At least 52 dead in Texas flooding; search and rescue ongoing
Editor's Note: This page is a summary of news on Texas flooding for Saturday, July 5. For the latest news read our story for Sunday, July 6.
A day after flooding rains rapidly overwhelmed the Guadalupe River and sent deadly floodwaters through a swath of central Texas, authorities said hundreds of people had been saved from the danger but many remained missing – and the death toll continued to rise.
“The rescue has gone as well as can be expected. It’s getting time now for the recovery, and that's going to be a long, toilsome task for us,” Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said.
At least 52 people were killed. Forty-three of the deaths ‒ 28 adults and 15 children ‒ were in Kerr County, Sheriff Larry Leitha said. The count was up from 18 adults and nine children earlier in the day Saturday.
The other nine deaths were spread throughout other counties.
Tanya Burwick, 62, was found dead in San Angelo, in Tom Green County several blocks from her SUV, which was engulfed in 12 feet of water during the flood, San Angelo police said.
Kendall County officials also reported a flood death. An additional four deaths were reported in Travis County and three in Burnet County, according to media reports.
Over 850 people were rescued or evacuated from the Guadalupe River corridor, Kerr County officials said Saturday.
Camp Mystic remains a major focus of concern. When the flash flood struck early on Friday, about 700 children were in residence, according to details provided Friday by Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. As of Saturday afternoon, there were 27 missing campers from the camp, said Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice.
One Camp Mystic camper, 8-year-old Sarah Marsh of Alabama, was confirmed among the dead, according to Mountain Brook, Alabama, Mayor Stewart Welch. Janie Hunt, 9, was also among the dead, The New York Times and CNN both reported. Other campers were also reported dead by news outlets on Saturday.
Photos of the flooding's aftermath at Camp Mystic showed abandoned bunkbeds covered with mud and girls' belongings flung about. Photos taken on Saturday show a damaged building at the camp missing one entire side, debris strewn about. A stuffed animal lies alongside a single sandal on the ground.
The camp is located in central Texas' Kerr County, about 60 miles northwest of San Antonio. Generations of Texas families sent their daughters to Camp Mystic, a place where they formed lifelong friendships, former camper Clair Cannon told USA TODAY. Cannon's mother and daughter both also attended.
Summer after summer, they'd take Highway 39 as it winds along the Guadalupe River until arriving at the grounds on the riverbank.
“What that area is like when it’s in its prime – when it’s not devastated like this – is probably one of the most serene and peaceful places that I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Cannon, a commercial and residential real estate agent in Dallas. “That part of Texas is just absolutely gorgeous.”
Now, much of the area is feeling the impact of the catastrophic flooding as rescuers race to find any survivors and recover victims. There is an unknown number of people missing, Rice said, adding that officials can't begin to estimate true numbers because there may be an untold number of people visiting the region on vacation.
Responders have been pulling survivors out of trees and finding them stranded on higher ground.
Authorities haven't released further information about the victims as they continue to identify them and notify family members.
Terrain and timing conspired to cause 'horrifying' Texas rainfall
Texas Hill Country is no stranger to extreme flooding. In the rugged, rolling terrain it’s known for, heavy rains collect quickly in its shallow streams and rivers that can burst into torrents like the deadly flood wave that swept along the Guadalupe River on July 4.
Several factors came together at once – in one of the worst possible locations – to create the “horrifying” scenario that dropped up to 16 inches of rainfall in the larger region over July 3-5, said Alan Gerard, a recently retired storm specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
On July 4, rain was falling at 3-4 inches per hour, with some locations recording a deluge of up to 7 inches of rain in just three hours, the National Weather Service said.
Terrain and timing were the biggest factors in the storms, said Gerard and Victor Murphy, a recently retired National Weather Service meteorologist in Texas.
-Dinah Voyles Pulver
Kendall County reports flood death
The death toll from the catastrophic flooding includes one individual in Kendall County, according to a county press release.
"We are saddened to report that one fatality has been confirmed at this point in Kendall County," the release states.
-Zac Anderson
27 campers still missing, hundreds rescued official says
Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said during a July 5 news conference that 27 Camp Mystic campers were still missing.
Rice didn’t have a number for how many other people are missing.
“Right now we’re kind of looking at this in two ways,” Rice said. “Call it the known missing, which is the 27 camp kids that are missing. We will not put a number on the other side because we just don’t know.”
Rice said authorities are still intensely focused on rescue efforts.
“We’ve been rescuing people out of these camps by the hundreds all day,” he said.
Asked about the procedure for communicating to camps along the river about evacuating, Rice said the flooding happened “very fast,” with waters rising rapidly in a short time span.
“There wasn’t a lot of time in this case,” he said.
-Zac Anderson
Sheriff reports updated death toll
Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said July 5 that the death toll in the county now stands at 43.
The deaths include 28 adults and 15 children, Leitha said. Authorities are still working to identify 12 adults and five children.
Leitha said hundreds of first responders continue to search the area.
-Zac Anderson
San Angelo police report woman's death
About 150 miles from Kerrville, the community of San Angelo and surrounding Tom Green County were hit with a record-breaking 14 inches of rain July 4 and police discovered Tanya Burwick's body the next day.
Burwick, 62, was found dead the morning of July 5 in San Angelo, several blocks from her SUV, which was engulfed in 12 feet of water during Friday's flood, San Angelo police said.
Police and rescue personnel quickly launched a coordinated search effort July 4 after a report of a missing woman who was last seen driving in an area hit by the rising floodwaters, police said in a media release July 5.
"During the course of our investigation, the individual's vehicle was located, still submerged beneath the floodwaters," police said. "Upon confirming that the vehicle was unoccupied, our team immediately expanded the search into the surrounding area."
They continued the search into the evening of July 4, but it was eventually suspended because of safety concerns and conditions, police said. The search resumed early July 5.
"Our hearts are heavy as we extend our deepest condolences to Ms. Burwick’s family and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time," police said in the media release. "The San Angelo Police Department stands with the entire community in mourning this tragic loss."
- Trish Choate
Gov. Abbott: Search to continue until everyone is found
Gov. Greg Abbott in a Saturday afternoon news conference reiterated that search and rescue teams would continue working until everyone was accounted for. He signed an expanded declaration disaster and said the Trump administration has pledged its full support.
"He's deeply concerned for all the families," Abbott said.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristy Noem said she was giving President Donald Trump updates from the ground throughout the day and would be visiting Camp Mystic later Saturday.
"Know that President Trump is absolutely heartbroken by what has happened here in Texas and the loss of life is absolutely devastating to him and Melania," Noem said.
Camp Mystic alum remembers the place lifelong bonds are formed
Cannon, 45, is the second of three generations of women to attend Camp Mystic. Cannon's mother, Emily Morrill, 75, attended camp for eight years and was later a counselor. She ensured from birth that Cannon would attend camp like she did.
Cannon later sent her daughter, Jaclyn, for a decade beginning at age 8, the minimum age to attend Mystic. Cannon’s daughter, now a 19-year-old college student, knew counselors currently at the camp, including where flooding was most devastating.
The girls wouldn’t have phone access for the weekslong camp, though there was no cell service in that part of Hill Country anyway.
More: Where is Camp Mystic, the Christian girls camp hit by flooding in Texas?
Girls at camp formed lifelong bonds with other attendees, Cannon recalled. Cannon’s family is friends with the Eastlands, whose family have owned the camp property for decades. Dick and Tweety Eastland, who are just younger than Morrill, lived on the property and ran summer camps. Dick Eastland was known for teaching the girls to fish, Cannon said.
Along Highway 39, there’s a big sign reading "Mystic" atop a hill, Cannon said. It let girls know they’re almost to camp, or if they were leaving, they wouldn’t see friends until next summer.
“It always makes you cry,” Cannon said.
Rescuers worked all night to find survivors, victims
A "24/7" rescue effort was underway, Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news conference Friday evening. Over 200 people were rescued from the floodwaters, said Maj. Gen. Thomas M. Suelzer, the commander of the Texas National Guard.
Abbott shared a video to social media of a responder dangling from a helicopter to rescue someone stranded in a tree with floodwaters below.
"Rescue teams worked throughout the night and will continue until we find all our citizens," the Kerrville Police Department said Saturday morning.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told reporters Friday that his office has been in contact with the White House multiple times. President Donald Trump told state officials “whatever we need, we will have,” Patrick said.
Camp director identified among the dead
A few miles away from Camp Mystic along the Guadalupe River, another girls' camp said its director was killed in the flooding. The Heart O' the Hills Camp said it was not in session when the flooding hit and most people who were at camp have been accounted for, but camp officials received word that Director Jane Ragsdale had died.
"We are mourning the loss of a woman who influenced countless lives and was the definition of strong and powerful," the camp said on its website. "We at the camp are stunned and deeply saddened by Jane’s death. She embodied the spirit of Heart O’ the Hills and was exactly the type of strong, joyful woman that the camp aimed to develop with the girls entrusted to us each summer."
Heart O' the Hills is still assessing the damage to its facilities, "but it is serious," the camp said. The camp will not open for its next scheduled session, which was to start on July 6.
What is Camp Mystic? What to know about century-old girls camp
More than 750 girls were at Camp Mystic in Texas Hill Country when heavy rains and flooding hit the region Friday, July 4. The private nondenominational Christian camp, founded in 1926, is located along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, one of 15 counties covered in Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's disaster declaration.
Flash flooding caused river waters to increase 29 feet rapidly near the camp, officials said. As of Saturday, July 5, there were 27 campers among the missing.
Camp Mystic for Girls was founded by Edward "Doc" Stewart, who was the football and men's basketball coach at the University of Texas, according to an Internet Archive's capture of the camp's website (much of the site was overwhelmed with traffic on Saturday).
The camp has been in operation since then. However, during World War II it served as a "rehabilitation and recovery camp for army air corps veterans," according to the site.
‒ Mike Snider
Flooding threat continues on Saturday, forecasters say
As rescuers continue their search for missing people on Saturday, forecasters at the National Weather Service said the threat of catastrophic flooding and heavy rainfall was not yet over. That's because the system dumping rain over central Texas has slowed as it crawls over the state.
The weather service in Austin and San Antonio said a flood watch was in effect in the region until at least 7 p.m. local time on Saturday. Between 2 and 4 inches of additional rain are expected, with isolated amounts up to 10 inches, the weather service said.
"It is very difficult to pinpoint where exactly the isolated heavy amounts will occur in this pattern," the weather service said, warning people to pay attention to the weather.
The danger has extended to Travis, Williamson and Burnet counties, where very dangerous flash flooding is ongoing Saturday morning. Between 5 and 12 inches of rainfall has fallen there, the weather service said, calling it a "Particularly Dangerous Situation with life-threatening flash flooding."
A flood that came with terrifying swiftness
The flooding began sometime after 4:00 a.m., when extreme rains of as much as 12 inches an hour hit, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a press conference Friday afternoon.
The National Weather Service 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 Guadalupe River near Bergheim, Texas, located about 35 miles north of San Antonio "rose 40 FEET IN 3 HOURS," he added.
‒ Doyle Rice and Elizabeth Weise
San Angelo also hit with flooding
In San Angelo, about 150 miles from Kerrville in the central part of the state, local officials said the northeast area of the city was the hardest hit. As of late July 4, officials were working to search for one missing person, a city government Facebook post said.
The PaulAnn Baptist Church had temporary shelter available to residents. Meanwhile, a disaster relief fund opened through the nonprofit San Angelo Area Foundation to help people affected by the storm. The United Way of the Concho Valley was also accepting donations for nonperishable foods, clothes and water at Concho Valley Turning Point’s warehouse.
“We couldn’t be more thankful for everyone who has showed up to be a hand up to our neighbors,” the local United Way said in a Facebook post.
- Eduardo Cuevas
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: At least 52 dead in Texas flooding; search for Camp Mystic campers
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