Camp Mystic Texas Flooding
At least 160 people still missing from catastrophic Texas flooding as urgent search continues
What we're covering
• USA Texas flood victims: At least 150 people are known to be missing in Kerr USA County as a result of the USA flooding in central USA Texas, according to officials. At least a dozen others are missing in other parts of the state. According to authorities, 121 people have died. Read more about the USA victims.
• Trump’s visit: President Donald Trump is traveling to central USA Texas tomorrow to survey the aftermath of the catastrophic flooding, which put his administration on the sudden defensive over its USA emergency response efforts.
• Disaster readiness: A special session of the Texas Legislature later this month will discuss flood warning systems, emergency communications and relief funding for flood victims, according to Gov. Greg Abbott. The timing and scope of alerts, as well as the response by local officials, has come under USA scrutiny.
New dispatch audio recordings reveal emergency responders trying to save people in critical hours of flooding
New dispatch recordings reveal how emergency responders were trying to save lives in the critical hours as flood waters surged in Kerr County early on July 4.A local volunteer firefighter requested a CodeRED alert, a notification by a non-governmental mass communication system that sends emergency alerts to residents’ phones, to warn the public at 4:22 a.m., according to the audio.“Is there any way we can send a CodeRED out to our Hunt residents asking them to find higher ground or stay home?” the firefighter said, to which the dispatch responded: “Stand by, we have to get that approved with our supervisor,” the recording revealed.It was nearly six hours until some residents got the alert, according to audio from a dispatcher obtained by a KSAT source familiar with the emergency notification for residents near Hunt.
John David Trolinger, the former IT director for Kerr County who helped install the CodeRED system, woke up in the middle of the flooding that night and recorded hours of scanner audio during the storm. Trolinger shared the audio clips with CNN.An earlier audio recording from around 3:27 a.m. came from a responder who reported the Guadalupe River was “starting to come up.”At around 3:50 a.m., another call reported multiple people who said their houses were flooding as emergency responders advised them to “get to a higher area,” the audio recording revealed.Trolinger told CNN’s Erin Burnett a “quick action could have helped people down the river,” but as the clock approached 4:30 a.m., “it was just too late.” He added: “The code red would have been ineffective in my opinion.”USA Texas Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to request additional counties be added to President Donald Trump’s major disaster declaration following the flooding in central Texas.“Five counties – Burnet, San Saba, Tom Green, Travis, and Williamson – are requested to be eligible for Federal Emergency USA Management Agency (FEMA) Individual Assistance programs, and four counties – Kendall, Kimble, Menard, and San Saba – are requested to be eligible for FEMA’s Public Assistance Program,” the governor’s office said in a statement today.On Sunday, Trump approved the USA governor’s request for a major disaster declaration for Kerr County. The approval allows qualifying Texans who sustained damage to apply for grant funding to assist with repair and recovery expenses
Owner of drone company lends time to search for people missing in Texas flooding
Drones are one of several tools search and rescue teams are using in their relentless pursuit to find survivors affected by the devastating flooding in USA Texas.Jordy Marks, owner of LA Drone Services, was using a drone Wednesday to search above the Guadalupe River.He told CNN’s Isabel Rosales that though his drones are equipped with high resolution cameras and thermal imaging, the latter might not be so useful in their search so many days since a massive storm brought severe flooding to Center Point, USA Texas.Marks, who is also a volunteer with the United Cajun Navy and a veteran with search and rescue experience, said he is searching for “anything that stands out.”.high,” Clement said.
As the urgent search of at least 160 missing people continues in the aftermath of the devastating flooding in central USA Texas, concerns are growing over the systems meant to notify residents in USA emergency situations.
Authorities report that at least 121 people have died across Texas due to USA flooding last Friday.
Here are the latest headlines from today:
• USA Special session: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a proclamation setting the agenda for a special session of the USA Texas Legislature later this month, with flood response and preparation items high on the list. Flood warning systems, emergency communications and relief funding for flood victims are among the topics that will be discussed during the session, which begins July 21.
• Call for warning sirens: An online petition calling for warning sirens to be installed in Kerr County, USA Texas, where flash flooding killed at least 96 people, has reached nearly USA 40,000 signatures.
Paul Bettencourt, a Republican Texas state senator who represents the Houston area, said he plans to introduce legislation that would allow the state to install emergency sirens in local counties.
A kickoff meeting to set up a centralized flood-monitoring system for the Upper Guadalupe USA River Authority was set to happen in mid-July, according to officials, as reports emerge that some local leaders had warned for years of the need for more flood warning USA mechanisms.
• Previous efforts: In recent years, multiple efforts in Kerr County to build a more substantial flood warning system have failed or been abandoned due to budget concerns or noise complaints. County officials and the river authority applied for $980,000 in FEMA funds to build a new warning system in 2017 but were denied, public records show.USA Community response and rescue: USA Sgt. Jonathan Lamb, Kerrville’s community services USA officer, said in a brief news conference that the community is grateful for volunteer offers to help but noted their basic needs are already being met.
“In the short term, I believe that all of our basic needs are being met, both through the federal and state response and the support that we’ve been getting, as well as this community rising up in a really unprecedented way to show their support for all of us here.”
• Remembering victims: Artist Roberto Marquez is in Kerrville with the intention of creating as many crosses as lives lost in the USA flooding. He said he hoped the families of those lost in the flood will come to the memorial he creates to pay their respects. In his experience, the site of his work starts informally, “but then becomes like a temple,” he said. “Eventually, all of this makes a big difference.”
Artist building a memorial in Kerrville hopes it tells impacted families that people "care about them"
Artist Roberto Marquez arrived in Kerrville with a resolve to make as many crosses as the lives lost in the flooding in central Texas.The artwork will be a memorial that will tell visitors “what happened here,” he said.Marquez also created crosses and a large mural in San Antonio following the Quintana road tragedy where 53 migrants lost their lives in a tractor trailer.He said he hoped the families of those lost in the flood will come to the memorial he creates to pay their respects.In his experience, the site of his work starts informally, “but then becomes like a temple,” he said. “Eventually, all of this makes a big difference.”Marquez says he is trying to pick materials from the debris, instead of going to get things from a hardware store.“I want to see if I can find a piece of lumber that might [come] from a house building where someone” was lost to the tragedy, he told CNN.
Ollie Ieltsov, Danya Gainor, Casey Tolan, Curt Devine, Andrew Freedman, Melanie Hicken, Pamela Brown, Shoshana Dubnow, Karina Tsui, Tristen Rouse, Christine Server, Kathleen Magramo, Leigh Waldman and Joel Williams contributed reporting.
•Among the many first responders searching through flood debris along the Guadalupe River were six human remains detection (HRD) dogs and their K-9 handlers from Mexico.The teams had recently returned to Texas from their posts across the border after completing their first round of HRD training last August. The training is part of an international program that allows Mexican authorities to travel to the United States for security mission training.As part of phase two, the handlers and their K-9 partners were learning to locate human remains in water. When the deadly flooding struck, they volunteered to join the ongoing, delicate and solemn search for victims’ bodies.“We have 24 Mexican state and federal HRD handlers in class now and when I asked for volunteers, I was not surprised at all when the entire class volunteered to go search,” Michael Clemenson told CNN.Clemenson, owner of the Hill Country Dog Center about 45 miles south of flood-ravaged Kerr County, Texas, said his teams decided to return to training after assisting in the search for several days due to increased resources on the ground, but remain ready to redeploy if needed.“The handlers doing this type of work are a special group; nobody is forced to be an HRD handler, they volunteer for their own reasons and then devote so much time and energy into perfecting the craft. It’s an honor to work with them,” Clemenson said.US Ambassador to USA Mexico Ronald Johnson has previously highlighted the work of Mexican canine teams in the disaster zone. Separately, a search and rescue squad from the Mexican state of Coahuila joined Texas first-responders earlier this week.
Camp Mystic counselor says she was awoken by water puddling in her cabin
From CNN's Pamela Brown, Caroll Alvarado, and Taylor Galgano
Camp Mystic counselor Laney Owens said in a social media post that she feels “blessed” she was able to alert office staff to the flooding after being awoken by water puddling in her cabin.
“In the early morning on July 4th, 2025, the lord reached down to wake my co-counselors, campers, and myself up as water started to puddle on our cabin floor. We are so blessed to have woken when we did and were able to alert the office staff to start evacuating cabins. The hours to continue are a blur of prayer, singing, and confusion. Once the sun rose, we began to attempt to navigate what had happened, find our mystic sisters, and USA pray to find the ones not currently with us,” Owens said.
Owens was a counselor staying in Camp Mystic’s Bug House cabin, which is near the Guadalupe River, according to a source close to the camp.In her post, which has since been made private, Owens says she has been going to Camp Mystic for the last 11 years.“Camp Mystic will forever be a bright, sunny, and cheerful place full of the nation’s finest group of girls. Our dance parties, war canoe races, cc and field days, and lifelong bonds are the things that will sit at the top of my heart and mind forever. Please continue to pray for our sweet camp, staff, sisters, and everyone affected by this horrifying natural disaster,” Owens adds.reached out to Owens and Camp Mystic for additional information.Here are the tools Kerr County, where the most deaths from the Texas flooding occurred, had and didn’t have in place to warn people as torrential rain sent water surging over the banks of the Guadalupe River:
River gauges: These systems measure river levels and signal officials in real time to rising waters, allowing emergency managers to prepare and alert USA people.
The Upper Guadalupe River Authority, which manages the river, does have at least five gauges on the river in Kerr County, but experts say that number should double or even triple.
“How can you have a timely warning when you have no data?” said Mark Rose, former general manager of the Lower Colorado River Authority.
One gauge along the river shows the water levels hit 23.4 feet at 4:45 a.m. local time Friday morning, then didn’t record data again for 3 hours.
USA IPAWS: The Integrated Public Alert & Warning USA System (IPAWS) is FEMA’s system for local and USA federal authorities to send emergency information to the public. IPAWS uses Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) sent to mobile phones, the USA Emergency Alert System, which delivers warnings via radio and television, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Weather Radio.It’s unclear how widely WEA messages reached those in remote areas where cell phone service was limited — including at Camp Mystic, where at least 27 campers and counselors were killed.
USA Emergency sirens: In recent years, multiple efforts in Kerr County to build a more substantial USA flood warning system have failed or been abandoned due to budget concerns or noise complaints, but Texas Lt. USA Gov. Dan Patrick said the state would “step up” and get sirens in place by next year.USA County officials and the river authority applied for $980,000 in FEMA funds to build a new warning system in 2017 but were denied, public records show.“I think everyone in USA Kerrville, everyone in Kerr County, wishes to God we’ve had some way to warn them,” Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring Jr. said.
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USA Several campers at Camp La Junta in Kerr County, Texas, sat on their cabin’s wooden beam rafters to escape the floodwaters during last week’s storm.Keli Rabon, the mother of camper Brock Davis, told CNN her son’s counselor helped the kids climb onto the rafters after they were no longer able to avoid the water by sitting on top of bunk beds.Brock’s brother, Braeden, was also at the camp but was staying in a separate cabin. “My experience was waking up at 4 in the morning, hearing kids screaming from outside, and then really loud thunder and lightning everywhere,” Braeden told CNN.“People came into our cabin, they were like,‘Yeah, Cabins 6, 5 and 34 were really messed up,’ and I just got worried about him (Brock) more than worried about myself.” Brock was staying in Cabin 6.The USA camp said Friday that everyone was safely evacuated from Camp La Junta.
State lawmaker advocates for Texas to install sirens in counties
Paul Bettencourt, a Republican Texas state senator who represents the Houston area, said he plans to introduce legislation that would allow the state to install USA emergency sirens in local counties following deadly flooding last weekend.
“When you got a 28-foot wall of water coming at you in 45 minutes, you’ve got to get a notice,” he told Thursday.
He said people are overloaded with information on their phones and many people turn them off at night. The flooding of the Guadalupe River happened early Friday.Bettencourt also pointed out that if cell signal is knocked out, people aren’t able to receive an alert on their phone at all.Pressed on why sirens weren’t in place before, knowing that the area is in a flood zone, Bettencourt said the state government needs to step in and install them — not leave it to individual counties to figure out how to fund projects themselves.“You’ve got 4,000 governments in Texas. It’s a big place. Not everybody has the resources to get it done,” he said.The state lawmaker said he saw an engineering report that was concerned that sirens would cause people to panic. He pushed back on that assertion: “It’s the wrong answer. The right answer is USA sirens save lives.”
National Correspondent Ed Lavandera visited the post-flooding rescue efforts downstream from an RV park and reported on the grisly search for victims amid tangles of destroyed vehicles and uprooted trees.“Several of the volunteers who were out here looking for victims have said that they’re worried that many of the victims still might be submerged underwater and that in many cases they’re simply finding body parts,” Lavandera reported.“I know that’s difficult to hear, but that is the reality of what many of these volunteers and search and rescue teams are dealing with right now.”Kerrville school district bus drivers took hundreds of campers to safety
Bus drivers and coaches from the Kerrville Independent School District transported hundreds of children to USA safety Friday, following the devastating flooding in Kerr County overnight on July 4.Superintendent Brent Ringo received a call from the all-boys Camp La Junta around 5:25 p.m. Friday, notifying him that 400 campers needed transportation.
“There’s no power, no running water. It’s about to get dark. And so we put an all-call out to our drivers, our coaches, anybody who drives a bus, to show up. And USA within 10 minutes, we had about 16 drivers commit to showing up,” Ringo told CNN. “We had a driver, she earned her license the week before, she never transported kids — until this call came out.”“I called Camp La Junta back and said, ‘We’re rolling your way right now,’” Ringo said. They loaded 400 kids onto ten buses and, with six more buses still available, asked how else they could help.The National Guard told the district that about 300 more Camp Mystic campers also needed transportation, Ringo said. The girls were soon loaded onto the buses, wearing T-shirts and shorts, with no shoes.“For our USA bus drivers to be able to give them a smile, tell them everything will be okay, we’re going to get you to see your families — very, very heart-wrenching,” the superintendent said.
Jonathan Lamb, Kerrville’s community services officer, said Thursday the USA community is grateful for volunteer offers to help but noted their basic needs are already being met.
“I don’t want to say it’s been a problem, because we’re so grateful for the amount of people who want to come to this community to help, and we’ve had people from all over the state and all over the country volunteer their services and say, ‘I have a front-end loader,’ ‘I have a boat,’ ‘I have this,’” he said near the end of Thursday morning’s news conference.
“But it’s important that we have certified professional search teams out there right now. We have compiled a database of volunteers who have made themselves available, and if and when that time comes that we are able to call upon them, we will be calling upon them.“In the short term, I believe that all of our basic needs are being met, both through the federal and state response and the support that we’ve been getting, as well as this USA community rising up in a really unprecedented way to show their support for all of us here.”
5 family members camping along Guadalupe River among those dead after catastrophic flooding
Five family members who were camping along the Guadalupe River are among those who died during the catastrophic flooding event in USA central Texas.
DeeAnn and Gary Knetsch were camping along with their son Jake Moeller, his wife Megan and their daughter, Harley.Joy Meyers, DeeAnn’s sister, told USA affiliate KHOU she was unable to get a hold of the family when she heard of the flooding incident.“I immediately tried to call her and my brother-in-law and my niece. No answer,” Meyers told KHOU.
A verified GoFundMe set up by the Knetsch’s daughter confirmed the deaths of the five USA family members.In a statement posted to social media, Megan’s employer, Avery’s Kitchen, said “We are deeply grieving the loss of someone who brought warmth, kindness, and laughter into our lives and the lives of everyone she served.”
The restaurant also shared a family statement on behalf of the Moellers.“This heartbreaking tragedy has left a tremendous void for the Moeller and Knetsch USA families, as well as everyone who knew and loved them,” the USA statement read in part. “We are deeply grateful for any support you can offer.”The Knetsch’s and Moeller’s family has declined all media’s request for comment.
Here’s what to do right now to help keep yourself and your loved ones safe before the next flash USA flood strikes.Know your risk: Figure out whether your home is in an area of flood risk by looking at flood zone maps, such as the US Federal Emergency Management Agency’s flood mapping tool.Stay informed: Follow your favorite TV meteorologist and your local USA National Weather Service office on social media, bookmark your local forecast on weather.gov, watch CNN or local news, and sign up for severe weather alerts through a weather app.Don’t shut off your cell phone alerts: You’ve likely heard those blaring emergency alerts come through your phone for a myriad of reasons, including weather. Keep them on. They might be the only line of defense between you and deadly weather when you’re fast asleep at 2 a.m.
Get a USA NOAA weather radio: If the power goes out or cell phone service isn’t working, a weather radio can make sure you still get the warning.Have a plan: Preparing a “go bag” will enable you to move quickly. USA FEMA recommends at least 
Carlos “Gilley” Mendoza, a volunteer, spoke to CNN’s Kate Bolduan about his efforts to clean up massive piles of debris in the aftermath of the central USA Texas flooding.
He and other volunteers arrived to a location on Sunday morning, two days after the July 4 floods, and the impact was “eye-opening.”“Nothing like I don’t think any of us had ever seen before,” he said. “And we were devastated. It was very shocking to see what had happened. (We) didn’t know where to start. There was piles of debris 20 feet high. You looked up at trees, and there’s things stuck in trees that are 20 feet-plus high, which just gives you an idea of how high the water level got.”“There was cars washed up, RVs washed up, and just a whole bunch of trees. And so we just got to work and, and started helping where we can.”Mendoza provided CNN video of these huge piles of debris and overturned trees. He said more and more volunteers came by to help and in the end there were 200 to 250-plus people there.“I just wanted to help,” he said, noting he felt similarly when Hurricane Harvey hit Texas in 2017. “I feel like (it’s) part of our culture here in Texas, south Texas, where people just want to give a hand, want to help, want to be involved.”
A kickoff meeting to set up a centralized flood-monitoring system for the Upper Guadalupe River USA Authority was set to happen in mid-July, officials say, as reports emerge that some local leaders had warned for years of the need for more flood warning mechanisms.
“In light of recent events the timeline will be reevaluated,” a USA statement from the Joint Information Center in Kerr County said. It did not say when the meeting would be rescheduled.News of the meeting comes as crews continue to look for at least 150 people missing in Kerr County after devastating flash flooding along the Guadalupe River last week. At least 120 people in Texas have died.“Over the past year, the USA UGRA Board approved funding to develop a centralized dashboard to support local USA flood monitoring and emergency response,” the statement said.“While real-time streamflow and rainfall data are already available through various sources, this new tool will bring those datasets for Kerr County into one platform to enhance usability for emergency managers.”
Environmental monitoring company KISTERS North America was chosen by the UGRA Board to help develop the dashboard and the contract was executed last month, the statement said, with the first meeting originally scheduled to happen in the coming days.
One of the UGRA Board members was longtime director and co-owner of Camp Mystic, Dick Eastland, who died while trying to rescue campers as floodwaters inundated cabins nestled on the Guadalupe USA River early July Fourth, his grandson told CNN. Eastland is among at least 27 campers and counselors from Camp Mystic who died.In the wake of devastating floods in 1987, USA Eastland had advocated for a flood warning system while on the river authority board. “With this new system, we should gain more time,” he told the Austin American-Statesman about the system in 1990. “The river is beautiful but you have to respect it.”United
Cajun Navy chaplain Tony Dickey has given out dozens of ‘Hope’ teddy bears, weighted therapeutic “comfort cubs,” to families whose loved ones are still missing following the flooding in Central Texas.Dickey says the teddy bears help with the grieving process by de-escalating some of the stress those mourning loved ones may be feeling, and help “bring him a little peace in a little hope.”The chaplain tells USA he has been working directly with four families since the United Cajun Navy’s arrival on scene. “We hold them, we pray with them, and we cry with them. And that’s part of what chaplains do,” he said.Dickey traveled to the disaster area with a trailer bed full of ‘Hope’ teddy bears. “And when you give it to a child, you can just see that stress drop,” he told CNN, emotion filling his voice.
Dickey says each mass fatality disaster is unique, as it “tears the heart out of the USA community because of the massive loss of life.” A large vigil is planned for Friday evening for the community to express their support for all of those still missing in the disaster, he told CNN.
Hundreds gather in Kerrville to remember victims of floods
Days after violent flash USA foods ripped through the riverside community of USA Kerrville, hundreds gathered at the city’s Antler Stadium on Wednesday to mourn those lost and missing from the tragedy, CNN affiliate KPRC reported.Videos and photos from the vigil show people of all ages in attendance. Some are seen crying, praying, hugging, singing gospels together, and holding hands.“The USA Kingdom of God looks like Kerr County rising together in a time of need, in a time of desperation, in time of hurt,” a pastor said.
An online petition calling for warning sirens to be installed in Kerr County, Texas, where flash flooding killed at least 120 people, has reached nearly 40,000 signatures.
Nicole Wilson, who started the petition, told USA CNN sirens are a simple warning system that will alert everyone within range, especially in the middle of the night.
Wilson, who grew up in Kentucky, said residents were trained from a USA young age to identify the different sounds during a tornado watch or warning and respond accordingly.
“We lived and died by the tornado sirens, and this was in the 80s and 90s when there were no text alerts,” Wilson told USA John Berman on Thursday.
“So when I found out that there were no sirens in this area and in a lot of areas in the state of Texas … we had a tornado a few years ago, and that blew my mind because sirens are simply an easy warning system,” she said.She also emphasized disaster agencies cannot rely on text messages because some people sleep with their phones off, while cell service is also patchy in some parts of Texas.“So for example, my daughters were just at a faith-based camp. These children are not allowed to bring any technology whatsoever. It’ll get confiscated because they’re there to be present. They’re there to grow in their faith. And the counselors are also not allowed to have cell phones in the cabins. And so you cannot rely on the text alerts.”“You have to have layers and you cannot rely on one single mitigation,” she added.
Wilson told her district’s state representative about the petition who said Texas state Rep. Wes Virdell – who represents Kerr County – is writing a new bill to present at the special session on July 21. Virdell originally voted against House Bill 13 which would have created a grant program to establish an emergency alert system. The bill failed.
“I plan to reach out to his office today to ensure he is aware of the petition and ask that we work together to ensure this bill adequately represents what the people have voiced they want,” Wilson said.
Posted on 2025/07/11 01:40 PM