At least 13 people are dead and dozens more are missing — including more than 20 children who were staying in area summer camps — as heavy rains caused “catastrophic” flooding along the Guadalupe River, with parts of Kerr County particularly hard-hit by the natural disaster.
Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha Jr. said the remains of 13 victims had been found.
“I think there will be more when this is over,” he said at an afternoon news briefing.
Emergency crews continue to search for people feared swept away by the floodwaters, which were spurred when heavy rains soaked the Hill Country overnight.
In an afternoon news briefing, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said about 23 children who were attending Camp Mystic, a local Christian summer camp, are still missing.
“We’re praying for them to be found,” Patrick said.
He said state game wardens were searching the flood zone on foot, looking for survivors. Patrick said the Texas Division of Emergency Management and other agencies had deployed 14 helicopters, 12 drones and 9 rescue teams — 400 to 500 personnel in all — to assist with recovery operations in the Hill Country.
More than 12 inches of rain fell over a 12-hour period, sending the Guadalupe River near Hunt to its second-highest level on record at 29.45 feet, the National Weather Service said. Near Comfort, the river crested at 34.76 feet, more than 6 feet above flood stage and the fifth-highest level on record for that area.
As of 1:30 p.m. Friday, a flash flood emergency remained in effect in South-Central Kerr County, including the Guadalupe River and areas like Hunt, Center Point, Kerrville and Comfort.
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said the storms created “a very devastating and deadly flood,” and urged all Kerr County residents who live near the Guadalupe River to evacuate and move to higher ground.
State officials were “surging all available resources” to respond to the “devastating flooding,” Gov. Greg Abbott said.
“That includes water rescue teams, sheltering centers, the National Guard, the Texas Department of Public Safety,” Abbott said in a written statement. “The immediate priority is saving lives.”
[…]
On Friday morning, Kelly told Hearst Newspapers that at least six people were confirmed dead in the current flooding, and the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office also said the floods had resulted in fatalities.
But at a news conference later in the day, Kelly declined to give an estimate on the number of people who were dead or missing.
He said there had been dozens of water rescues, but declined to provide updated casualty numbers, saying officials had been advised not to do so. He did not say by whom.
Kelly, who lives along the Guadalupe River, said floodwaters had reached his home office.
As of when I write this there’s still a lot of people missing, including those camp children, and so by the time you read this there may be good news, really bad news, or both. The Houston Fire Department has sent two teams to assist in rescue operations. Live updates to this story can be found here. I fervently hope for the safety of everyone involved.
Let’s put the blame where it belongs,
“Texas officials are blaming their failure to act on a faulty forecast by Donald Trump’s new National Weather Service gutted by cuts to their operating budget and most experienced personnel.”
Maybe the maga god is not as powerful as they make him out to be.
That’s act 1. Act 2 is no FEMA aid for you.
Meme–I think it is way too early to speculate that cuts by DOGE affected the particular weather forecast or forecaster or its timing. Kerr county apparently has no automatic warning system by text or dialing as we have here in Harris county. There will be plenty of time to analyze any failures after the immediate emergency is over.
No speculation needed – the Austin / San Antonio NWS warning coordinator took early retirement on April 30. https://www.kxan.com/weather/weather-blog/head-of-local-weather-warnings-takes-early-retirement-as-noaa-cuts-continue/
Meanwhile, the Houston office is down by 44% overall as hurricane season starts. https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/09/texas-noaa-hurricane-season-forecast-nws-trump-cuts/ Five of the top six positions in the Houston office are vacant. http://www.weather.gov/media/nws/wcm-soo.pdf – page 2
But hey, we’re going to have a WWE / UFC event at the White House next July 4.
Just heard that the death toll is now 27, and there’s still room for it to go higher. Also that some TX officials are pointing fingers at NWS forecasts. The weather balloons have already been cut and that can hamstring weather predictions. Sane people running government would be concluding that we need to beef up NOAA and the NWS. I see little evidence of sanity at the state and Federal levels these days.
Well axing 560 weather forecasters certainly wouldn’t help.
The stated reason for cutting NOAA is to eliminate waste related to climate change research because, according to MAGAs, climate change is a hoax, doesn’t exist, and is only a means for evil commie Marxist Democrats to put us all under their thumbs while stealing the precious bodily fluids of red blooded Americans. These people are seriously stupid.
OK Ross, take a deep breath and sit back with a nice tall glass of distilled water, fresh rain water, or pure grain alcohol…