Texas floods: death toll rises as search and rescue turns into grim recovery operation | Texas floods 2025

Residents of the Center of Texas observed a day of prayer on Sunday for at least 69 people killed and other people who disappeared during the sudden flooding devastating on Friday, while a research and rescue operation for the survivors began to turn into a dark body in convalescence.

Relatives continued an anxious expectation for the news of 11 girls and a camp advisor still worn from a summer camp in Riverside which was overwhelmed by sudden floods from the Guadalupe river, which increased by 26 feet (8 meters) in 45 minutes on Friday morning after a torrential pre-see rain north of San Antonio.

At least 59 people were confirmed killed in the county of Kerr, including many children, with More deaths reported in neighboring counties.

“We see bodies recovered everywhere and descendant,” Kerrville City director Dalton Rice said on Sunday at a press conference.

The authorities said that around 850 people had been rescued, with more than 1,700 people involved in the research and rescue operation.

Sunday morning, the water levels fell to one or two higher foot than before the flood.

Another rain on Saturday and Sunday morning hampered the search efforts for crews using boats, helicopters and drones. The Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, promised that the speakers would remain on the scene until each individual is recovered. He said he had asked the stakeholders to assume that all the missing people were still alive.

The American Secretary of Internal Security, Kristi Noem, was in Texas before Donald Trump to sign a federal emergency declaration which would release additional resources to support local efforts.

Noem defended the federal response to the disaster at a press conference on Saturday afternoon, promising that “relief will arrive”. However, the questions continued to swirl on the actions of the Trump administration which, according to some, could have contributed to the gravity of the event.

In particular, hard budgetary discounts affecting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have left numerous key meteorological forecast offices short of personnel, including the office of Austin-San Antonio of the National Weather Service (NWS).

The authorities defended the service on Sunday, insisting on the warnings of sudden floods were issued in advance. But some residents said they had not received them – which Lieutenant -Governor of Texas Dan Patrick recognized on Fox News on Sunday. And a first forecast of the NWS had only called 3 to 6 inches of rain – not the intense fire that sparked the deadly floods.

The Washington Post reported that 1.8 TN rainy gallons fell on Texas Hill Country – which includes the Kerrville – and Edwards set on Friday morning.

Matthew Stone, 44, from Kerrville, said the police had come to knock on the doors – but that he had received no warnings on his phone.

“We did not have an emergency alert. There was nothing” until suddenly there was “a black death wall,” said Stone.

The member of the Texas Republican Congress, Chip Roy, whose district includes Kerr county, said at the Sunday press conference that the measures taken before and during the floods would be examined.

“There will be a lot of points, a lot of second guess,” he said. “There are a lot of people who say” why “and” how “and I understand that.”

Nim Kidd, Chief of the Texas Decision of the Emergency Management, said on Friday that the forecasts at the start of the NWS “had not predicted the amount of rain that we saw”. His comments provoked a defense of the service on Sunday by the Private Meteorological Service Acceweather, who said in a statement that the warnings before Friday dawn “should have provided officials with enough time to evacuate camps such as Camp Mystic and bring people in security.”

Meanwhile, Tom Fahy, Legislative Director of the NWS employees’ organization, told CNN that he thought that the Texas of the Service offices had “endowment and adequate resources”. However, he said that the Austin-San Antonio office was missing a warning meteorologist, a crucial link between the NWS and emergency officials.

An official of the NOAA told the network that the post, as well as several other key roles, were the result of the White House offering early retirement after the start of Trump’s second presidency in January.

Abbott said late Saturday that he had visited Camp Mystic, a popular Christian summer retirement for young people on the banks of the Guadalupe river in Hunt.

The camp, which had more than 700 girls present at the time of the flood, was invaded by a torrent of water, sweeping 27 which initially lacked. The number of people who disappeared on Sunday had fallen to 11, when the number of deaths rose, according to officials.

Sarah Marsh, an eight -year -old girl from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who was at the camp, was found dead on Saturday, just like Jane Ragsdale, director of the Heart O’The Hills camp, who was described by friends as a “pillar of the community”.

“He, and the river running next to it, was horribly ravaged in a way that I saw in a natural disaster,” said Abbott in an X article after turning the ruins of the Mystic camp with rescue teams.

“The height of the precipitated water reached the top of the cabins was shocking. We will not stop until we find all the girls who were in these cabins.”

The identities of more people killed were known on Sunday, while the survivors shared extraordinary stories about how they were spared.

Two children from Dallas, Blair Harber, 13, and her 11 -year -old sister Brooke, were among the confirmed deaths, by officials of the Catholic high school which they attended. They stayed in a hut by the river with their grandparents, which are missing.

Their father, RJ Harber, who stayed with his wife in an adjacent cabin, told CNN that Blair “was a gifted student and had a generous heart” and that Brooke “was like a light in any room, people gravity and she made them laugh and enjoy the moment”.

Secondary football coach Reece Zunker, and his wife, Tina, was among the victims of Kerr county, reported the Kerryville Daily Times – and their two children are missing.

The newspaper also identified Professor Jeff Wilson among the victims, with his wife, Amber and his son Shiloh.

Burnet county officials told Khou TV that a local firefighters chief was among three deaths there.

The Associated Press contributed to this report