The first speakers scan the banks of the Guadalupe river for individuals carried away by floods in Ingram, Texas, Friday July 4, 2025.
Michel Fortier / AP / The San Antonio Express-News
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Michel Fortier / AP / The San Antonio Express-News
At least 24 people died following extreme floods that criticized Texas Hill Country early on Friday morning, according to state officials.
At least 20 girls from a Christian summer camp next to the Guadalupe river remain missing.
Officials said some of these campers could be blocked and unable to call for help.
Texas governor Greg Abbott said at a press conference on Friday evening that the State committed all the resources necessary to continue a research and rescue mission.
The governor has published a disaster declaration for several counties in the state region known as Hill Country, about 70 miles from San Antonio.
Governor Abbott said that research and rescue missions would continue “in the darkness of the night … looking for anyone who is not taken into account.”
He added: “This is an effort 24/7.”
Damaged vehicles and debris are seen closer to the banks of the Guadalupe river after being flooded in Ingram, Texas, Friday, July 4, 2025.
Michel Fortier / AP / The San Antonio Express-News
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Michel Fortier / AP / The San Antonio Express-News
During a previous briefing, Lieutenant-Governor Dan Patrick said that more than 500 stakeholders and 14 helicopters had been deployed to find anyone trapped in the flooded area.
“We have deployed a number of staff members in several places in the country of Texas Hill to help research and rescue efforts,” said Patrick, noting that the region is popular for summer camps, including one for hundreds of girls.
He said the emphasis on the state’s efforts was to locate non -recorded adolescents.
“In 45 minutes, the Guadalupe river increased by 26 feet and it was a destructive flood – taking goods and unfortunately lives,” said Patrick. He added that the region had 12 inches or more rain per hour.
Patrick said the communities in affected areas are without electricity or internet coverage.
The situation can still get worse. The Sheriff Larry Leitha said that the authorities thought that the number of deaths could increase.
“It will probably be a few days,” said Leitha at a press conference.
The first speakers deploy boats along the Guadalupe river after fatal floods on Friday July 4, 2025 in Kerrville, Texas.
Christopher Lee / AP / The San Antonio Express-News
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Christopher Lee / AP / The San Antonio Express-News
Friday, the National Weather Service issued a dangerous weather warning. In a press release, the NWS warned: “The floods caused by excessive precipitation continue to be possible”. The agency said that an additional 1 to 3 inches of rain could fall into the region, but that “isolated spots in the country of the hills could see up to 5 inches”.
The NWS explained that extreme precipitation is caused by a humid tropical mass combined with a slow-moving storm system in the counties of the Texas Center-South.
Kerr county officials said that the Guadalupe river, which crosses the region, is currently falling out at 39 feet or more – against about 3 feet before precipitation.
Judge Rob Kelly signed a disaster declaration following the devastation of goods and the loss of life left by the severe meteorological storm.
“It is enough today that it was a very devastating and deadly flood,” Kelly said at a Friday morning press conference.
The Kelly office said that damages will be monumental to both public infrastructure and private properties, with estimates that are impossible to determine until flood water is retreating.
