24 dead in Texas flash flooding; search continues for more than 20 missing from camp

The death toll from devastating floods in the Texas Hill Country rose to 24 Friday night, officials said, as a the search for more than 20 people missing from a girls summer camp continued through the night.

The water from the flooded Guadalupe River swept into Kerr County and other areas around 4 a.m. Friday after heavy rains overnight, authorities said. Bodies were reported to have been found in cars swept away from upstream.

Gov. Greg Abbott called it an “extraordinary catastrophe,” and said that search and rescue missions will continue through the night.

“They will continue in the darkness of night, they will be taking place when the sun rises in the morning. They will be non-stop,” Abbott said at a press conference Friday night.

The missing are from Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, which was hosting 750 children this week. Helicopters ferried dozens to safety Friday. Texas Game Wardens said in the evening that they were able to reach the camp with vehicles to bring out others.

Between 23 and 25 people from Camp Mystic are unaccounted for, Kerr County Sheriff Larry L. Leitha Jr. said.

Leitha said Friday night that the confirmed deaths in the county were 24, up from the 13 that he reported earlier in the day. A death was also reported in Kendall County, he said.

Texas Director of Public Safety Col. Freeman Martin called the disaster “a mass casualty event.”

Helicopters with hoists were used to rescue survivors, including people from trees, officials said. Adjutant General of Texas Major General Thomas Suelzer said that by Friday night 237 people had been rescued, 167 of whom were brought to safety by helicopter.

More than 400 people were on the ground responding to the disaster, Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick said.

The Department of Homeland Security said the U.S. Coast Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency had been activated. Patrick said he had been in contact with President Donald Trump.

Trump called the floods “terrible” when asked by reporters about the situation Friday night on Air Force One, and he said the U.S. government will help.

“We’re working with the governor. It’s a terrible thing,” he said.

Helicopters Friday transported children from Camp Mystic to safety Friday, video from NBC affiliate WOAI of San Antonio showed.

Texas Game Wardens said on Facebook Friday evening: “Have made entry into Camp Mystic with vehicles and are beginning to bring campers out!”

Patrick said that even though around 20 children were unaccounted for, “that does not mean they’ve been lost.”

“They could be in a tree. They could be out of communication,” he said. “We’re praying for all of those missing to be found alive. We’re doing everything we can to get in there.”

Parts of Kerr County got a little more than 10 inches of rain over 24 hours, the National Weather Service said at 4 p.m. Friday. Farther north, Llano County got 8 1/2 inches over that period.

“We lost everything. A lot of people lost everything,” one survivor told WOAI in Kerrville. A local Walmart gave him a pair of shoes. “Nobody expected this,” he said.

Another man in Kerrville told the station that his brother’s house is missing after the flood — along with the brother, his wife and their two children.

Earlier in the day, Camp Mystic issued a statement telling parents: “If your daughter is not accounted for, you have been notified,” while indicating girls located in other parts of the camp had been found safe.

The officials said the nearby highway was washed away and that the area remained without power, water or internet and was “struggling” to get more help.

“Please continue to pray and send any help if you have contacts to do so,” the officials wrote.

The camp, about two hours west of Austin, is for girls between the ages of 7 and 17, and it was due to celebrate its 100th anniversary next year.

It’s located near the Guadalupe River, which authorities said surged as much as 22 feet in just half an hour Friday morning to a height of 30 feet in the nearby town of Comfort in Kerr County, breaking a record that had stood for decades.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also issued a statement on X shortly after 4 p.m. ET.

“Please pray right now for everyone in the Hill Country, especially Camp Mystic,” he wrote. “Today, I’ve spoken with Gov Abbott, Lt. Gov Patrick, the head of TDEM & President Trump. Multiple helicopters are performing search & rescue. President Trump committed ANYTHING Texas needs.”

The force of the water in Ingram in Kerr County smashed the windows of homes and ripped off doors and paneling, video from WOAI showed.

Footage on social media showed an SUV swept away by raging floodwaters in Kerrville. The person who recorded it said the video was taken Friday morning.

The Guadalupe River had crested at Kerrville and Comfort by Friday evening, but other parts of the river downstream weren’t forecast to crest until Saturday morning.

The Guadalupe River near Spring Branch was forecast to crest at 37.2 feet, classified as moderate flood stage, around 2 a.m. Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.

NBC meteorologist Bill Karins said that the rain event “just sat here” in the area overnight into Friday morning in hilly terrain.

“It’s not like the mountains in the Rockies or in the Appalachians, but there are hills — and so that water will rush down the hills and collect in the smaller streams, and then it all combines, and all into the Guadalupe,” Karins said on NBC News Now.

Lina Hidalgo, the judge of Harris County, where Houston is, said five of the dead are from the Houston or Harris County area.

“All of Texas is impacted by this tragic event,” she wrote on X.

Flood warnings throughout the state remain in place through the weekend.

“There is an ongoing threat for possible flash flooding from San Antonio to Waco for the next 24 to 48 hours, in addition to the continued risks in west and central Texas,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement.