- 7/6/2025
Texas Floods LIVE: At Least 47 Dead In Texas Floods, With Dozens Still Missing | Texas LIVE | N18G
#texas #floods #usnews
Catastrophic flooding struck central Texas yesterday, causing the Guadalupe River near Kerrville to surge by more than 20-26 feet within 90 minutes, leading to widespread damage and road washouts.
#texas #floods #usnews #news18live
#texas #floods #usnews
Catastrophic flooding struck central Texas yesterday, causing the Guadalupe River near Kerrville to surge by more than 20-26 feet within 90 minutes, leading to widespread damage and road washouts.
#texas #floods #usnews #news18live
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NewsTranscript
00:00The minute counts, which is why there's people in the air, people in the water, people on the ground right now,
00:04because they're looking to save every last life, and we will not give up that effort.
00:10We will rescue those in peril, and we will find those who are lost.
00:16I continue to ask everyone who sees this day to pray for Kerrville and Kerr County.
00:28We need your prayers.
00:29It's going to be a long time before we're ever going to be able to clean it up, much less rebuild it.
00:36But there's nothing on the other side of Kerrville.
00:41It's just hill country.
00:44And we didn't know.
00:46We know we get rains.
00:47We know the river rises.
00:49But nobody saw this coming.
00:51There's a lot of people saying why and how, and I understand that.
00:53And I understand why parents would be asking those questions and all of the media.
00:57But where we are right now in terms of what we've done to be able to protect people, move them, get them out of the camps,
01:03and the heroic efforts of people that worked in those camps, directors of the camps, people who own the camps,
01:09who not just risked their lives, gave their lives to try to go save the lives of those kids.
01:15That's who they are as Texans.
01:17And I'm so proud of that.
01:19The girls' camp sits near the Guadalupe River in the town of Hunt near Kerrville, northwest of San Antonio.
01:27There are several other camps in that area.
01:29The city manager says it's been an around-the-clock rescue and recovery operation.
01:34We've been rescuing people out of these camps by the hundreds, you know, all day.
01:40So there's a lot of folks that are shelter-in-place, so we leave them in place to make sure that we get them food, water.
01:46And some of these camps actually now are self-rescuing, if you will.
01:51Maybe that's not the right word, but they are self-extricating, if you will.
01:55So they're getting waters down.
01:57They're getting their own resources.
01:58They're not having to tie up, you know, local and state, you know, resources.
02:01We are monitoring them, but they're accounting for their own folks.
02:06So that has been going on, obviously, for over 800-plus people, and we're continuing to do that.
02:12We go now to CNN's Ed Lavendera, who's on the scene for us just outside Camp Mystic.
02:17Ed, you've been there all day.
02:19It's a heartbreaking story, as we all know.
02:21Tell us what you're hearing and seeing now.
02:26Well, Wolf, we started the day by hearing from the mayor of Kerrville saying,
02:31that today was going to be a tough day, and it turned out to be exactly that,
02:36as we've seen the death toll about double, and the search for the missing young girls
02:41from Camp Mystic, which is just beyond the river, is where 27 of those young girls are still missing.
02:48And throughout the day, we've heard and had confirmation on the deaths of several of those
02:53missing girls.
02:54But heartbreaking, nonetheless, because there are still so many families awaiting answers.
02:58But with every passing hour, it's unclear that they're going to get the miracle that they are
03:03praying and hoping for at this moment.
03:05But this is the scene.
03:07They're in the distance along just beyond that green area that you see there, the grass.
03:13That's what they call the flats of Camp Mystic.
03:15And these cabins here on the left side, Wolf, this is where those younger campers would be
03:21inside those cabins.
03:22And those were some of the most dangerous areas to be early Friday morning as the floodwaters
03:27raged through this area.
03:30And I've spoken with some parents and other counselors were here, and they described what
03:35they simply said is just heroic efforts on the part of several counselors, camp counselors.
03:41And these are just older teenage kids themselves who had the presence of mind to break out windows
03:46on the backside and pull girls out of the cabin windows.
03:49And then if you notice along behind those cabins, how it goes up, that's a hill.
03:53That's not a trail or anything that kids would normally use.
03:56But in the rain and the thunder and the lightning, those counselors took a lot of those kids to
04:02safety up that way, getting them to higher ground, because that was the only way out.
04:06All of this was swarming with water.
04:09The water was barricading the doors, going in through the windows.
04:12The kids simply had nowhere to go except out that back way.
04:16And many of them did escape to higher ground.
04:18But as we know, there are still several dozen more that have not been able to be found at
04:23this moment.
04:24And, you know, the damage is extensive.
04:26You see the large recreation hall there, the side that kind of faces us was, you know, blown
04:31out.
04:32We've seen, you know, much of this area was Wolf evacuated by late yesterday afternoon.
04:38We were in Ingram yesterday, just about seven or eight miles away at the school where many
04:42of these young campers were being reunited with their family members.
04:47And the look of horror and trauma on the faces of these young children was just stunning to
04:53see.
04:54They had really gone through an ordeal that they will never forget.
04:58Wolf.
04:58Ed, what more are we learning about these young girls?
05:02Basically, it's a girls' camp.
05:04Seven, eight, nine-year-old girls killed in the floodwaters at Camp Mystic.
05:08You know, the generational connections to this particular camp, and the camps in this region
05:17in particular.
05:18But this one is special because, you know, some of the parents I've spoken with say, you
05:21know, they love sending their girls here because it was a camp just for girls, where they learned
05:26confidence, how to be outdoors, how to resolve problems.
05:30And they said that that showed.
05:31One of the parents told me, they said that showed.
05:32And what you saw the older counselors do as they got those young girls to safety.
05:36But, you know, the pictures of the young girls smiling out here, having warm memories.
05:42This is a place, Wolf, where you hear over and over where young girls would start coming
05:47here in elementary school age, and they would continue coming back to Camp Mystic well into
05:52their high school years, some of them eventually becoming counselors themselves.
05:56So it's a place that many of these young girls feel a very deep connection to.
06:00Yeah, it's so heartbreaking to see their faces and learn about them, their ages.
06:06Ed Levendary, you're on the scene for us.
06:07We will stay in very close touch with you just outside of Camp Mystic.
06:11I want to turn right now to CNN's Maribel Gonzalez in Kerrville, where RV Park was decimated
06:18by the flooding.
06:19Set the scene for us, Maribel.
06:20Maribel.
06:21And then she's going to come to me through Q&A.
06:26I think we've lost our connection with Maribel.
06:28Maribel, if you can hear me, stand by.
06:30I will get back to you in just a few moments.
06:33Maribel Gonzalez is in Kerrville in Texas, not far away from the worst parts of what's
06:38going on.
06:38We're also learning more about the federal government's response to these totally destructive
06:43floods.
06:44CNN senior reporter Betsy Kline is joining us right now.
06:47She's over at the White House.
06:48What are we learning, Betsy, about the Trump administration's plans to help these local
06:53efforts?
06:54Well, Wolf, local officials say that this is going to require a marathon search and rescue
07:02and search and recovery response.
07:04And we are starting to see what that is going to look like.
07:08It's going to require close coordination between state, local and federal governments.
07:12Now, on the federal government side, FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is fully
07:17engaged, along with the U.S. Coast Guard.
07:20And Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, said a little bit earlier today that she had
07:25requested additional fixed-wing aircraft with thermal imaging.
07:29Now, that is going to be so critical as it starts to get dark in Texas so they can continue
07:34those search and rescue efforts.
07:36She's also requesting additional helicopters.
07:39The Army Corps of Engineers is on the scene, along with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
07:45Now, Noem said that Border Patrol agents have special expertise and skills that can be helpful
07:51with these search and rescue efforts.
07:53So far, we are hearing state and local officials say that they are getting what they need from
07:58the federal government.
07:59Texas Governor Greg Abbott requested a federal disaster declaration a short while ago.
08:06President Trump is expected to sign that, according to Noem, who says she has repeatedly briefed
08:11to the president today and continues to stay in close touch.
08:15Now, Noem is also expected to go to that girls' camp, Camp Mystic, where two dozen young women
08:22remain missing at this hour.
08:24We still don't know the extent of the federal response that is going to be required here,
08:29whether Congress may need to step up and provide additional aid in the months ahead.
08:34But there are two other things to keep in mind as we continue to track the federal response.
08:39The 26 budget, which it is already starting to abide by, has sharp cuts for some of these
09:05weather research labs.
09:06They provide the data and tools that is so important to forecasting these types of weather
09:13events.
09:13So we will see if those cuts move ahead going forward.
09:17But Secretary Kristi Noem was asked about National Weather Service cuts and whether that impacted
09:25some of the alerts or lack thereof.
09:27Here is how she defended the Trump administration.
09:29That is something and one of the reasons that when President Trump took office that he said
09:36he wanted to fix and is currently upgrading the technology.
09:39And the National Weather Service has indicated that with that and NOAA that we needed to renew
09:45this ancient system that has been left in place with the federal government for many,
09:50many years.
09:51But I do carry your concerns back to the federal government and to President Trump.
09:54And we will do all we can to fix those kinds of things that may have felt like a failure
10:00to you.
10:03Of course, this storm was so unpredictable.
10:06This water rose so quickly.
10:08Wolf, we also have a little bit of good news, and that is from Congressman August Pflueger,
10:12who represents Hill Country area of Texas.
10:15He says that he and his wife were reunited with their two daughters who were campers at Camp
10:20Mystic today.
10:21He said in a post to social media, quote, please join us as we pray for miracles.
10:28We're praying for miracles indeed.
10:30So a big group of us from Houston, we decided what we wanted to have a celebratory weekend,
10:36celebrating a friend's birthday and celebrating Fourth of July.
10:39We get to the Airbnb Thursday night, you know, excited to go fishing and swimming early Friday
10:46morning around six o'clock in the morning.
10:48One of our dogs, Nash, was pawing at the door and woke up one of my friends.
10:53And when you woke up, you happen to look out the window and notice that one of our vehicles
10:58were drifting away in the river.
11:01And that's when we all then woke up and looked outside.
11:03And I was in shock.
11:04I just didn't know what to do.
11:07I kept hearing a big banging and come to find out one of my friend's trucks was lodged
11:13underneath the second floor of the house, hitting the pillars.
11:17And so we were just trying to figure out what we needed to do, stay calm, make sure everyone
11:21was safe.
11:22We started blowing up floaties that we had for the pool, air mattresses just to find something
11:27that could keep us afloat.
11:28I was scared that the house was going to either fall from the stilts or the water was going
11:33to raise.
11:34The water just kept raising on the steps, going higher and higher.
11:38And I started calling my sister, I guess, just to let her know, maybe say my final goodbye,
11:44because it really was that scary.
11:45The water was going very quickly.
11:47And you can see the river just engulfing everything.
11:51The house next to us was floating away.
11:53You saw the house next to you float away?
11:56It was gone.
11:57When we went to bed, it was there.
11:58When I woke up, it was gone.
12:00How did you get out?
12:01How were you all, how did you manage to save yourselves?
12:04So during that time, I was on FaceTime with my sister, and I just so happened to look out
12:08the window and was showing her one of the concrete fences that fell from the river.
12:15And we just happened to see someone driving by further down on the street who was checking
12:19on one of their properties.
12:20And I waved, and she kind of came around, and she was accessing the house.
12:24And from the outside later, we found out it was in worse condition than we thought.
12:28So her and her family, they were able to safely get us out, all 13 of us, including the five
12:32dogs, this family, the Garcia family, Leo and Paula, they took us in.
12:36They put us in the back of the trucks.
12:38They took us to their home.
12:39They fed us homemade breakfast.
12:41They made sure we were dry.
12:43Very accommodating and sweet.
12:44I mean, just heaven sent.
12:45The city manager in Kerrville says search and rescue operations are still the top, top priority.
12:53As first responders keep searching for survivors and victims tonight from the horrible flooding
12:59in Texas, they're still facing very heavy rains even now.
13:03CNN meteorologist Chris Warren has the latest on the flooding and the rain still hitting the
13:08area.
13:08Well, if this whole disaster unfolding during the overnight hours in just a matter of hours
13:15during the two-day period, with a lot of this happening during the dark hours on Friday,
13:20more than a foot of rain in pockets in the orange and red area widespread over several counties,
13:27four to six, even six to 10 inches of rain, and all of that water flowing into the Guadalupe
13:32River Basin.
13:33Here's the radar recap.
13:35So we're starting off late Thursday night, so midnight Friday, going into the dark hours
13:40into early Friday morning.
13:41Here's Kirk County right here, and we'll just watch and see how heavy rain that was right
13:46there.
13:46After the rain upstream happened, then you had that big punch, that very heavy, intense
13:51rain and all of the lightning that just had to be absolutely horrific for the people that
13:56were dealing with it at the time.
13:57And then came the flooding and more rain continuing on top of that right into the afternoon,
14:03before it eventually calmed down and dried out a bit, and the water levels did go down
14:09significantly, but not as significantly as they went up, going from less than a foot
14:15in depth.
14:16Imagine that.
14:16If you're wearing rubber boots, you could walk across the river most of the week and
14:20not get your feet wet.
14:21And then, in a matter of hours, goes up to 23.4 feet.
14:26A two-story home.
14:27That's how high.
14:28Less than a foot, up to about two stories in rain.
14:31That fast.
14:32It was a wave of water going downstream.
14:34And during the overnight hours, during the dark hours as well, the National Weather Service
14:38busy issuing these flash flood warnings from midnight to noon.
14:41This is all the ones they issued.
14:43And the highest level are flash flood emergencies, and that did include there the Guadalupe River
14:48as well.
14:49So now, here's the high-resolution future radar.
14:52Bit of a break today, but there will be more rain later on tonight.
14:56And first thing tomorrow morning for the search areas here, we'll see by the afternoon and
15:03evening hours, heavy rain, even some thunderstorms nearby.
15:06It's possible it could be shift a little bit.
15:08So just a big heads-up right there.
15:10The amount of rain, Wolf, not nearly what we saw over the past couple of days.
15:13Generally speaking, about two to four, maybe a little bit more than four at times as well.
15:18All right.
15:19Chris Warren, thank you very, very much.
15:21Kerry Burgess is a local meteorologist with very deep ties to the area.
15:26He's joining us right now.
15:27Kerry, I know you were born and raised in Texas Hill Country.
15:31Describe what the terrain is like.
15:33Is it normal to see enormous flooding like this in the area?
15:38Well, this is an abnormal flood event, obviously, but it has happened several times in the last 100 years.
15:45You'd call this a 100-year flood, and we've had about four or five of these in the last 100 years.
15:501987 being the most notable.
15:53We have some very rugged terrain here, and instead of your normal dirt, you are actually dealing with a lot of limestone rock, which acts almost like pavement.
16:04So when it rains in these hills, this is not level.
16:07I know a lot of folks think of Texas as being flat.
16:10But that's not the case in the Texas Hill Country.
16:14It's very rugged, and some terrain changes of up to 500 to 1,000 feet can occur in short amount of distance.
16:21So that water just runs off from the hills and down into those drainage basins like the Guadalupe River.
16:27So, for example, this one here yesterday was caused with, of course, the tropical remnants that you've already heard about from Barry.
16:35This has happened before, though, in 1987 being the most historic and most recent flood that caused fatalities like this.
16:44It's similar to this event.
16:46It was in July of 1987, and 10 campers were killed near Comfort, which is just downstream from Kerrville and the Guadalupe River.
16:54That gauge that morning, it was an overnight event, again, much like this one, while everyone was sleeping, it started to rain.
17:02It wasn't exactly a noisy night, no thunderstorms.
17:05I was here for that event.
17:06I woke up, and the river was visible from several miles away where it normally wouldn't be visible.
17:11And 10 campers were caught off guard downriver towards Comfort along the Guadalupe that morning.
17:18And it crested at 37.4 feet at that Sydney Baker Bridge in downtown Kerrville.
17:23This one was a little under 37 foot, so in Kerrville, it was a little bit lower this time than the last event.
17:30But one thing that was a little bit different is that we had two cores of heavy precipitation, and there are two forks of the Guadalupe River west of Kerrville.
17:39There's a south fork west of Hunt and a north fork, and it comes together right at Hunt, Texas, about 15 to 20 miles west of Kerrville.
17:47And these two areas picked up 10 to 15 inches or more of rainfall at the same time.
17:53So that combined to create a larger wave of water, it caught a lot of people off guard.
17:58And in some cases, it only takes 10 to 15 minutes to reach levels and speeds where you have time to evacuate if you have that much time because of that rocky terrain.
18:08You can walk across the river up there in some cases.
18:11It's been in a drought here for several years, and we busted that with this rain event almost in less than 24 hours.
18:19My family roots have been here since the 1800s.
18:21Terry, let me just ask you.
18:22People are wondering, was there a way to see this horrible situation coming?
18:30I think that historically the people who are from this area have grown accustomed to this.
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