Texas floods: Death toll hits 70, 11 campers remain missing

Jul 6, 2025 - 18:25

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Texas floods: Death toll hits 70, 11 campers remain missing

KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Families sifted through waterlogged debris Sunday and stepped inside empty cabins at Camp Mystic, an all-girls summer camp ripped apart by flash floods that washed homes off their foundations and killed at least 70 people in central Texas.

Rescuers maneuvering through challenging terrain continued their desperate search for the missing, including 11 girls and a counselor from the camp. How many more remain unaccounted for across the Texas Hill Country and beyond remains unclear as authorities haven't given an estimate, even though it has been three days since the storm began pounding the state.

In Kerr County, home to Camp Mystic and other youth camps, searchers have found 16 bodies since Saturday afternoon, bringing the total number of dead there to 59, including 21 children, said Sheriff Larry Leitha.

He pledged to keep searching until “everybody is found" from Friday's flash floods. Four deaths also were reported in Travis County, three in Burnet, two in Kendall and one each in Tom Green and Williamson counties.

SLIDESHOW: Devastating flooding hits Texas

People react as they inspect an area outside sleeping quarters at Camp Mystic along the banks of the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area Sunday, July 6, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

People comfort each other outside the Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library in Kerville after heavy rainfall caused the Guadalupe River to flood and damage several communities in Central Texas, Saturday, July 5, 2025. (Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle via AP)

Officials comb through the banks of the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area Saturday, July 5, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Officials search on the grounds of Camp Mystic along the banks of the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area Sunday, July 6, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Texas Gov. Greg Abbot, second from front left, and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, second from right, visit Camp Mystic along the banks of the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area Saturday, July 5, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

A Sheriff's deputy pauses while combing through the banks of the Guadalupe River near Camp Mystic after a flash flood swept through the area Saturday, July 5, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Onlookers walk along the banks of the Guadalupe River in Louise Hays Park, Saturday, July 5, 2025, in Kerrville, Texas. (AP Photo/Rodolfo Gonzalez)

Campers embrace after arriving to a reunification area as girls from Camp Waldemar, near the North fork of the Guadalupe River, are reconnected with their families after heavy rainfall in Central Texas, Saturday, July 5, 2025. (Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle via AP)

A Texas Department of Public Safety official, bottom left, combs through the banks of the Guadalupe River near Camp Mystic after a flash flood swept through the area Saturday, July 5, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

People look at debris on the banks of the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area Saturday, July 5, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

A plush toy sits on the ground outside of a cabin at Camp Mystic, the site of where at least 20 girls went missing after flash flooding in Hunt, Texas, on July 5, 2025. (Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)

A Camp Mystic sign is seen near the entrance to the establishment along the banks of the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area in Hunt, Texas, Saturday, July 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

A view of Camp Mystic, the site of where at least 20 girls went missing after flash flooding in Hunt, Texas, on July 5, 2025. Rescuers were on Saturday searching for more than 20 girls missing from a riverside summer camp in the US state of Texas, after torrential rains caused devastating flooding that killed at least 27 people -- with more rain on the way. "So far, we've evacuated over 850 uninjured people, eight injured people and have recovered 27 deceased fatalities at this time. Of these 27, 18 are adults, nine are children," said Kerr Country Sheriff Larry Leitha on July 5. (Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP) (Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)

A view inside of a cabin at Camp Mystic, the site of where at least 20 girls went missing after flash flooding in Hunt, Texas, on July 5, 2025. (Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP) (Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)

Flooding at Cold Springs Hollow in the Travisso neighborhood in Leander, Texas, on July 5, 2025. (KXAN Photo/Grace Reader)

Flooding washed out part of FM 1431 in western Travis County on July 5, 2025. (KXAN Photo/Eric Henrikson)

San Gabriel River on July 5, 2025 (Credit: Amanda Ondrey)

Families were allowed to look around the camp beginning Sunday morning. One girl walked out of a building carrying a large bell. A man, who said his daughter was rescued from a cabin on the highest point in the camp, walked a riverbank, looking in clumps of trees and under big rocks.

A woman and a teenage girl, both wearing rubber waders, briefly went inside one of the cabins, which stood next to a pile of soaked mattresses, a storage trunk and clothes. At one point, the pair doubled over, sobbing before they embraced.

One family left with a blue footlocker. A teenage girl had tears running down her face looking out the open window, gazing at the wreckage as they slowly drove away.

While the families saw the devastation for the first time, nearby crews operating heavy equipment pulled tree trunks and tangled branches from the water as they searched the river.

With each passing hour, the outlook of finding more survivors became even more bleak. Volunteers and some families of the missing who drove to the disaster zone searched the riverbanks despite being asked not to do so.

Authorities faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in an area long vulnerable to flooding and whether enough preparations were made.

President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration Sunday for Kerr County, activating the Federal Emergency Management Agency to Texas. “These families are enduring an unimaginable tragedy, with many lives lost, and many still missing,” Trump posted on social media.

List: Some of the deadliest US floods in the last 25 years

The destructive, fast-moving waters rose 26 feet on the river in only 45 minutes before daybreak Friday, washing away homes and vehicles. The danger was not over as flash flood watches remained in effect and more rain fell in central Texas on Sunday.

Searchers used helicopters, boats and drones to look for victims and to rescue people stranded in trees and from camps isolated by washed-out roads. Officials said more than 850 people were rescued in the first 36 hours.

Prayers in Texas — and from the Vatican

Gov. Greg Abbott vowed that authorities would work around the clock and said new areas were being searched as the water receded. He declared Sunday a day of prayer for the state.

"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,” he said in a statement.

In Rome, Pope Leo XIV offered special prayers for those touched by the disaster. History’s first American pope spoke in English at the end of his Sunday noon blessing, “I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were in summer camp, in the disaster caused by the flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas in the United States. We pray for them.”

The hills along the Guadalupe River are dotted with century-old youth camps and campgrounds where generations of families have come to swim and enjoy the outdoors. The area is especially popular around the Independence Day holiday, making it more difficult to know how many are missing.

Harrowing escapes from floodwaters

Survivors shared terrifying stories of being swept away and clinging to trees as rampaging floodwaters carried trees and cars past them. Others fled to attics inside their homes, praying the water wouldn’t reach them.

At Camp Mystic, a cabin full of girls held onto a rope strung by rescuers as they walked across a bridge with water whipping around their legs.

‘God was with us’: Texas woman describes surviving in tree after being swept away by floods

Among those confirmed dead were an 8-year-old girl from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who was at Camp Mystic, and the director of another camp up the road.

Locals know the area as “ flash flood alley” but the flooding in the middle of the night caught many campers and residents by surprise even though there were warnings.

Warnings came before the disaster

The National Weather Service on Thursday advised of potential flooding and then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies — a rare alert notifying of imminent danger.

At the Mo-Ranch Camp in the community of Hunt, officials had been monitoring the weather and opted to move several hundred campers and attendees at a church youth conference to higher ground. At nearby Camps Rio Vista and Sierra Vista, organizers also had mentioned on social media that they were watching the weather the day before ending their second summer session Thursday.

Families confirm multiple Camp Mystic campers, camp director did not survive deadly flooding

Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months’ worth of rain for the area.

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, whose district includes the ravaged area, acknowledged that there would be second-guessing and finger-pointing as people look for someone to blame.