The death toll continued to rise Sunday due to flooding that devasted a swath of central Texas on Friday, leaving dozens missing.
According to The Washington Post, as of early Sunday afternoon, 67 people were dead, 59 in Kerr County where floodwaters tore through a summer camp. Twenty-one children are among the dead, while there are 11 girls alone missing from the camp. The Guardian put the toll of dead at 69.
The storm was so severe that the Guadalupe River rose 26 feet in 45 minutes early Friday, according to the Associated Press.
A summer camp called Camp Mystic has emerged as Ground Zero of the tragedy. Although other camps in the region moved campers or were concerned for storms, Camp Mystic was not evacuated until after the rain hit.
💔 A picture is worth a thousand words… This Texas deputy stops for a moment amid his search in a debris pile along the Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country.
I could only imagine the things he’s seen, the things he’s had to tell loved ones and the long road that’s still… pic.twitter.com/p2OJSeFtcx
— Joe_S_Pure🩸 (@Joe_S_Pure) July 6, 2025
“The camp was completely destroyed,” camper Elinor Lester, 13, said.
“A helicopter landed and started taking people away. It was really scary,” she said, saying she and others had been in the cabin until the storm woke them.
To reach safety, the girls held onto a rope while walking across a bridge as water pulled at their legs, she said.
WATCH: With a drizzle falling on Camp Mystic, the flood-ravaged Christian summer camp on the Guadalupe River in Texas, a father navigates the debris in search of his eight-year-old daughter.
“My daughter was here,” he says, examining a stone-walled cabin with shattered windows,… pic.twitter.com/lRMIKM0SUV
— Daily Tribune (@tribunephl) July 6, 2025
In nearby Ingram, Erin Burgess fled her flooded house and clung to a tree with her son.
“My son and I floated to a tree where we hung onto it, and my boyfriend and my dog floated away. He was lost for a while, but we found them,” she said.
Barry Adelman said he waited in the attic of his three-story house as the water rose, taking his 9-year-old grandson and 94-year-old grandmother with him.
#JUSTIN : 🚨🇺🇸Carl thought she was gone.
Heard screaming, saw nothing – then finally spotted her: stuck in a tree, drenched, desperate, alive.
She’d been swept miles from Camp Mystic, clinging to a branch above the flood-swollen Guadalupe River.
No rescue in sight. Carl… pic.twitter.com/KvvP2Ik0Vc
— Indian Observer (@ag_Journalist) July 5, 2025
“I was having to look at my grandson in the face and tell him everything was going to be OK, but inside I was scared to death,” he said.
Among those rescued were the two daughters of Republican Rep. August Pfluger of Tecxas, according to Fox News.
“Camille, Vivian and I are now reunited with Caroline and Juliana who were evacuated from Camp Mystic,” Pfluger said. “The last day has brought unimaginable grief to many families and we mourn with them as well as holding out hope for survivors.”
It took under 4 minutes for the flash flood to consume the entire road. Horrifying. pic.twitter.com/n15PWUXFRo
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) July 6, 2025
“Camp Mystic’s Dick Eastland no doubt gave his life attempting to save his campers,” Pfluger noted on X. “For decades he and his wife Tweety poured his life into loving and developing girls and women of character. Thank you Mr. Eastland. We love you and miss you.”
President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he has signed a declaration of emergency that will allow central Texas to receive federal assistance in addressing the disaster.
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