Death Toll From Texas Floods Rises to 82, Including 28 Children; Trump Plans Visit

By Jacob Burg and T.J. Muscaro

Two days after catastrophic flash floods raged through central Texas, at least 82 people, including 28 children, have been confirmed dead, more than 40 remain missing, and rescuers continue to search through a devastating landscape of overturned cars and mud-filled debris for potential survivors.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday warned of another round of intense rain that is expected to descend upon the Lone Star State and lead to potential flash flooding.

Ten girls from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp along a river in Kerr County, remain missing.

Abbott said in a news conference in Austin, Texas, on July 6 that at least 41 people are unaccounted for across the state, in all the areas affected by flooding.

“There are people who are missing, who are not … confirmed missing because we don’t yet know who they are,” he said. “We will maintain our ongoing search throughout the entire river system to find anybody who may be missing.”

He asked anybody who may suspect a person they know to be missing in Kerr County to reach out to local officials with that person’s identification and other concrete information.

Meanwhile, Col. Freeman Martin of the Texas Department of Public Safety elaborated on the work being done to identify those who have already been found.

“We have some unidentified individuals at the funeral home—adults and juveniles. The Texas Rangers are collecting DNA from family members and from the deceased victims, we’re flying those to the University of North Texas in Dallas, and we will have answers with rapid DNA in hours, not days, to get some closure and information back to these families,” he said.

As for the current number of fatalities, local authorities announced that the death toll has risen to 78 people: 68 confirmed deaths in Kerr County as of the afternoon, and the others from elsewhere in Texas.

Abbott, Martin, and other authorities at the news conference affirmed that as other parts of the state prepare for more heavy rain and flash flooding, it would not diminish ongoing recovery efforts in and around Kerr County.

“We’re not taking away from any resources from Kerrville to pre-stage here,” Martin said. “We’re pulling from south Texas, West Texas, and north Texas into central Texas to prepare for our emergency response.”

During a news conference on the morning of July 6, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said local, state, and federal authorities have deployed more than 400 first responders to central Texas.

“We have more than a dozen canines working in and near the river,“ Leitha said. ”More than 100 air, water, and ground vehicles are in the field right now, working on this search and rescue.

“We will continue our search efforts until everybody is found.”

Those reporting missing loved ones are asked to call 830-258-1111 and to follow the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office and City of Kerrville Facebook pages for the latest updates.

Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said the city has set up a phone line, 830-465-4794, for donations or for anyone who wishes to volunteer in the search and recovery efforts.

President Donald Trump signed a Major Disaster Declaration for Kerr County on the morning of July 6 and said his administration is working with state and local officials in recovery efforts.

Trump told reporters later Sunday that he would visit the disaster scene, probably on Friday.

“I would have done it today but would just be in their way,” he said.

When asked if some of the cuts to the federal government left key vacancies at the National Weather Service or the emergency coordination, Trump said they did not.

“That was really the Biden setup, that was not our setup. But I wouldn’t blame Biden for it either,” Trump said. “I would just say this is a 100-year catastrophe and it’s just so horrible to watch.”

Flash Floods

Roughly 45 minutes before daybreak on July 4, Texas’s Guadalupe River rose 26 feet as destructive and fast-moving flash flood waters washed out homes and vehicles. The chaos continued on July 5 as torrential downpours pounded communities outside San Antonio while flash flood warnings and watches remained in effect.

Rescuers looked for victims stranded in trees and in camps cut off by destroyed roads using drones, boats, and helicopters.

Abbott declared July 6 a day of prayer for Texas and promised that authorities would continue working around the clock to search additional areas once the waters receded.

“I urge every Texan to join me in prayer this Sunday—for the lives lost, for those still missing, for the recovery of our communities, and for the safety of those on the front lines,” Abbott said in a statement.

Local authorities are also facing scrutiny over whether they heeded the warnings from weather forecasters and did enough to prepare or evacuate those who were in camps and other places vulnerable to the holiday weekend’s flash floods.

The private weather forecasting company AccuWeather stated that it and the National Weather Service had sent warnings about the dangers from the flash floods hours ahead of time.

“The heartbreaking catastrophe that occurred in Central Texas is a tragedy of the worst sort because it appears evacuations and other proactive measures could have been undertaken to reduce the risk of fatalities had the organizers of impacted camps and local officials heeded the warnings of the government and private weather sources, including AccuWeather,” AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter said in a statement.

He said AccuWeather warned residents of “imminent flash flooding” 30 minutes before the National Weather Service’s “Flash Flood Warning,” which provided even more advance notice.

“These warnings should have provided officials with ample time to evacuate camps such as Camp Mystic and get people to safety,” Porter said.

He said that Texas Hill Country, which includes Kerr County, is “one of the most flash-flood-prone parts of the country due to its terrain and lower water crossings.”

Porter noted that it was “extremely concerning” to hear accounts from survivors who were awoken by rapidly rising water and had to evacuate amid a “life-threatening emergency” instead of being evacuated much earlier after the flash flood warnings were issued.

“We are truly devastated, and we hope that a full investigation of this tragedy will lead to important lessons that prevent this kind of disaster from recurring,” he said.

Some officials had been monitoring the weather and decided to move hundreds of campers and attendees who were at a church youth conference at the Mo-Ranch Camp in Hunt, Texas, to higher ground.

Organizers at nearby Camp Rio Vista and Camp Sierra Vista had said on social media that they were following the weather alerts the day before finishing the second summer session on July 3. Both elected officials and local authorities have said that they were surprised by the intense downpour, which was equal to a month’s worth of rain for the area.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), whose district includes the flood-affected area, called it a once-in-a-century flood and said people would second-guess and finger-point while looking for someone to blame for the tragedy.

Century-old youth camps and campgrounds in the hills along the Guadalupe River in central Texas have long been popular for families who come to swim and enjoy the scenery. This is particularly evident during popular camping holidays such as Independence Day, which makes it harder for authorities to know exactly how many people are still missing in the affected areas.

“We don’t even want to begin to estimate at this time,” Rice said earlier.

Rice said search crews were dealing with harsh conditions while “looking in every possible location.”

More than 850 people have been rescued in the past 36 hours, and there were heroic attempts at the camps to save children, according to officials.

The Trump administration will use all available resources, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said after arriving in the area. Both Coast Guard helicopters and planes have been deployed to assist so that rescue operations could continue into the night.

While the weekend forecast had called for rain and was eventually upgraded from a flash flood watch to a warning overnight on July 4 for at least 30,000 people in the area, locals said they were caught off guard.

“We know we get rains,” said Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, the county’s chief elected official. “We know the river rises. But nobody saw this coming.”

Kelly said Kerr County had considered installing a flood warning system on the river that would be similar to a tornado warning siren roughly six or seven years ago, but that the plan never materialized, in part because of costs.

He said he was heartbroken seeing the devastation on the ground during a helicopter tour and the body bags at the funeral home.

“The rescue has gone as well as can be expected,” he said. “It’s getting time now for the recovery. And that’s going to be a long, toilsome task for us.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.