Updated July 7, 2025 at 8:08 PM EDT
More than 100 people are dead following a weekend of catastrophic flooding in central Texas, officials confirmed Monday, as search and rescue efforts continue.
The Guadalupe River swelled more than 26 feet in less than an hour early Friday morning, sweeping low-lying homes, cars and trees downstream and washing away much of Camp Mystic, an all-girls' Christian summer camp.
State and federal officials also faced questions on Monday over whether more could have done to warn people before the river's rapid rise.
Search and rescue efforts have been complicated by fallen debris, heat, snakes and continued rainfall. A flood watch is in effect through Monday evening in south central Texas, including the embattled Kerrville area.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has pledged to search "for every single one of the children who were at Camp Mystic as well as anybody else in the entire riverbed to make sure that they're going to be recovered."
President Trump signed a federal disaster declaration on Sunday to help with those efforts, and said he will visit the state this week. Here's what else we know so far.
1. The death toll is expected to rise
In Kerr County, the hardest-hit area, the number of dead rose to 84, local officials said Monday afternoon. This figure includes 56 adults and 28 children, the Kerr County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post.
Camp Mystic, located on the banks of the Guadalupe River some 18 miles from Kerrville, says it is grieving the loss of 27 campers and counselors. Separately, the death of the camp director was confirmed by family. There are 10 campers and one counselor who were still unaccounted for as of Monday evening, according to the post from the sheriff's office.
The century-old institution was hosting some 750 campers, according to Texas Public Radio.
Dalton Rice, Kerrville's city manager, told reporters Monday that it has been difficult to nail down the exact number of people still missing due, in part, to prank callers and scammers contacting the local hotline to call in fake missing persons reports.
Of the likely still-missing, Rice said, "it's a lot."
Abbott noted Sunday: "Especially in the Kerrville area, there were so many people who were just camping out … adults camping out near the river, people in RVs and things like that," he said. "There are people who are missing who are not on the known confirmed missing [list] because we don't yet know who they are."
Officials urged residents to alert local officials if any of their loved ones may be missing in the Kerrville area — and to avoid potentially dangerous road conditions and so as not to interfere with rescue operations.
2. Search and rescue efforts continue
Officials say more than 850 people have been rescued so far. More than 400 first responders from over 20 agencies have been assisting with the search and rescue efforts in Kerr County. Officials said that there has been a "full response from local, state and national first responders," with air, water, K9 and other assets involved.
Rice, the city manager of Kerrville, said Monday morning the Kerr County search and rescue efforts are still in the "primary search phase" and involve around 19 national and local teams. He said their operations stretch from Hunt to Comal County, a distance of over 60 miles. Rice said rescue efforts are slow-moving because of difficult terrain and rainy weather.
3. Federal forecasters and Texas officials deflect blame
Questions are piling up about whether local officials in a region nicknamed "Flash Flood Alley" should have done more to prepare for Friday's deluge, such as evacuating summer camps.
Rice said there is a delicate balance to strike with determining when to evacuate. With storms, conditions can deteriorate rapidly, he said. If evacuations were done too late there could have been a risk of putting buses full of kids from these camps on far-flung, low-lying roads during the storm — putting the campers and counselors at potentially greater risk.
"It's very tough to make those calls," Rice said. "We don't want to cry wolf."
Rice said there are many questions officials hope to review in the coming days and weeks — including whether cell and radio service were adequate.
Some Texas officials have suggested that the National Weather Service (NWS) didn't adequately warn them of the extent of the danger, which the federal agency denies.
According to NPR's timeline, the Texas Division of Emergency Management activated emergency response resources as early as Wednesday. On Thursday, it posted on social media and informed local officials about the risk of potential flooding.
Separately, the NWS' Austin/San Antonio office issued a flood watch for multiple counties, which it upgraded to a flood warning just after midnight on Friday and expanded in the early morning hours.
By 4:06 a.m., with river levels rising quickly, it warned of an ongoing "very dangerous flash flooding event." The official social media pages of the City of Kerrville's Police Department and Kerr County sheriff didn't post about the emergency until after 6 a.m.
Meteorologists told NPR that it is extremely tricky to predict what a complex weather system will do and then convince people to prepare for the worst-case scenario. Some critics have questioned whether those efforts were further hampered by the Trump administration's cuts to the federal workforce, which cost the NWS nearly 600 workers earlier this year (some were rehired after public backlash over the cuts).
Trump denied that the workforce cuts were to blame on Sunday.
"I would just say this is a 100-year catastrophe, and it's just so horrible to watch," he said.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, speaking alongside Kerrville local officials Monday, said there is no evidence a reduction in staffing had any impact "whatsoever" on the NWS ability to warn of the flood.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt aggressively defended the president during a Monday afternoon press briefing, saying, "Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie, and it serves no purpose during this time of national mourning."
She said the NWS did its job and local offices were "well-staffed."
4. Trump says he will visit later this week, as people rush to donate
Trump told reporters on Sunday that he plans to visit Texas this week, "probably Friday."
"I would have done it today, but we'd just be in their way," he said.
Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, told Morning Edition on Monday that it has been heartening to see the level of support Kerr County is getting from people around the world, including donations and volunteer sign-ups.
"But it's gonna take the community a long time to recover there," he said.
Texas Public Radio has compiled this guide to how to find and get help in the area.
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