Texas officials are trying to figure out who's really missing from the
floods
[July 11, 2025]
By ED WHITE
This week in Texas, estimates put the number of people still missing
from the Hill Country floods at more than 170, a daunting figure atop at
least 120 deaths confirmed by authorities.
But that missing person tally might not be as precise as it seems.
Confusion and uncertainty can take hold after a shocking disaster and,
despite best efforts by local authorities, it can be difficult to pin
down how many people reported missing are actually unaccounted for. Some
people on a list after California’s Camp Fire wildfire in 2018 were
later found to be OK the whole time. The death count in the 2023 Maui
fire was 102, far below the 1,100 people initially feared missing.
In Texas, several hundred people were reported missing to officials in
Kerr County after the Fourth of July floods, said Freeman Martin,
director of the Texas Department of Public Safety. Investigators
whittled that number down by Tuesday after learning that some were
counted twice and others were found alive.
“There’s nothing to celebrate about how well we’ve done this far, but
there’s a lot of work to be done,” Martin said.
Authorities announced a phone number and email address for people to
report missing friends or family.
“We need to keep an accurate count, as accurate as possible,” Jonathan
Lamb of the Kerrville Police Department said in a plea to the public
Wednesday. "So if you’ve reported somebody missing and they’ve been
recovered safely, please let us know."
The flooding sent walls of water through Hill Country in the middle of
the night, killing at least 27 campers and counselors at Camp Mystic, a
century-old all-girls Christian summer camp along the Guadalupe River.
More remain missing from that camp and elsewhere.
The search in 88-degree Fahrenheit heat (31 degrees Celsius) has been
made harder by overturned cars, trees, mud and other debris left in the
wake of the ferocious flood.
“We will not stop until every missing person is accounted for,” Gov.
Greg Abbott said. “Know this also: There very likely could be more added
to that list.”
In 2017, more than 20 people died in the Tubbs fire in northern
California. Sgt. Juan Valencia of the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office
recalled that most of the 100 people initially reported missing to his
agency were found safe.
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A family portrait is caught in debris along the Guadalupe River
after a flash flood struck the area, Friday, July 4, 2025, in
Kerrville, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Working through a list of names in a disaster is both meticulous and
time-consuming work, he said.
“Put yourself in a family member’s shoes,” Valencia said. “They're
concerned about their loved one. Are they really the victim of a
disaster or did they maybe lose their cellphone? Basically you start
calling temporary shelters, check family, friends. You check social
media. That's how we were able to get a lot of those.”
And he acknowledged that searching for victims of a water disaster
poses distinct challenges.
“Sometimes you find them miles away,” Valencia said.
The 2018 Camp Fire in California ended up killing nearly 100 people,
though Butte County investigators at one point had the names of more
than 3,000 people who were not accounted for in the early days of
the disaster, Sheriff Kory Honea said.
“They were published in our local paper, the Chico
Enterprise-Record. Many people didn't know we were looking for them.
That helped us start to whittle that list down," Honea said.
Abbott said Texas authorities were trying to learn more about people
who were not registered at a camp or a hotel for the holiday and
left no paper or digital trail in the Hill Country region. He had a
firm message for anyone contacting police about a missing person.
“If you make a prank call or provide false information, that’s a
crime. ... So you better be correct,” the governor said.
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