Rescue teams in Texas were racing against time on Saturday to locate more than 20 missing girls from a riverside summer camp, following catastrophic flash floods that have killed at least 24 people, and with more severe weather forecast.
“As of now, we have about 24 confirmed fatalities,” Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said during a press conference late Friday. Rescue efforts were ongoing in the flood-ravaged south-central region of Texas, northwest of San Antonio.
Some of the victims were children, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick confirmed.
The National Weather Service (NWS) on Saturday warned of continued “locally catastrophic” flash flooding in the region, as rivers surged and more torrential rain loomed.
“Flash flooding is already occurring,” the NWS stated. “Move to higher ground immediately. Act quickly to protect your life.”
In the city of Kerrville, the usually tranquil Guadalupe River had transformed into a torrent of debris-choked water.
“It rained in a day what it usually rains in a year,” said local resident Gerardo Martinez, 61. “The water reached the top of the trees—maybe 10 meters high. Cars, even entire houses, were swept away.”
The flooding prompted a massive rescue operation on Friday, involving more than 500 personnel and 14 helicopters. At least 237 people have been rescued or evacuated so far, with 167 airlifted, according to Texas National Guard Major General Thomas Suelzer.
As many as 25 children from the Camp Mystic Christian summer camp were reported missing after the Guadalupe River rose 26 feet (8 meters) in just 45 minutes due to overnight rainfall. Lieutenant Governor Patrick said the number of missing children stood at “about 23” as of Friday night.
On Saturday, U.S. media outlets reported that two of the missing girls had been confirmed dead, citing family sources.
Heart O’ The Hills, another nearby summer camp, confirmed that its director, Jane Ragsdale, was among the victims.
“That doesn’t mean they’re gone,” Patrick said Friday of the missing. “They could be in a tree, or simply out of communication.”
Camp Mystic was hosting approximately 750 children at the time of the flood.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has issued a disaster declaration for the affected counties to mobilize additional resources. President Donald Trump pledged federal assistance, and Vice President JD Vance described the flooding as “an incomprehensible tragedy.”
Freeman Martin, head of the state’s Department of Public Safety, called the flood a “mass casualty event.” He noted that ongoing rain was hampering rescue operations and warned residents to stay out of the area, with dozens of roads underwater or impassable.
Social media videos showed entire homes and trees swept away in the torrent after more than 12 inches of rain fell—about one-third of Kerr County’s average annual rainfall—in a single night.
Governor Abbott shared a dramatic video of a helicopter rescue, showing a person being lifted from the top of a tree as floodwaters raged below.
The Texas National Guard and U.S. Coast Guard have joined rescue efforts.
Caught Off Guard: “We Didn’t See This Coming”
Officials in Kerr County admitted they were blindsided by the intensity of the flood.
“We didn’t know this flood was coming,” said Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly. “This is the most dangerous river valley in the United States.”
Kerrville resident Soila Reyna, 55, who works at a local church assisting displaced families, said the scale of the devastation was unlike anything she had seen before.
“It’s been years since we had a flood, but never like this. Never where children were involved, never where entire homes were just gone,” she said.
Flash floods are not uncommon in the region, especially when parched land can’t absorb sudden heavy rainfall. But scientists have long warned that human-driven climate change is making extreme weather events—like floods, heatwaves, and droughts—more intense and more frequent.
“There’s a saying here: a flood happens every hundred years,” Martinez reflected. “Well, we’ve had it now. I just hope we never see anything like it again.”
AFP
