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.
00:00Bit of a break today, but there will be more rain later on tonight and first thing tomorrow morning for the search areas here.
00:08We'll see by the afternoon and evening hours, heavy rain, even some thunderstorms nearby.
00:14It's possible it could be shift a little bit.
00:16So just a big heads up right there.
00:18The amount of rain, Wolf, not nearly what we saw over the past couple of days.
00:21Generally speaking, about two to four, maybe a little bit more than four at times as well.
00:26All right, Chris Warren, thank you very, very much.
00:30Carrie Burgess is a local meteorologist with very deep ties to the area.
00:34He's joining us right now.
00:35Carrie, I know you were born and raised in Texas Hill Country.
00:39Describe what the terrain is like.
00:41Is it normal to see enormous flooding like this in the area?
00:46Well, this is an abnormal flood event, obviously, but it has happened several times in the last 100 years.
00:53You'd call this a 100-year flood, and we've had about four or five of these in the last 100 years.
00:581987 being the most notable.
01:01We 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.
01:11So when it rains in these hills, this is not level.
01:14I know a lot of folks think of Texas as being flat, but that's not the case in the Texas Hill Country.
01:21It's very rugged, and some terrain changes of up to 500 to 1,000 feet can occur in short amount of distance.
01:29So that water just runs off from the hills and down into those drainage basins like the Guadalupe River.
01:35So, for example, this one here yesterday was caused with, of course, the tropical remnants that you've already heard about from Barry.
01:43This has happened before, though, in 1987 being the most historic and most recent flood that caused fatalities like this, similar to this event.
01:54It was in July of 1987, and 10 campers were killed near Comfort, which is just downstream from Kerrville and the Guadalupe River.
02:02That gauge, that morning, it was an overnight event, again, much like this one, while everyone was sleeping, it started to rain.
02:10It wasn't exactly a noisy night, no thunderstorms.
02:13I was here for that event.
02:14I woke up, and the river was visible from several miles away where it normally wouldn't be visible,
02:19and 10 campers were caught off guard downriver towards Comfort along the Guadalupe that morning,
02:26and it crested at 37.4 feet at that Sydney Baker Bridge in downtown Kerrville.
02:31This one was a little under 37 foot, so in Kerrville, it was a little bit lower this time than the last event.
02:38But one thing that was a little bit different is that we had two cores of heavy precipitation,
02:43and there are two forks of the Guadalupe River west of Kerrville.
02:47There'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.
02:55And these two areas picked up 10 to 15 inches or more of rainfall at the same time.
03:01So that combined to create a larger wave of water, it caught a lot of people off guard.
03:06And in some cases, it only takes 10 to 15 minutes to reach levels of speeds where you have time to evacuate,
03:13if you have that much time because of that rocky terrain.
03:16You can walk across the river up there in some cases.
03:19It's been in a drought here for several years, and we busted that with this rain event almost in less than 24 hours.
03:27My family roots have been here since the 1800s.
03:29Kelly, let me just ask you.
03:30People are wondering, was there a way to see this horrible situation coming?
03:35I think that historically the people who are from this area have grown accustomed to that river running out of its banks.
03:45It hasn't happened in a while because we've had dry weather.
03:48We've had a lot of newcomers to this area.
03:51The Hill Country is a rapidly growing part of Texas.
03:54There are a lot of people even that have moved in from out of state.
03:56So they may not know about this rugged terrain, but the Flash Flood Watch was posted the day before for Kerrville and Kerr County.
04:05And I think what aggravated the situation in this case was that you had July 4th holiday.
04:11There was supposed to be a river festival that evening, and people were gathered near the river expecting that to take place on July 4th.
04:18But unfortunately, the water wave rolled in, so a lot of these RV parks were full of people from out of town.
04:25And those camps are typically a hot spot during July as well.
04:29Typically are not impacted at the level that they were around Camp Mystic and Heart of the Hills Ranch and some of those places that suffered extreme damage.
04:40So I think this event in that capacity was far worse than 1987, and I think maybe that is what really caught people off guard more than anything else.
04:50I'm just wondering if you could tell us a little bit about the Guadalupe River, Kerry.
04:53Where is it in relation to the devastation that we're seeing?
04:59Well, the Guadalupe River runs right through downtown Kerrville.
05:03So that river typically is a park area down there in downtown.
05:07A lot of people go down there.
05:08There's a music festival that was set for Friday night, last night, and a fireworks display.
05:14That did not take place.
05:16But the river there just runs right through the heart of Kerrville.
05:19But a lot of people don't realize that the headwaters actually come from underground springs in West Kirk County.
05:26And since that happened in such a shallow portion of that river, the western part of Kirk County,
05:32you can walk across the river and sometimes not see any water in it.
05:35And in this case, it was almost.
05:45I think it's something like two trillion gallons of water was produced by this flood in that riverbed alone.
06:04And as the water comes down at about a 30 to 40-foot wall as it crested in Kerrville.
06:09So it doesn't gradually run or rise.
06:12You don't have time to prepare for that.
06:14It is actually, in some cases, a 10 to 20-foot wall of water that hits you out of nowhere.
06:20So, and the timing of it was awful in the middle of the night when a lot of folks were sleeping.
06:24And again, that just is very uncommon.
06:27So the fatality count here was, I think, just excessively, that excessively contributed to that factor,
06:34just because so many people were here in town on a holiday weekend, and it happened in overnight hours.
06:39Such a heartbreaking development indeed.
06:41Kerry Burgess, thanks very much for joining us.
06:43And once again, the latest death toll officially announced just a few moments ago has now risen to 50 people in Texas.
06:51At least 15 of them, 15 of them are children from that Camp Mystic and all-girls camp.
06:57We'll be relentless in going after and ensuring that we locate every single person who's been a victim of this flooding event.
07:09We're not going to stop today or tomorrow.
07:12We will stop when the job is completed.
07:16Between now and whenever that day arrives, when the job is completed, this is a 24-7 operation, day and night.
07:24We know that President Trump, he loves Texas, for one.
07:30He's deeply concerned about all the families who've been affected,
07:34but also knows about the magnitude of the devastation that we're suffering.
07:40And so what I'm about to sign now is going to be the first step in a process.
07:47This document is a request for a federal disaster declaration coming from the governor
07:53to seek the immediate and ongoing help of the federal government.
07:58All right, now the floods emerged as a part of grueling rain showers that led to the rivers to overflow.
08:08Rescue operations are underway as authorities look for survivors in Camp Mystic who went missing.
08:13Take a look at our next CNN report to know more about what's unfolding on the ground.
08:18Thank you very much.
08:48It's a 100-year flood, and we've had about four or five of these in the last 100 years, 1987 being the most notable.
08:55We have some very rugged terrain here, and instead of your normal dirt,
09:00you are actually dealing with a lot of limestone rock, which acts almost like pavement.
09:06So when it rains in these hills, this is not level.
09:09I know a lot of folks think of Texas as being flat.
09:13That's not the case in the Texas Hill Country.
09:15It's very rugged, and some terrain changes of up to 500 to 1,000 feet can occur in a short amount of distance,
09:23so that water just runs off from the hills and down into those drainage basins like the Guadalupe River.
09:29So, for example, this one here yesterday was caused with, of course, the tropical remnants that you've already heard about from Barry.
09:37This has happened before, though, in 1987 being the most historic and most recent flood that caused fatalities like this.
09:46Similar to this event, it was in June, July of 1987, and 10 campers were killed near Comfort,
09:54which is just downstream from Kerrville and the Guadalupe River.
09:57That gauge that morning, it was an overnight event, again, much like this one, while everyone was sleeping, it started to rain.
10:04It wasn't exactly a noisy night, no thunderstorms.
10:07I was here for that event.
10:08I woke up, and the river was visible from several miles away where it normally wouldn't be visible,
10:13and 10 campers were caught off guard downriver towards Comfort along the Guadalupe that morning,
10:20and it crested at 37.4 feet at that Sydney-Baker Bridge in downtown Kerrville.
10:26This one was a little under 37 foot, so in Kerrville, it was a little bit lower this time than the last event.
10:32But one thing that was a little bit different is that we had two cores of heavy precipitation,
10:38and there are two forks of the Guadalupe River west of Kerrville.
10:42There's a south fork west of Hunt and a north fork, and it comes together right at Hunt, Texas,
10:46about 15 to 20 miles west of Kerrville.
10:50And these two areas picked up 10 to 15 inches or more of rainfall at the same time.
10:55So that combined to create a larger wave of water.
10:59It caught a lot of people off guard, and in some cases, it only takes 10 to 15 minutes
11:03to reach levels of speeds where you have time to evacuate if you have that much time because of that rocky terrain.
11:10You can walk across the river up there in some cases.
11:13It's been in a drought here for several years, and we busted that with this rain event almost
11:19in less than 24 hours.
11:21My family roots have been here since the 1800s.
11:23Terry, let me just ask you.
11:24People are wondering, was there a way to see this horrible situation coming?
11:29I think that historically the people who are from this area have grown accustomed to that
11:38river running out of its banks.
11:39It hasn't happened in a while because we've had dry weather.
11:42We've had a lot of newcomers to this area.
11:45The Hill Country is a rapidly growing part of Texas.
11:48There are a lot of people even that have moved in from out of state.
11:51So they may not know about this rugged terrain.
11:54But the flash flood watch was posted the day before for Kerrville and Kerr County.
11:59And I think what aggravated the situation in this case was that you had July 4th.
