Posted on 07/05/2025 4:10:12 AM PDT by Libloather
The National Guard was deployed in Texas on Friday after a devastating river flood killed at least 25 people and swept away dozens of children at a local Christian camp.
Heavy rain on Friday morning caused the Guadalupe River to rise nearly 30 feet in 45 minutes.
State officials confirmed Friday night that at least 25 people are dead, including adults and children. Among the deaths, 24 were reported in Kerr County and one was in Kendall County.
Between 23 and 25 people remain missing from Camp Mystic, an all-girls private Christian camp along the Guadalupe River, according to officials. The camp had more than 750 attendees.
Helicopters and military vehicles were used for evacuations. So far, 237 people have been evacuated, including 167 by helicopter, Major General Thomas Suelzer said when discussing Texas National Guard efforts.
"Day or night, whatever hour of the day, there will be local officials [and] state officials collaborating together," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news conference Friday night.
**SNIP**
Ellen Toranzo told Fox News Digital that her daughter, Greta Toranzo, is one of the campers who went missing during the flood. Carrie Hanna also confirmed to Fox News Digital that her daughter, Hadley, is unaccounted for.
Other nearby camps reported all children were accounted for, according to Patrick.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
See post 19 regarding the NWS warnings.
They underestimated the rainfall ... until it was way too late :-(
May I offer some light on the people saying they should have been warned earlier? I first moved from the tiny state of Rhode Island to the enormous state of Texas 14 years ago. In RI the weather was easy to predict because you were dealing with such a small area, and it was almost always right (excluding the blizzard of 78.)
Naturally when a tornado forecast came out, I listened. I would put cushions in my laundry room to hide under, move all my important papers into the close dryer, and watch Dan on Fox 4 waiting for the impending doom, that never came. Once I was hunkered down in the laundry room and my phone rang. It was my Texas born daughter in law asking if I wanted to go to Walmart. She literally was so use to this that she ignored the warnings.
This past Spring it was severe thunderstorm warnings with baseball size hail. I had already had about 25 corn plants destroyed by hail in a previous year, and I didn’t want that to happen again. I’d spend an hour covering plants and dragging potted plants into the garage. My next-door neighbor didn’t take any precautions. 10 0ut of 10 times there was no hail, not even a drop of rain.
Over time you become immune to the hyperventilating of the weather guys.
The one time an EF0 came down my street I slept right through it. When I opened my shades in the morning there were roof shingles strewn all over my yard. They were from the street behind me. The tornado crossed the street 2 houses before me. Overnight storms, be it floods or tornadoes are the worst because even though the warning siren goes off you may sleep right through it.
ugh, clothes dryer. I even proofread it twice.
Horrible.
Have they decided it’s Trump’s fault yet?
“ I wonder what the geography of that area is?”
It’s called the hill country. For obvious reasons. Deep narrow creek channels that flood out of the banks with medium rains. Heavy rains equal a death trap for anyone not prepared for quick evacuation.
A Ham Radio friend of mine made 2 trips to Virginia after the recent hurricane. He was ignored by FEMA and partnered up with the Cajun Navy, and elements of Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s purse.
I am trustee of local club. We are a long way from this event.
Same friend of mine dropped everything when the huge brush fires up in North Texas hit and went to the disaster.
73 de AA5OI
If he hasn't, he should join his local Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) group and get up to speed on the procedures. FEMA won't work directly with individual hams. They work through local agencies and the local agencies work with the local ARES teams. Once trained and part of his local group, he may be able to contact other ARES groups and offer assistance in those situations. Good on him for working with the other groups when he couldn't work with FEMA. I've been a ham operator (lazy one, not always on) for a few years now. It's amazing what can be done in that hobby. Even the lowest class level (Technician) can do some amazing things.
Still doesn't negate my comment. They should have emergency radios and the means to communicate outside the camps. They should have people on watch overnight (if for nothing else, keeping eyes out for predators - both two and four-legged varieties), or anything else that could be an issue.
Our paths probably passed each other. I grew up in Del Rio in the 70s & 80s. Moved to San Marcos to go to SWT. Stayed in the I35 corridor for a good portion of the 90s. Austin and SA were home during that time.
You paint a picture that I can clearly see as I have been to each and every one.
I looked at Camp Mystic and surrounding areas on Google maps. It’s northwest of San Antonio in the hill country.
The storm just sat over this area and dumped huge rains.
It’s a bit like what happened in western North Carolina last year; saturated soil could hold no more water. Witnesses said the river flooded in just a few minutes.
All the talking heads are finger-pointing everyone from the National Weather Service to the local fire department. The reality is this is what can happen when you get torrential rains in the Texas hill country. Just as sure as there are alligators in Florida that will eat your kids, those central Texas rivers will flood to dangerous levels. And, they do it at the drop of a hat when you get torrential downpours. The problem is there are hoards of people that have moved to this state that don’t know this. I watched a video of a bunch of Californians who moved to Texas because they thought it was so wonderful, and now they want to move somewhere else because it’s already been over 100 degrees where they now live.
Hey, this is Texas! It gets hot here. Watch the weather. Watch where you step. Don’t pick up anything if you don’t know what it is. If you don’t know what’s in the water, don’t get in it. We have alligators, too. We also have killer bees here. Don’t let your kids play alone in the woods. Don’t try and pet the wildlife, and give them a wide birth. And, don’t camp out on the banks of a hill country stream or river if there are thunderstorms coming!
He is all of that.
Except not FEMA.
He is a wizard at bridging Com devices.
The local club was his work, he mailed out a letter to all the Ham Radio operators in 4 counties. I was the only Extra Class in the bunch to begin with. We have a lot of them now, some very young.
I passed my Advanced license exam in 1976 in front of an FCC Examiner at the Federal Building on Commerce Street in Downtown Dallas, Extra in 1985, GROL Commercial in 2000. Old school. 49 years. Ran a Navy/Marine Corp MARS station our of my home for 19 years (1976-1995).
The Ham community varies a lot depending on the local surroundings. I was gifted being a part of a very technical crowd while I was living in NM. Lots of great engineers, techs and physicists (etc) due to military bases, labs and the involvement in NASA projects.
We cannot control climate. Cannot even predict it well.
Who ponders such a flooding when camping near a river. 26 feet in 45 minutes.
when i called my sis in kerrvile to see if she was okay ( she was ) she said she had been up all night and that there was constant thunder and lightening for over 8 hours.
call me crazy, some gladly will if past is any indicator of the future,
but the north Carolina hurricane and this flood were more than 100 year storms,, they look more like weather modification warfare against conservative population areas. /
Well, this ... and, many other Texas riverside camps, have been actively hosting folks for a century ... perhaps you should go tell them what they should’ve had in place and help them coordinate the process.
Are you in Texas?
Are you used to dealing with HUGE limestone bluffs? And, rivers rising ... without adequate warning (no way to, in reality) 26 feet within the hour (that’s 12 inches every 1 -2 MINUTES)?
No, I didn’t think so.
But, we certainly appreciate your suggestions.
🙃
NOT gonna call you crazy, cuz.
Horrible. Why did they local government ignore the warnings?? Sheer insanity.
Zero evidence that anyone in local government or at this children’s camp was a newcomer. What IS new is the gutting of the weather warning system.
Are you kidding? Out of state people have poured into this area for years. And, the likelihood of an event like this is as common knowledge in the hill country as water is wet. I know people in the hill country who live less than 30 minutes from this location that never saw a drop of rain or flooding on their local creeks. This is the result of isolated thunderstorms in that area. They happen all the time. And, cell phone service in that area is spotty at best. Unless NOAA is going to issue every camper in the area a satellite phone, the only warning your going to get is to watch the weather and the river yourself.
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