Searchers in helicopters and on horseback scour Texas flood debris for
the missing
[July 09, 2025]
By NADIA LATHAN and JOHN SEEWER
HUNT, Texas (AP) — As the search in Texas continued Wednesday for more
than 160 people believed to be missing days after a destructive wall of
water killed over 100 people, the full extent of the catastrophe had yet
to be revealed as officials warned that unaccounted victims could still
be found amid the massive piles of debris that stretch for miles.
“Know this: We will not stop until every missing person is accounted
for. Know this also: There very likely could be more added to that
list,” Gov. Greg Abbott said during a news conference Tuesday.
Abbot said officials have been seeking more information about those who
were in the state's Hill Country during the Fourth of July holiday but
did not register at a camp or a hotel and may have been in the area
without many people knowing.
The lowlands of Kerr County along the Guadalupe River, where most of the
victims of the flash flooding have been recovered so far, are filled
with youth camps and campgrounds, including Camp Mystic, the century-old
all-girls Christian summer camp where at least 27 campers and counselors
died. Officials said Tuesday that five campers and one counselor have
still not been found.
Crews in airboats, helicopters and on horseback along with hundreds of
volunteers are part of one of the largest search operations in Texas
history.
The flash flood is the deadliest from inland flooding in the U.S. since
Colorado’s Big Thompson Canyon flood on July 31, 1976, killed 144
people, said Bob Henson, a meteorologist with Yale Climate Connections.
That flood surged through a narrow canyon packed with people on a
holiday weekend, Colorado’s centennial celebration.
Public officials in charge of locating the victims are facing
intensifying questions about who was in charge of monitoring the weather
and warning that floodwaters were barreling toward camps and homes.
Abbott promised that the search for victims will not stop until everyone
is found. He also said President Donald Trump has pledged to provide
whatever relief Texas needs to recover. Trump plans to visit the state
Friday.
Scenes of devastation at Camp Mystic
Outside the cabins at Camp Mystic where the girls had slept,
mud-splattered blankets and pillows were scattered on a grassy hill that
slopes toward the river. Also in the debris were pink, purple and blue
luggage decorated with stickers.
Among those who died at the camp were a second grader who loved pink
sparkles and bows, a 19-year-old counselor who enjoyed mentoring young
girls and the camp’s 75-year-old director.
The flash floods erupted before daybreak Friday after massive rains sent
water speeding down hills into the Guadalupe River, causing it to rise
26 feet (8 meters) in less than an hour. Some campers had to swim out of
cabin windows to safety while others held onto a rope as they made their
way to higher ground.
Just two days before the flooding, Texas inspectors had signed off on
the camp's emergency planning. But five years of inspection reports
released to The Associated Press don't provide any details about how the
camp would instruct campers about evacuating and specific duties each
staff member and counselor would be assigned.
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Damage is seen next to the Guadalupe River on Tuesday, July 8, 2025,
after a flash flood swept through the area near Ingram, Texas. (AP
Photo/Ashley Landis)
Although it's difficult to attribute a single weather event to
climate change, experts say a warming atmosphere and oceans make
catastrophic storms more likely.
Where were the warnings?
Questions mounted about what, if any, actions local officials took
to warn campers and residents who were in the scenic area long known
to locals as “flash flood alley.”
Leaders in Kerr county, where searchers have found about 90 bodies,
said their first priority is recovering victims, not reviewing what
happened in the moments before the flash floods.
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, the county’s chief elected official,
said the county does not have a warning system.
Generations of families in the Hill Country have known the dangers.
A 1987 flood forced the evacuation of a youth camp in the town of
Comfort and swamped buses and vans. Ten teenagers were killed.
Local leaders have talked for years about the need for a warning
system. Kerr County sought a nearly $1 million grant eight years ago
for such a system, but the request was turned down by the Federal
Emergency Management Agency. Local residents balked at footing the
bill themselves, Kelly said.
Recovery and cleanup goes on
The bodies of 30 children were among those that have been recovered
in the county, which is home to Camp Mystic and several other summer
camps, the sheriff said.
The devastation spread across several hundred miles in central Texas
all the way to just outside the capital of Austin.
Aidan Duncan escaped just in time after hearing the muffled blare of
a megaphone urging residents to evacuate Riverside RV Park in the
Hill Country town of Ingram.
All his belongings — a mattress, sports cards, his pet parakeet’s
bird cage — now sit caked in mud in front of his home.
“What’s going on right now, it hurts,” the 17-year-old said. “I
literally cried so hard.”
___
Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press writers Joshua
A. Bickel in Kerrville, Texas, Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, and
John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this report.
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