Fatal floods in Texas that left thousands scrambling for safety with little warning have sparked a fresh round of scrutiny of Trump administration cuts to the National Weather Service.

At least 81 people were dead and many others were missing Sunday evening after floodwaters surged through Texas Hill Country, an area known as “flash flood alley.”

Within hours of the deluge early Friday, some Texas officials were critical of the NWS, saying forecasts underestimated the rainfall. On Sunday, President Donald Trump rejected the idea of investigating whether NWS cuts had left key vacancies, and the White House said claims that NWS cuts had anything to do with the tragedy were “disgusting.”

Independent meteorologists and a former NWS official said warnings issued in the run-up to the flooding were about as timely and accurate as could be expected with the weather data available in real time. Predicting extreme rain and flash flooding beyond several hours is challenging, they said, and it is also not easy to ensure urgent warnings reach those most at risk.

“The forecasting was good. The warnings were good. It’s always about getting people to receive the message,” said Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist based in Wisconsin. “It appears that is one of the biggest contributors — that last mile.”

The meteorologists said they did not think understaffed offices were a primary factor in the tragic outcome, even though the NWS has leadership gaps after a rash of staffing cuts.

Tom Fahy, the legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, a union that represents government employees, said the San Antonio weather forecasting office did not have two of its top positions filled — a permanent science officer (a role that conducts training and is in charge of implementing new technology) or a warning coordination meteorologist (who coordinates with the media and is the public face of the office), though there are employees acting in those leadership roles. Overall, Fahy said, the offices had enough meteorologists to respond to the event.

“The WFOs [weather forecasting offices] had adequate staffing and resources as they issued timely forecasts and warnings leading up to the storm,” Fahy said Saturday, but he added that he was concerned about the unfilled senior positions and vacuums of leadership.

In a statement, the NWS said it was “heartbroken by the tragic loss of life in Kerr County.” It did not address questions about staffing but provided a detailed timeline of the warnings it sent out.

Some Texas officials have suggested the National Weather Center forecast did not convey the storm’s threat, while others said they were grateful for timely alerts from the agency.

“The original forecast that we received on Wednesday from the National Weather Service predicted 3 to 6 inches of rain in the Concho Valley and 4 to 8 inches of rain in the Hill Country,” Texas Emergency Management Chief W. Nim Kidd said at a news conference Friday. “The amount of rain that fell in this specific location was never in any of those forecasts nonetheless.”

The National Weather Center indicated Kerrville, Texas, and its surrounding areas could be at risk of flash flooding Thursday, according to the National Weather Service timeline. Then, NWS Austin/San Antonio issued a flood watch at 1:18 p.m. Thursday into Friday morning. It issued its urgent flash flood warnings for Kerr County at 1:14 a.m.

Andy Brown, the Travis County judge, or chief executive, thanked the NWS for its alerts. Eric Carter, the county’s chief emergency management coordinator, described the weather service as being “very proactive in their warnings.”

The agency noted that it sent out a flash flood warning with tags of “considerable” or “catastrophic” at 1:14 a.m. CT Friday, which would trigger ​​wireless emergency alerts on enabled mobile devices.

“Flash Flood Warnings were issued on the night of July 3 and in the early morning of July 4, giving preliminary lead times of more than three hours,” the statement said.

The Trump administration this spring laid off NWS employees and also offered buyouts and early retirements. By early June, the weather service had lost about 600 employees. Many veteran workers left, along with employees on probation and those recently hired or promoted.

Some NWS offices have experienced staffing reductions of more than 40%, and the agency has scrambled to fill critical roles at some forecasting offices. At least eight offices stopped operating 24 hours a day this spring as a result, and some have suspended weather balloon launches.

In May, more than 40% of the country’s weather forecasting offices had staffing vacancy rates above 20%. The cuts prompted all of the living former directors of the NWS to write a letter expressing concern over staffing levels and future budget cuts.

“Our worst nightmare is that weather forecast offices will be so understaffed that there will be needless loss of life. We know that’s a nightmare shared by those on the forecasting front lines—and by the people who depend on their efforts,” they wrote.

Compared with many forecasting offices across the country, the Texas offices remain relatively well-staffed.

Fahy said the San Antonio/Austin weather forecasting office is operating with 11 staff meteorologists and is down six employees from its typical full staffing level of 26. He also said the nearby San Angelo office, which issued warnings for parts of central Texas, is short four staff members from its usual staffing level of 23. The meteorologist-in-charge position — the office’s top leadership position — is not permanently filled. The office is also without a senior hydrologist.

“In San Angelo, there is no hydrologist, and that’s a problem,” Fahy said. Hydrologists analyze stream flow and play a key role in flood response.

Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said the city will look at whether its own emergency notifications were robust enough to warn residents.

“We know questions are being asked about the emergency notification, and while it is not the time to speculate, local and regional partners are committed to a full review of the events and systems in place,” Rice said at a news conference Sunday. “At the appropriate time, we will take clear steps to strengthen our future preparedness. We owe that commitment to the families who are suffering and every member of our community.”

Prominent independent meteorologists who have been critical of NWS staffing and budget cuts in the past have said federal meteorologists on the ground issued timely warnings.

Alan Gerard, the former director of the analysis and understanding branch at the National Severe Storms Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, wrote in a blog post that the Austin/San Antonio forecasting office did a good job communicating the risks as quickly as possible, despite the unfilled leadership positions.

“Obviously, having both of these positions vacant for a prolonged time is not optimal, and certainly could have had negative impacts at some level,” Gerard wrote. “However, just looking at the actual warning services that NWS provided during the event, they were solid and provided the level of warning and alerts that the public should expect to receive for an event such as this.”

Matt Lanza, a Houston-based meteorologist, said there were no initial indications that staffing levels or budget cuts played a role in the tragedy.

Vagasky, the Wisconsin meteorologist, said predicting flash flooding and extreme rain is notoriously difficult.

“Quantitative precipitation forecasting, called QPF, is one of the hardest things meteorologists have to do. You have to get the right location, the right amount, the right timing,” he said. “They were aware this was a significant event, and they were messaging that.”

Vagasky said the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry moved into Texas and fed tropical moisture to severe thunderstorms, which stalled out over central Texas and pummeled the region with extreme precipitation.

He added that the cadence by which forecasters indicated increasing concern fit with what weather models were showing and what he would expect.

The Texas Hill Country is often called “flash flood alley” because its topography can funnel and quickly swell rivers. Knowing precisely where the rain will fall is key for hydrologic models to understand where flood impacts would be worse.

“The forecasts this week were for 4 to 7, 5 to 9 inches of rain, somewhere in there. And some models were showing higher amounts on top of that. Knowing is that higher amount going to fall 3 miles this way or 3 miles that way has a big impact on what the ultimate results are,” Vagasky said. “Unfortunately, the science just isn’t at that point where you can say, ‘OK, I know at this specific latitude and longitude, we’re going to get this much rain.’”

The overnight timing of the heaviest rain and the floodwaters’ beginning to rise is a nightmare scenario for forecasters, Vagasky said.

“Severe weather response in the middle of the night is one of the biggest challenges. That’s when we see the most tornado fatalities and the most flooding fatalities. People are asleep. They can’t see the tornado or the water rising,” he said. “Did people have their emergency alerts turned on on their phones?”

Vagasky, who has criticized staffing reductions and cuts to weather balloon releases at the NWS, said he did not think better staffing would have prevented the tragedy.

“Those are important positions that do need to be filled,” he said, but he added that it “probably wasn’t a significant contributor to what happened.”

Vagasky said there is plenty of room to improve quantitative precipitation forecasting that could help forecasters identify threats earlier. Such research is at risk if the administration cuts NOAA’s funding as it has outlined, he said.

“The big concern is the latest budget request. If it goes through Congress the way the administration wants, it shuts down all the NOAA research labs, which are the labs doing the work to improve that forecasting.”

President Donald Trump expressed support Thursday for flood alarms in Texas and said he thinks “everyone’s doing a great job” responding to a disaster that has left more than 100 people dead and 170 people missing.

“After having seen this horrible event, I would imagine you’d put alarms up in some form, where alarms would go up if they see any large amounts of water or whatever it is,” Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in a phone interview Thursday.

“But the local officials were hit by this just like everybody else,” he said.

Trump will visit Texas on Friday, a week after the deadly flooding in Kerr County and other parts of the region, when the Guadalupe River surged to almost 30 feet in Hunt on July 4. That was higher than a 1987 flood disaster on the same river.

Among those confirmed or feared dead are 27 children and counselors at Camp Mystic in Hunt.

Kerr County did not have audible flood alarms to warn residents.

Gov. Greg Abbott bristled at a reporter’s question this week about who was to blame for the scope of the disaster and the deaths, saying “that’s the word choice of losers.”

Trump said Thursday that “nobody ever saw a thing like this coming” and that “this is a once-in-every-200-year deal.”

“It’d be easy to blame them. I wouldn’t blame them,” Trump said. “I think from the standpoint of the future, you’d have to have some kind of an alarm and lighting system, maybe.”

Trump also defended Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response.

Trump has talked about possibly “getting rid of” FEMA. NBC News reported this week that Noem now requires that all agency spending over $100,000 be personally approved by her.

On Monday, FEMA officials created a task force to speed up the process of getting Noem’s approval, according to the reporting, which cited two people familiar with that unit.

“I don’t know anything about it,” Trump said when he was asked about the reporting and whether that delayed FEMA’s response.

“We were right on time. We were there — in fact, she was the first one I saw on television,” he said. “She was there right from the beginning, and she would not have needed anything. She had the right to do it, but she was literally the first person I saw on television.”

Trump said Noem “was right on the ball” and has “done a great job.”

In Texas on Thursday, the search for the missing continued. Search-and-rescue operations along the Guadalupe River have shifted to a recovery phase.

There were 120 people confirmed dead and 173 people missing Wednesday evening, officials said. Among the 120, 96 of the confirmed dead were in Kerr County, 36 of them children.

Trump said that during Friday’s visit, he will express how much “I love those people.”

“Those people were with me right from the beginning, and it’s just a message of warmth, and I feel so terribly for them,” he said.

President Donald Trump is expected to visit the site of the deadly floods in central Texas on Friday, July 11.

The visit will mark a full week after the torrential rains hit a swath of central-west Texas Hill Country the early morning hours of July 4. As of July 10, rescue teams continued their search for more than 150 missing victims. Of the at least 120 people found dead as of Thursday afternoon, 95 were from Kerr County, the hardest hit area that includes the devastated Christian girls camp, Camp Mystic. Officials say they haven’t rescued anyone alive since the day of the flood.

It is unclear where exactly the president will visit in his trip to the region on Friday. Here’s what we know so far.

Live updates: Texans mourn the dead as search for more than 170 flood victims continues

When is Trump visiting site of Texas flooding?

Trump plans to visit the area on Friday, July 11, and plans to meet with family members of flood victims and first responders during his trip, according to a White House official. Trump will also participate in a briefing and roundtable from local elected officials, the official said.

The White House has not said what time Trump will arrive in Texas.

The president first mentioned his intention to visit the disaster site on Sunday, July 6, saying he would have gone that day but didn’t want to be “in the way” of rescuers and other first responders.

What has Trump said about the tragedy?

Trump mentioned the planned trip again a day later during a White House dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Texas was just so badly hurt by something that was a big surprise, late in the evening,” Trump said to reporters. “So, we’ll be working with the governor and all of the people of Texas. We’ll be going on Friday.”

Has Gov. Abbott visited the site?

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott visited the scene of some of the worst flooding on July 5, including Camp Mystic, where more than two dozen children and counselors perished and five girls and one counselor remains missing as of Thursday afternoon. He is expected to be in attendance during the president’s visit, according to a White House official.

Hopes of finding anyone else alive have diminished each passing day, with Kerr County authorities saying they haven’t made a “live rescue” since the day of the flood.

Where did the Texas floods occur?

The catastrophic flooding overwhelmed parts of Texas Hill Country, a low-lying and flood-sensitive area of west-central Texas.

The region stretches over 11 million acres across 18 counties in central Texas, according to the Texas Hill Country Conservation Network, and includes the cities of San Antonio and Austin, as well as extensive rural areas. The cities of Sonora, Fredericksburg, San Marcos, Bandera and New Braunfels are also located within the region, though the bulk of the flooding and flood-related deaths occurred in Kerr County, along the Guadalupe River. Kerrville, Hunt and Comfort were all particularly hard-hit.

The area is known for being especially vulnerable to floods, and has experienced several major flood events in the past two decades, earning it the nickname “flash flood alley.”

This story has been updated to include new information.

Kathryn Palmer is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her atkapalmer@usatoday.com and on X @KathrynPlmr.

HUNT, Texas (AP) — More than 160 people are believed to be missing in Texas four days after flash floods killed over 100 people during the July Fourth weekend, Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday.

Many of those who are not accounted for were staying in state’s Hill Country but did not register at a camp or hotel.

The lowlands along the Guadalupe River in central Texas are filled with youth camps and campgrounds that are especially popular around summer holidays, which has made it more difficult to know how many people are missing.

WATCH: Noem describes scene of parents looking for their children in Texas flood devastation

The big jump in the number of missing came after authorities set up a hotline for families to call.

“We will not stop until every missing person is accounted for,” Abbott said during a news conference in Hunt, Texas, after taking a helicopter tour of the area.

The 161 missing were believed to be in Kerr County, where most of the victims have recovered, Abbott said.

The governor said President Donald Trump has pledged to provide whatever relief Texas needs to recover.

“He could not stop talking about how sad he was for all the little girls who have lost their lives.” Trump planned to visit the state Friday.

Meanwhile, public officials in charge of finding victims of the devastating flooding pushed away intensifying questions about who was monitoring the weather and warning that floodwaters were barreling toward camps and homes.

READ MORE: Texas flood search efforts go on but hope of finding survivors dims

Leaders in Kerr County, where searchers have found 87 bodies, said their first priority is recovering victims, not reviewing what happened in the hours before the flash floods inundated the state’s Hill Country.

“Right now, this team up here is focused on bringing people home,” Lt. Col. Ben Baker of the Texas Game Wardens, said during a sometimes tense news conference where officials were questioned about the timing of their response.

Hope of finding survivors was increasingly bleak. Four days have passed since anyone was found alive in the aftermath of the floods in Kerr County, officials said Tuesday.

Abbott planned to make another visit Tuesday to Camp Mystic, the century-old all-girls Christian summer camp where at least 27 campers and counselors died during the floods. Officials said Tuesday that five campers and one counselor have still not been found.

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 in her hair, a 19-year-old counselor who enjoyed mentoring young girls and the camp’s 75-year-old director.

WATCH: How local groups are aiding recovery efforts after devastating Texas floods

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. The wall of water overwhelmed people in cabins, tents and trailers along the river’s edge, pulling them into the water. Some survivors were found clinging to trees.

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. Time-lapse videos showed how floodwaters covered roads in a matter of minutes.

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 spending the July Fourth weekend in the scenic area long known to locals as “flash flood alley.”

Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said that sending out warnings isn’t “as easy as pushing a button.” Answers about who did what and when will come later, public officials said.

Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, the county’s chief elected official, said in the hours after the devastation that 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.

READ MORE: Debate erupts over weather forecasts for deadly Texas floods and adequate staffing

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.

Some camps were aware of the dangers Friday and monitored the weather. At least one moved several hundred campers to higher ground before the floods. But many people didn’t move or were caught by surprise.

Recovery and cleanup goes on

The bodies of 30 children were among those that have been recovered in Kerr County, 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 city 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 of his belongings — a mattress, sports cards, his pet parakeet’s bird cage — now sit in caked mud in front of his home.

“What’s going on right now, it hurts,” the 17-year-old said. “I literally cried so hard.”

Search-and-rescue teams used heavy equipment to untangle trees and move large rocks as part of the massive search for missing people. Hundreds of volunteers showed up to help with one of the largest search operations in Texas history.

Along the banks of the Guadelupe, 91-year-old Charles Hanson, a resident at a senior living center, was sweeping up wood and piling pieces of concrete and stone, remnants from a playground structure.

He wanted to help clean up on behalf of his neighbors who can’t get out. “We’ll make do with the best we got,” he said.

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.

At least 120 people are dead and dozens are still missing after devastating flash floods slammed Texas Hill Country, with water rescues taking place along the Guadalupe River, which rose rapidly early Friday morning to the height of a two-story building. Several people remain missing from Camp Mystic in Kerr County, a girls’ summer camp, officials said.

Of the fatalities confirmed so far, most — at last 95 — occurred in Kerr County, officials said. Camp Mystic, located along the river in Hunt, Texas, confirmed Monday that at least 27 campers and counselors died in the flooding.

“Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy. We are praying for them constantly,” the camp said in a statement. “We have been in communication with local and state authorities who are tirelessly deploying extensive resources to search for our missing girls. We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of support from community, first responders and officials at every level.”

At least five Camp Mystic campers are still missing, along with one counselor, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said on Tuesday. There were about 550 children at Camp Mystic when the floods hit, according to a June 2 health inspection report.

Officials are seen in the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas as they assist in recovery efforts on July 6, 2025 after a flash flood swept through the area. Julio Cortez/AP

President Trump signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County, at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s request. On Saturday, Abbott said he visited the summer camp, describing the scene as “horrendously ravaged.”

“Today I visited Camp Mystic. It, and the river running beside it, were horrendously ravaged in ways unlike I’ve seen in any natural disaster,” Abbott wrote in a social media post. “The height the rushing water reached to the top of cabins was shocking. We won’t stop until we find every girl who was in those cabins.”

Operations would continue around the clock to search for anyone affected by the deadly storm, the governor said during a briefing Sunday afternoon.

Debris is seen in the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas on July 6, 2025. Jorge Salgado/Anadolu via Getty Images

“Especially in the Kerrville area, there were so many people camping out near the river, people in RVs and things like that,” he said. “There are people that are not known, confirmed missing because we do not know yet who they are.”

Abbott said searches will persist throughout the Guadalupe River system in the hope of locating anyone else, and he asked the public to contact local officials with information about friends or relatives believed to be lost.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Sunday he ordered three swiftwater rescue teams to Texas.

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. RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty Images

Mr. Trump plans to visit Texas on Friday, telling reporters he had wanted to go immediately but would have been “in their way.”

At the Vatican, Pope Leo extended a prayer to the flooding victims during Sunday Mass, saying, “I express my sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were at summer camp, in the disaster caused by the flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas in the United States.”

Although Kerr County was hit hardest by flooding, people have been confirmed dead across five other Texas counties. About 150 miles east of Camp Mystic, Travis County confirmed at least seven deaths, according to local officials. Travis County includes the Texas capital city of Austin. Deaths have also been confirmed in Burnet, Kendall, Williamson, and Tom Green counties.

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

Officials have conducted more than 160 air rescues, Leitha said in an earlier update, adding that 850 uninjured and eight injured people have been rescued overall as of Saturday.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a social media post that the U.S. Coast Guard was responsible for saving 223 of those people, as dramatic video showed Guard members conducting aerial rescues near Kerrville, while dark water covered the ground.

Noem also said Coast Guard rescue swimmer and Petty Officer Scott Ruskan “saved an astonishing 165 victims in the devastating flooding in Central Texas. This was the first rescue mission of his career and he was the only triage coordinator at the scene.” She called Ruskan “an American hero.” The Department of Homeland Security oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“We’ve been rescuing people out of these camps by the hundreds, you know, all day,” Dalton Rice, the city manager for Kerville, said on Saturday night. “There’s a lot of folks that are shelter in place, so we leave them in place to make sure that we get them food, water.”

Damaged vehicles and debris are seen roped off near the banks of the Guadalupe River after flooding in Ingram, Texas, Friday, July 4, 2025. Michel Fortier/The San Antonio Express-News via AP

Abbott originally signed a federal disaster declaration in the immediate aftermath of the floods early Friday, which he later updated to include several other counties in Texas that were damaged by storms.

Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said in Saturday’s briefing that his property was also devastated by the flooding and he “barely got home” on Friday. Kelly also said he had visited a funeral home and “got to see firsthand many of the body bags” before going on a helicopter ride with Sen. John Cornyn and Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring to survey the damage.

“It’s gonna be a long time before we’re ever going to be able to clean it up, much less rebuild it,” Kelly said. “We didn’t know. We knew we’d get rain, we know the river rises, but nobody saw this coming.”

Onlookers survey damage along the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area, Friday, July 4, 2025, in Kerrville, Texas. Eric Gay/AP

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said during a news briefing on Friday that there hadn’t been “a drop of rain until the tragedy struck” earlier in the day, and that the Guadalupe River had risen about 26 feet in 45 minutes. Alerts went out around 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. local time Friday, he said.

As questions circulate as to whether the flood warnings and alerts were sufficient and effective, another summer camp near the Guadalupe River, Presbyterian Mo-Ranch Assembly, has received praise for its rapid evacuation.

Lisa Winters, the communications director for the camp, told The Associated Press that the facilities manager at Mo-Ranch noticed the river beginning to rise at about 1 a.m. local time Friday. Although camp leadership said they had not received evacuation guidance from local authorities, they quickly relocated about 70 children and adults who were staying overnight in a building near the water.

Speaking to reporters late Friday night aboard Air Force One, Mr. Trump called the floods a “terrible thing.” On Saturday, he said his administration was working with state and local officials “on the ground” in Texas to respond to the flooding.

“Melania and I are praying for all the families impacted by this horrible tragedy,” Mr. Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “Our Brave First Responders are on site doing what they do best. GOD BLESS THE FAMILIES, AND GOD BLESS TEXAS!”

Onlookers walk along the banks of the Guadalupe River in Louise Hays Park, on July 5, 2025, in Kerrville, Texas, following heavy flooding. Rodolfo Gonzalez/AP

How did the Guadalupe River flood so quickly?

Meteorologists say storms in the area converged with remnant moisture from what was formerly Tropical Storm Barry, which made landfall in eastern Mexico early last week and moved northward. That produced exceptionally high rainfall totals in a region that is susceptible to flooding.

Rice, Kerrville’s city manager, explained how the Guadalupe River flooded so quickly.

“When you look at the headwaters of the Guadalupe … there’s a north and a south fork,” Rice said Friday night. “Since 1987, under normal conditions, if you can call it that, you’ll hit water in one of those areas, and those two forks will converge into the Guadalupe, which comes through the city of Kerrville.”

“This rain event sat on top of that and dumped more rain than what was forecasted on both of those forks,” Rice continued. “When we got the report, it was about 7 feet or so on the south fork, and within a matter of minutes it was up to 29 feet, and all of that converged at Guadalupe.”

The Guadalupe River at Hunt reached its second-highest height on record, higher than the famous 1987 flood, the city said, citing the National Weather Service.

A raging Guadalupe River leaves fallen trees and debris in its wake, Friday, July 4, 2025, in Kerrville, Texas. Eric Gay/AP

The Texas Division of Emergency Management had multiple meetings since Thursday to prepare, but the National Weather Service “did not predict the amount of rain” that actually fell, officials said, adding that forecasters originally estimated up to 8 inches of rainfall for the area.

Kerr County Judge Kelly said the area does “not have a warning system,” and authorities were shocked by the ferocity of the floods.

“We had no reason to believe that this was gonna be any, anything like what’s happened here. None whatsoever,” Kelly told “CBS Evening News.”

A man surveys damage left by a raging Guadalupe River, Friday, July 4, 2025, in Kerrville, Texas. Eric Gay/AP

People are reunited at a reunification center after flash flooding hit the area, Friday, July 4, 2025, in Ingram, Texas. Eric Gay/AP

Texas issued flash flood emergencies in five counties in West Texas on Friday as Hill Country continued to be slammed by severe rain and flooding. Between 5 and 11 inches of rain have fallen in northwestern Bandera County, Central Kerr County, Northeastern Tom Green County, East Central Kerr County and West Central Kendall County, according to the National Weather Service.

Search and rescue operations are ongoing

Hundreds of people on the ground from various units are helping with search and rescue operations, officials said. The operations have included drones, helicopters, rescue divers, boats and high-water vehicles, after Abbott signed a disaster declaration for several counties hit by flooding.

At a news conference, the governor said his declaration “ensures all the counties will have access to every tool, strategy, personnel that the state of Texas can provide to them, which will be limitless.”

“We will stop at nothing to ensure that every asset and person and plane, whatever is needed, is going to be involved in the process of rescuing every last person and ensure everybody involved in this is going to be fully accounted for,” Abbott said.

A helicopter flies over the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area, Friday, July 4, 2025, in Kerrville, Texas. Eric Gay/AP

First responders scan the banks of the Guadalupe River for individuals swept away by flooding in Ingram, Texas, Friday, July 4, 2025. Michel Fortier/The San Antonio Express-News via AP

Lorena Gullen, who owns a restaurant right next to an RV park that was affected by the floods, said “raging water” swept away vehicles, some with people still inside. Residents at the park had been celebrating the Fourth of July.

“You could also see vehicles coming from up the river with the lights on and hear somebody honking, and they were washing away but they kept going,” she told “CBS Evening News.” “It was impossible.”

Some victims identified, including young campers

The confirmed deaths at Camp Mystic include 8-year-old Linnie McCown of Austin, her father told CBS News, and Chloe Childress, an 18-year-old counselor from the Houston area, according to the Kinkaid School, where she had recently graduated.

Campers Eloise Peck, 8; Lila Bonner, 9; and Hadley Hanna, 8, all from the Dallas area, also died, their families said.

Two sisters from Dallas — 13-year-old Blair Harber and 11-year-old Brooke Harber — were among those confirmed dead Saturday by the St. Rita Catholic Community Church in Dallas. The sisters were not at Camp Mystic but were staying with their grandparents in an area along the Guadalupe River where the flooding occurred. Their grandparents remained unaccounted for, according to the church. The girls’ parents were in a separate cabin and were not harmed.

On Friday, Patrick addressed the parents of children at Camp Mystic. The lieutenant governor, who briefly acted as governor while Abbott was on vacation, said they are praying for all those missing “to be found alive.”

“If they are alive and safe, we will find them and bring them home to you,” Patrick said Friday.

First responders deliver people to a reunification center after flash flooding in the area, Friday, July 4, 2025, in Ingram, Texas. Eric Gay/AP

Camp Mystic is an all-girls summer camp that runs several camps attended by thousands of children during the summer, Patrick said. In a statement read Friday by the lieutenant governor, the camp said they did not have power, water or Wi-Fi in the aftermath of what it called a “catastrophic level” of flooding. The statement added that “the highway has washed away, so we are struggling to get more help.”

The camp sits on a strip known as “flash flood alley,” Austin Dickson, CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, told The Associated Press. The foundation is a charitable endowment that collects donations to help nonprofits responding to the disaster.

“When it rains, water doesn’t soak into the soil,” Dickson said. “It rushes down the hill.”

A flood gauge marks the height of water flowing over a farm-to-market road near Kerrville, Texas, on Friday, July 4, 2025. Eric Gay/AP

Meteorologists say the area has been under extreme drought conditions, which only made the flooding worse because dry, parched soil doesn’t have the capacity to absorb a deluge of water as quickly and becomes overwhelmed, leading to flash flooding.

Climate change intensifies both droughts and flooding because a warmer climate can extend both intense dry spells and extreme precipitation.

Campers describe evacuations

Elinor Lester, 13, told The AP that she and her cabinmates were evacuated from Camp Mystic by helicopter. Her cabin was on elevated ground, but younger campers bunked in cabins situated along the riverbank, she said. Those were the first to flood. Younger campers came up the hill for shelter.

“The camp was completely destroyed,” she said. “It was really scary. Everyone I know personally is accounted for, but there are people missing that I know of and we don’t know where they are.”

One 8-year-old camper was swept six miles down the river but survived, sisters Natalie and Emily Raiford told CBS News correspondent Jason Allen.

“All of the sudden we just hear somebody say, ‘help, help,'” one of the sisters said. “She said that her cabin was flooding and someone opened a window and she just flew out of it.”

Two other camps along the Guadalupe River, Camp La Junta and Camp Waldemar, said in Instagram posts that all of their campers and staff there were safe.

Two young brothers, Braeden and Brock Davis, were among the campers at Camp La Junta.

“When I woke up, I turned my flashlight on and I think I saw water like outside and then like we had to get on the rafters,” Brock Davis, 7, told “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King.

The boys’ mother, Keli Rabon, said Brock “had to climb from initially the bottom bunk to then the top bunk and then ultimately to the rafters to try to avoid the water.”

While Rabon said she felt a “sense of joy and relief” when she was reunited with her sons, she knows other families are not as fortunate.

“It’s almost like you have this sense of survivor’s guilt because you feel so much joy to see your children, but you still know that so many people are hurting and desperately looking for theirs,” she said.

contributed to this report.