Texas flooding latest: 43 dead, including 15 children, as search for some two dozen girls continues – as it happened | Texas Floods 2025

This concludes our live coverage of the deadly flash flooding in the Hill Country region of Texas, with the death toll in Kerr county now at 43, including 15 children, and at least 27 girls from a summer camp still missing. As the rescue and recovery effort continues, we will update our main news report on the disaster. Here are the day’s developments:

• At least 43 people have died in the floods in Texas, according to the Kerr county officials. The dead include 28 adults and 15 children, according to the latest numbers from Saturday evening. There are still 27 girls missing from a Christian summer camp. Of the bodies recovered so far, 12 adults and five children were still unidentified as of 5.30pm local time.

• The director of a popular Texas summer camp, located north-west of San Antonio, was among those killed in Friday’s floods, the camp said in a post on Facebook. Jane Ragsdale, the longtime director of the Heart O’ the Hills camp, was on site when the flood hit.

• A young woman was dramatically rescued after she was carried 12 miles down the Guadalupe River by raging flood waters, and later pictured clinging to branches of a tree. The woman – who has not been identified publicly – was rescued, News 4 San Antonio reported.

• Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: “Melania and I are praying for all of the families impacted by this horrible tragedy. Our Brave First Responders are on site doing what they do best. GOD BLESS THE FAMILIES, AND GOD BLESS TEXAS!”

• One 13-year-old girl who was evacuated by helicopter after being woken in the middle of the night said the “camp was completely destroyed”.

• Officials have said the floods were not predicted by forecasts and that the river rose by 26ft (8 meters) in just 45 minutes. A local weather forecaster disputed that and said that warnings were issued hours before the disaster.

• Pictures from the ground show widespread destruction to homes, vehicles and trees as well as showing ongoing rescue efforts.

The death toll from the flooding in Kerr county has risen to 43, including 15 children, the sheriff Larry Leitha said at a briefing. As of 5.30pm local time, he added, officials were still working to identify 12 of the recovered adults and five of the children.

Dalton Rice, the Kerrville city manager, said that 27 girls from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp along the Guadalupe River, are still missing. Other people who were in the area but not at the camp could also be missing, Rice added.

• At least 32 people have died in the floods in Texas, according to the Kerr county sheriff. Eighteen adults and 14 children are among the deceased, according to the latest numbers from Saturday afternoon. There are still 27 people missing. Of the bodies recovered so far, five adults and three children are still unidentified.

• The director of a popular Texas summer camp, located north-west of San Antonio, was among those killed in Friday’s floods, the camp said in a post on Facebook. Jane Ragsdale, the longtime director of the Heart O’ the Hills camp, was on site when the flood hit.

• A young woman was dramatically rescued after she was carried 12 miles down the Guadalupe River by raging flood waters, and later pictured clinging to branches of a tree. The woman – who has not been identified publicly – was rescued, News 4 San Antonio reported.

• Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: “Melania and I are praying for all of the families impacted by this horrible tragedy. Our Brave First Responders are on site doing what they do best. GOD BLESS THE FAMILIES, AND GOD BLESS TEXAS!”

• One 13-year-old girl who was evacuated by helicopter after being woken in the middle of the night said the “camp was completely destroyed”.

• Officials have said the floods were not predicted by forecasts and that the river rose by 26ft (8 meters) in just 45 minutes.

• JD Vance called the deaths an “incomprehensible tragedy”, while the first lady Melania Trump said she was sending her “prayers for strength, comfort, and resilience” for those affected.

• Pictures from the ground show widespread destruction to homes, vehicles and trees as well as showing ongoing rescue efforts.

A flash flood warning for various cities in Texas is continuing until at least 7pm Central time.

The National Weather Service said in two separate posts on X that a flash flood warning was in effect for the cities of Burnet, Bertram, Watson, Marble Falls, Granite Shoals and Liberty Hill.

Before taking any questions, Texas’s governor Greg Abbott, the homeland security secretary Kristi Noem, the Texas senator John Cornyn and the representative Chip Roy opened today’s press conference with long statements of self-congratulation and praise for the response from local, state and federal officials. They also repeatedly thanked Donald Trump in effusive terms.

It was not until reporters pressed for numbers, towards the end of the press conference, that officials began to share the valuable information sought out by the public.

Commenters watching the live feed expressed frustration at the lack of information in the first 25 minutes of the event.

“Quit talking about yourselves relentlessly,” one commenter said.

“Most useless conference!!!” another commenter said.

“Get to the point that matters to us the people of texas,” another said.

Much of the statements from Abbott, Noem, Cornyn and Roy focused on praising their own efforts, thanking Trump and the White House and encouraging people to pray.

“Prayer matters,” Abbott said. Prayers “could have been the reason why water stopped rising”.

Later during the press conference, in response to questions from the press, the local sheriff confirmed the number of dead had risen to 32, including 18 adults and 14 children.

The number of dead from the Texas flood has increased, according to the Kerr county sheriff.

Thirty-two people have died in the floods. Eighteen adults and 14 children are among the deceased, according to the latest numbers from Saturday afternoon.

There are still 27 people missing from the flooding event. Of the bodies recovered so far, five adults and three children are still unidentified.

The emergency management chief says they’re “looking for live people right now”, but Texas’s governor Greg Abbott instructed responders to assume every missing person is still alive.

The flash flood warning for Austin has been extended through 6pm Central time, according to CBS Austin’s meteorologist, from a post on X.

“We’ve avoided anything significant in the city thus far, but that could change with heavy rain parked over Travis County,” he said.

Following two long statements from the Texas governor and US homeland security secretary praising their own response efforts, the senator John Cornyn took the mic at the press briefing and began: “My thanks to President Trump.”

Next to speak is representative Chip Roy, who opened with a joke, saying: “Before I was crazy enough to run for Congress” he spent a lot of time in this area. He goes on to praise the governor and the homeland security secretary.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary Kristi Noem said the flooding in Texas is “unprecedented”, adding that the federal government would be providing further resources.

Noem confirmed that various DHS agencies were actively working with partners including the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema).

She added that the border patrol’s tactical unit named Bortac, a special operations group, is also on the ground assisting.