, asked whether he was still planning to phase out the Federal
Emergency Management Agency, said that was something “we can talk
about later, but right now we are busy working.” He has previously
said he wants to overhaul if not completely eliminate FEMA and has
been sharply critical of its performance.
Trump also was asked whether he planned to rehire any of the federal
meteorologists who were fired this year as part of widespread
government spending reductions.
“I would think not. This was a thing that happened in seconds.
Nobody expected it. Nobody saw it. Very talented people there, and
they didn’t see it,” the president said.
___
Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Contributing to this report were
Associated Press writers Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; Adrian
Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Cedar Attanasio in New York; Sophia
Tareen in Chicago; Michelle Price in Morristown, N.J.; and Nicole
Winfield in Rome.
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