Officials reported at least 84 bodies recovered across Kerr and Kendall counties on Monday. That number is expected to grow.
KERR COUNTY, Texas — Another day of desperate searching gets underway Tuesday in Kerr County, where at least 10 young Camp Mystic campers and a counselor remain missing four days after July Fourth floods ripped through the Texas Hill Country.
Officials on Monday afternoon reported at least 87 deaths as a result of the floods, including 30 children, the executive director Camp Mystic, a UTSA professor and two young friends from Dallas. Six of those deaths happened in neighboring Kendall County, which was also besieged by a cresting Guadalupe River last Friday.
Nearly 1,200 Texas personnel and 975 vehicles are engaged in ongoing search-and-rescue operations in the area, according to Gov. Greg Abbott’s office, with 20 agencies on the ground to support. The state was able to obtain disaster assistance from the federal government this week, meaning those affected in Kerr County can apply for aid from FEMA.
Authorities overseeing the search for flood victims said they will wait to address questions about weather warnings and why some summer camps did not evacuate ahead of the flooding that killed a growing number of people.
The officials spoke only hours after the operators of Camp Mystic, a century-old all-girls Christian summer camp in the Texas Hill Country, announced that they lost 27 campers and counselors to the floodwaters.
With additional rain on the way, more flooding still threatened saturated parts of central Texas. Authorities said the death toll was sure to rise.
The raging flash floods — among the nation’s worst in decades — slammed into camps and homes along the edge of the Guadalupe River before daybreak Friday, pulling sleeping people out of their cabins, tents and trailers and dragging them for miles past floating tree trunks and cars. Some survivors were found clinging to trees.
Piles of twisted trees sprinkled with mattresses, refrigerators and coolers littered the riverbanks Monday. The debris included reminders of what drew so many to the campgrounds and cabins in the Hill Country — a volleyball, canoes and a family portrait.
Nineteen deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, local officials said.
Also among those confirmed dead were 8-year-old sisters from Dallas who were at Camp Mystic and a former soccer coach and his wife who were staying at a riverfront home. Their daughters were still missing.
Calls for finding why warnings weren’t heard
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 will include a review of how weather warnings were sent out and received. One of the challenges is that many camps and cabins are in places with poor cellphone service, Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said.
“We definitely want to dive in and look at all those things,” he said. “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.
Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said recent government spending cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service did not delay any warnings.
“There’s a time to have political fights, there’s a time to disagree. This is not that time,” Cruz said. “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.”
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 — a rare step that alerts the public to imminent danger.
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.
President Donald Trump said he plans to visit the state on Friday. He had said Sunday that he does not plan to rehire any of the federal meteorologists who were fired this year.
“This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it,” the president said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said local and federal weather services provided sufficient warnings.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, meanwhile, said in a Fox News interview that state would ensure sirens were installed along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County by summer 2026.
Crews search for dozens of people
More than three dozen people were unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing, Gov. Greg Abbott said Sunday.
Search-and-rescue crews at one staging area said Monday that more than 1,000 volunteers had been directed to Kerr County.
Kerrville city officials urged people to stop flying drones over the area after they said a private drone operating illegally Monday afternoon collided with a helicopter involved in emergency operations. The helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing and is out of service until further notice.
Help from south of the border
Dozens of Mexican firefighters with Fundación 911 are also part of the ongoing recovery efforts, saying “there’s no flag or countries in between firefighters.”
“We’re humans and we’re helping humans, that’s what matters,” said Jesus Gomez.
Fundación 911’s involvement underscores how the flooding tragedy has prompted an outpouring of support and heroism from across the state and beyond it. The nonprofit’s arrival has provided critical support to overwhelmed local departments and comfort to grieving families still searching for answers.
Reunification line
Amidst the catastrophic Fourth of July flooding, the City of Kerrville Emergency Management has established a reunification intake line for parents of campers who are unaccounted for.
If you do not know where your camper is, call 830-258-1111 and say the name of your missing person and you will be directed to a shelter. For other missing persons, call 830-257-8181.
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