Now Reading: Texas’ Guadalupe River flooding turns deadly;’ campers missing
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Texas’ Guadalupe River flooding turns deadly;’ campers missing
Texas’ Guadalupe River flooding turns deadly;’ campers missing
Deadly flooding in Texas as Guadalupe River swells from heavy rains
Multiple people have died after massive flooding overwhelmed the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas.
Officials have recovered at least 24 bodies after rains overwhelmed the Guadalupe River in Texas on Friday, causing it to rise as much as 26 feet in less than two hours in the dark, predawn morning.
Frantic parents were desperate for news about a group of as many as 25 campers who remain missing from Camp Mystic, a Christian girls camp at the river’s edge.
An extensive water rescue and search effort was still underway in central Texas’ Kerr County, Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news conference Friday evening. “Everyone needs to know that this is 24/7.”
Kerr County is located about 90 miles northwest of San Antonio. The area is home to multiple camps, but only campers from Camp Mystic were missing, Abbott said.
By the evening of July 4, the Texas National Guard had rescued or evacuated 237 people, 167 by helicopter, said Maj. Gen. Thomas M. Suelzer, the commander of the guard.
The flooding began sometime after 4:00 a.m., when extreme rains of as much as 12 inches an hour hit, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said in a press conference Friday afternoon.
The National Weather Service issued had issued a flood watch for parts of south-central Texas, including Kerr County, on Thursday. It warned that a slow-moving system could potentially bring major storms to the area.
The rain that fell was even more intense.
At 2:03 a.m. the National Weather service issued its fifth warning of the evening, each of which had been more strident than the last.
This one said “This is a PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION. SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW! Life threatening flash flooding of low water crossings, small creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses.”
Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said he had been jogging along the Guadalupe River trail at 3:30 a.m. and saw only light rain and no signs of flooding.
By 5:00 a.m. officials were beginning to get phone calls, and he and the area fire chief went to a local park to survey the scene.
“Within an hour and a half, [the river] had already risen over 25 feet,” Rice said. “Within a matter of minutes it was up to 29 feet.”
Meteorologist Matthew Cappucci explained in a post on X that rainfall in the area totaled over 10 inches, but “annual rainfall for this region is about 28-32 inches.”
“Imagine 4 months’ worth of rain falling in a 6-hour window,” he said.
The stretch of the Guadeloupe River near Bergheim, Texas, located about 35 miles north of San Antonio “rose 40 FEET IN 3 HOURS,” he added.
In some areas, search and rescue efforts were being hampered by sightseers and those who hoped to help with the effort, officials said.
Sheriff Larry Leitha of Kerr County begged area residents not to “self-deploy” to aid in the search efforts. “We don’t need any more drones or helicopters. We don’t need people just showing up,” he said. “Stay at home with your families, that’s the right thing to do, to stay out of this area.”
Patrick told reporters Friday that his office has been in contact with the White House multiple times as flooding rocked the area. President Donald Trump told state officials “whatever we need, we will have,” Patrick said.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, in a post on X, said “President Trump committed ANYTHING Texas needs.”
In a late afternoon Facebook post, the Kerrville, Texas’ police department said “We will continue until all of our citizens are accounted for. This is a devastating event for our community but we are strong together. We are humbled by the outpouring of support and assistance we have received and continue to receive.
“For now, we ask you to please stay off the streets as much as possible and we will provide updates as we are able. Our thoughts are with all who have been impacted by this tragic event in our community,” the department shared.
“This is a catastrophic flooding event in Kerr County. We can confirm fatalities but will not release further information until next of kin are notified,” the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office said. “The entire county is an extremely active scene.”
Residents were urged to shelter in place and not attempt to travel. Anyone along creeks, streams and the Guadalupe River should seek higher ground, the sheriff’s office said.
The area was under a flash flood warning and between 5 and 11 inches of rain had already fallen by about 9 a.m., the National Weather Service in Austin and San Antonio said. Another 1 to 2 inches could fall before the rain threat dissipates later in the day, the weather service said.
“This is a very dangerous and life-threatening flood event along the Guadalupe River! Move to higher ground!” the weather service there said.
Earlier in the morning, the Guadalupe River at Hunt in western Kerr County had already reached the second-highest level on record at over 29 feet, surpassing levels of the 1987 Guadalupe River Flood at that spot, the weather service in Austin and San Antonio said. The 1987 flood killed 10 teenagers on a church camp bus and van on July 17 near Comfort, Texas.
In San Angelo, Texas, about 150 miles from Kerrville in the central part of the state, the weather service shared a photo of a flooded-out intersection with water reaching the level of road signs. The weather service office in San Angelo said it had received multiple reports of flooded roads and homes in Tom Green County, calling the conditions “life-threatening.”
West-central Texas will continue to see flooding into the weekend, the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center said on the afternoon of July 4.
A weather system across parts of Texas has “dropped several inches of rainfall across the region from Thursday night and this afternoon,” the prediction center said. “Saturated soils and river flooding make this area sensitive to more rainfall.”
“The forecast calls for locally heavy rainfall to persist into tomorrow (Saturday July 5).” A flood watch remained in effect through late in the day on July 4 for much of the region.
The weather service in San Antonio warned that “pockets of heavy rain are still possible and may result in flooding of low-lying areas, rivers/creeks, and low water crossings. Additional rainfall amounts of 1 to 3 inches are possible across the flood watch area through the period. Can’t rule out up to 5 inches of rainfall over portions of the Hill Country through the flood watch period.”
The National Weather Service had placed Kerr County and other counties in the region under a flood watch ahead of the flooding on July 3, but Kelly said the extent of the flooding was a surprise.
“No one knew this kind of flood was coming,” he said, adding that Kerr County doesn’t have a warning system that could have alerted residents the night of July 3.
“We deal with floods on a regular basis,” he said. “We had no reason to believe this was going to be anything like what’s happened here.”
Officials in Comfort, Texas, issued mandatory evacuations for residents along the rapidly rising river, according to a post at about 8 a.m. local time.
“We regret to inform everyone that the flood situation in Comfort is not improving,” the Comfort Volunteer Fire Department said in an update at 11 a.m. “We have sounded the flood sirens and urge all residents in low-lying areas of town to evacuate immediately.”
Residents were instructed to bring necessary documents, medications, clothing and important valuables with them as they escape to higher ground.
Police and firefighters in Kerrville were helping residents evacuate, with a reunification center set up at a local Walmart and a shelter at a church.
Contributing: Reuters
(This story was updated to include video.)
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