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LIVE: Texas Flooding Death Toll Hits 80 | Camp Mystic Campers Missing | Texas News Today | N18L  #TexasFloods #CampMystic #FloodEmergency Catastrophic flooding in Central Texas has claimed at least 80 lives, with the death toll tragically including 28 children in Kerr County. Among the missing are 10 young girls and one counselor from Camp Mystic, a popular summer camp near the Guadalupe River. The search operation continues as emergency crews race against time and weather conditions to find survivors.  Texas Governor Greg Abbott has warned that more rain is expected, keeping much of the state under flash flood warnings. Hunt and surrounding communities remain under evacuation alerts, with officials urging residents to move to higher ground.  As questions mount over delayed warning systems, emergency preparedness, and the National Weather Service’s response, we bring you LIVE updates from the ground, expert commentary, and real-time alerts.  #TexasFloods #CampMystic #FloodEmergency #TexasWeather #BreakingNews

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00:00In the interim, until we perhaps have better technology through AI or whatever it might be.

00:07Well, we may not know four hours in advance, but two hours in advance, we begin to get a really good idea.

00:13So those warnings are updated. Those warnings are updated with more heightened language.

00:16And, you know, the flash flood warning that comes across your phone at midnight,

00:20there's different information on that flash flood warning that gets updated at 2 a.m.

00:24Even though the headline, flash flood warning until X time, you know, for Kirk County, it may initially read the same.

00:32That information is very important for people to see and to read the exact details.

00:37Because, you know, we do learn as a situation like this evolves, with some lead time, one to two hours is enough time,

00:45three to four hours for the initial flash flood warning.

00:47And I was playing with people and looking at the, you know, for example, the camp.

00:51It looks like an amazing place with the water right there and at times it's a dry wash, but camp mystic, yeah.

01:00But there's no buffer there.

01:02The buildings are built basically right along the creek's edge.

01:05And the issue of trying to evacuate by vehicle, not always an option.

01:09The road's going to follow the easiest place to build a road, and that's going to be along the creek.

01:14So if they're, you know, people need to have a better means of egress, and that might mean easily accessible, ADA accessible trails to get up,

01:23scale up the hillsides, even if it's not, you know, a vehicle accessible route, a way to get people up.

01:30Even if you're just getting up 50 or 60 yards, that's going to get you out of the floodplain a lot of the time.

01:33So it's critically important to look at the updates to the warnings one to two hours into an event.

01:40Yeah.

01:42Right.

01:42And whether, you know, there's a question of, like you said, there's alert fatigue in certain areas, potentially,

01:48and what needs to be done to combat that fatigue.

01:51Of course, this had the added layer of the overnight.

01:53And actually on the screen, we just showed the alert that we received today.

01:56That was pretty straightforward to evacuate because of the concern of flash flooding.

02:01But, you know, there it is on the screen there.

02:04It's saying this is a dangerous and life-threatening situation.

02:07But, you know, there's still a question, especially at that camp, whether that even came through,

02:12because we don't know.

02:14There's bad reception there, and we don't know if the counselors got that.

02:17I mean, there's a lot of still outstanding questions.

02:19But thank you for helping us fill in some of the gaps here, Jeff.

02:22We do appreciate it.

02:23And we'll be right back.

02:25Well, you're welcome.

02:26And I think this also highlights just the connection between local emergency management

02:29and they're responsible for the well-being of other people, too.

02:34Thank you, Pam.

02:36Absolutely.

02:36And we're digging into all of that.

02:37Thank you, Jeff.

02:41Thanks for joining us this hour as we continue our special breaking news coverage

02:44of the catastrophic flooding in Texas.

02:46I'm Erica Hill in New York, alongside Pamela Brown in Kirk County, Texas.

02:50At this hour, we can confirm officials now say at least 80 people are dead.

02:5541 remain missing across central Texas.

02:58In Kirk County, the area that saw the worst of that flash flooding, officials say 68 people

03:04lost their lives, including 28 children.

03:07Hundreds of emergency responders and volunteers are working around the clock now, searching for

03:12survivors.

03:12As you can see there, a number of the efforts.

03:15You can also see the debris.

03:16And it just gives you a sense of how difficult this task is.

03:20They are in trees, under bridges, along the riverbanks.

03:23And, of course, survivors have, thankfully, been airlifted to safety in some instances.

03:28The damage is vast.

03:31It is catastrophic, as we said.

03:34And, of course, there is still hope that those 41 missing people will be found.

03:38Pamela Brown is, of course, on the ground there in Kirk County.

03:42And you were able to make your way around to different parts, including to Camp Mystic, Pam.

03:46Yeah, I mean, this is a community that's just decimated.

03:52You almost have to be here and see it with your own eyes to really believe it.

03:57You know, this is a magical place, Camp Mystic in particular, where I used to be a camper.

04:01And now it is just, you know, cabins that have been ravaged by the waters with debris all

04:08over the place, trees toppled over, cars toppled over.

04:12I mean, it's just a horrible scene out here.

04:16And this community is reeling because it seems like everyone we talk to, they have some connection

04:20to this tragedy.

04:22I just spoke to a firefighter who was so kind.

04:24He came up to thank us for our work.

04:25And I, of course, thanked him for all that he has done and the other first responders and

04:30the search and rescue.

04:31And he said he has a daughter who just was at Heart of the Hills, right down the road.

04:35Their session had just ended.

04:37And he said his daughter lost a friend at Camp Mystic.

04:40And it's all just so devastating.

04:42The director of Heart of the Hills, as we know, was killed in this.

04:45And so I think there's just a lot of processing going on here as these first responders and

04:49others in the community are rolling up their sleeves and engaging in the search and rescue

04:55efforts.

04:55They're also grieving.

04:57They're also just trying to understand what happened.

04:59I mean, they've known that that river, the Guadalupe River, was unpredictable.

05:03And it has wreaked havoc in the past, but nothing on this scale.

05:06And what I keep hearing from folks here as we try to piece together why there wasn't more

05:10of a warning or why there wasn't an evacuation earlier is just how quickly it all happened

05:14overnight and how there just wasn't a lot.

LIVE: Texas Flooding Death Toll Hits 80 | Camp Mystic Campers Missing | Texas News Today | N18L

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