Texas flash floods kill at least 24 people, 23 girl campers missing

Torrential rains unleashed flash floods on the Guadalupe River successful Texas, sidesplitting astatine slightest 24 radical arsenic rescue teams scrambled to prevention dozens of victims trapped by precocious h2o oregon reported missing successful the disaster, section officials said.

Among the missing were 23 to 25 radical listed arsenic unaccounted for astatine an all-girls Christian summertime campy located connected the banks of the rain-engorged Guadalupe, authorities said.

Texas parents frantically posted photos of their young daughters connected societal media with pleas for information.

“What I tin corroborate astatine this point, we’re astatine astir 24 fatalities,” Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha told an evening quality league connected Friday, aboriginal confirming 24 radical had died.

The US National Weather Service declared a flash flood exigency for parts of Kerr County, located successful south-central Texas Hill Country, astir 105km (65 miles) northwest of San Antonio, pursuing dense downpours measuring up to 300mm (12 inches) of rain.

Dalton Rice, metropolis manager for Kerville, the region seat, told reporters the utmost flooding struck earlier dawn with small oregon nary warning, precluding authorities from issuing immoderate evacuation orders.

“This happened precise quickly, implicit a precise abbreviated play of clip that could not beryllium predicted, adjacent with the radar,” Rice said. “This happened wrong little than a two-hour span.”

Earlier successful the day, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said determination betwixt six and 10 bodies had been recovered truthful acold successful the frantic hunt for victims. During a quality league conducted astatine the aforesaid clip arsenic Patrick’s update, Sheriff Leitha reported that determination were 13 deaths from the flooding.

Patrick said 23 girls were listed arsenic unaccounted for among much than 700 children who were astatine the summertime campy erstwhile it was swept by floodwaters astatine astir 4am section clip (09:00 GMT).

“That does not mean they’ve been lost; they could beryllium successful a tree, they could beryllium retired of communication,” helium said.

Screengrab shows archetypal responders surveying rising floodwaters of the Guadalupe River aft flash flooding successful Kerr County, Texas, US, connected July 4, 2025 [ABC Affiliate KSAT via Reuters]

At slightest 250mm of rainfall poured down overnight successful cardinal Kerr County, causing flash flooding of the Guadalupe River and starring to hopeless pleas for accusation astir the missing.

“Some are adults, immoderate are children,” Patrick said during a quality conference. “Again, we don’t cognize wherever those bodies came from.”

Teams conducted dozens of rescues, and exigency responders continued to hunt for those who were unaccounted for.

“I’m asking the radical of Texas, bash immoderate superior praying this afternoon. On-your-knees benignant of praying, that we find these young girls,” Patrick said.

He said the Guadalupe River roseate 8 metres (26ft) successful 45 minutes successful the midst of dense downpours deluging the region. Search teams were flying 14 helicopters and a twelve drones implicit the area, successful summation to hundreds of exigency unit connected the crushed conducting rescues from trees and swift-flowing water.

“Additional rainfall is forecast successful those areas,” Patrick said. “Even if the rainfall is light, much flooding tin hap successful those areas. There is an ongoing menace for imaginable flash flooding from San Antonio to Waco for the adjacent 24 to 48 hours successful summation to the continued risks successful westbound and central Texas.”

Patrick work retired a connection from the manager of the summertime camp, which had immoderate 750 campers implicit the agelong July 4 weekend, reporting that it had “sustained catastrophic level of flooding”.

“We person nary power, h2o oregon Wi-Fi,” the connection said.

Debris is near down by a raging Guadalupe River, Friday, July 4, 2025, successful Kerrville, Texas [Eric Gay/AP Photo]

State and section officials warned against residents travelling to the area, which includes campgrounds dotted on the river, with dozens of roads “impassable”.

Videos connected societal media showed houses and trees swept distant by the overnight flash flood caused by dense overnight rainfall of 300mm – one-third of Kerr County’s mean yearly rainfall.

“It’s terrible, the floods,” US President Donald Trump told reporters Friday night. “It’s shocking.”

Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a catastrophe declaration to hasten exigency assistance to Kerr and a clump of further counties hardest deed by the floods.

Personnel from the US Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency were activated to assistance section authorities successful confronting the crisis, officials said.

Freeman Martin, manager of the state’s nationalist information department, said the flood was a “mass casualty event”.

“The rainfall has fto up, but we cognize there’s different question coming,” Martin warned, saying much rainfall would beryllium hitting areas astir San Antonio and Austin.