Devastation in the Texas Hill Country: 66 Confirmed Dead, Dozens Missing, 850 Rescued, and a Call by Some to Abolish FEMA?

Devastation in the Texas Hill Country: 66 Confirmed Dead, Dozens Missing, 850 Rescued, and a Call by Some to Abolish FEMA?

by

Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

Like many of you, I spent yesterday—and now this morning—glued to the devastating news of the terrible tragedy that struck Fourth-of-July campers and communities along the Guadalupe River in the Central Texas Hill Country. 

This morning’s CBS news report is up-to-date, and it is heartbreaking. For context, Kerrville is located just 103 miles west of Austin—about a two-hour drive—which, by Texas standards, is very close to home. Plus, Austin is located in Travis County that also witnessed destruction where at least four deaths have been reported. This is, of course, an evolving situation.

As of this writing, the confirmed death toll stands at 66, including at least 15 children. At least two dozen more children from the lower-lying region of Camp Mystic are still missing. Aerial footage shows how the camp was divided into two parts: one higher up the bank, the other perilously close to the river's edge.

Here are two eyewitness accounts from camp supervisors, María Paula and Silvana Garza Valdez, who were tending to the younger children. Just a week earlier, they had been stationed in the lower portion of the camp. Thankfully, they had recently been reassigned to higher ground, where they comforted children crying—some because they didn’t want camp to end, others because they were terrified by the unrelenting rains. 

I’ve posted the full video below, which is in Spanish, as I found it to be one of the most informative accounts of how events unfolded at Camp Mystic—from the perspective of these young caretakers themselves. Despite describing their own trauma, they speak with remarkable clarity, maturity, and composure about what they experienced. If you don't understand Spanish, turn on the closed captioning on your website or TV so that you can capture the entire interview in English.

While multiple counties across Central and West Texas were affected by the storm—including my hometown of San Angelo and Travis County where I live—Kerr County, home to Kerrville and the upriver towns of Hunt (where Camp Mystic is located) and Ingram, suffered the most catastrophic loss of life where folks flocked from around the state on a national holiday.

Source: NY Times

Several interconnected factors contributed to the storm’s deadly impact, not the least of which is climate change that has resulted in more intense and more frequent water events, as expressed this morning by Congressman Joaquin Castro on CNN News. 

It began with the remnants of Hurricane Barry—a Category 1 storm that made landfall near the eastern Mexican state of Tampico on Sunday, June 29—merging with a stalled weather system over West Texas, creating an unusually powerful and volatile storm. As Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice explained in a press conference yesterday, what made the impact especially devastating for towns like Hunt, Ingram, and Comfort was the simultaneous rainfall along both forks of the Guadalupe River. These tributaries converged at Hunt, dramatically accelerating the river’s rise—causing water levels to surge by 30 feet in just two hours and overwhelming the communities downstream.

According to CBS News Texas, Governor Greg Abbott announced in a July 5 press briefing that “at least 850 people have been rescued from rising floodwaters in Central Texas over the past 36 hours,” underscoring the scale and urgency of the disaster response. The report states that 850 of these were uninjured and eight were injured.

In this moment of collective grief, it is essential to name not only the resilience of our communities, but also the critical importance of public infrastructure—especially FEMA, the National Weather Service (NWS), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). These agencies play vital roles in emergency response, weather forecasting, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have publicly called for the abolition of FEMA is not only reckless—it is dangerous. 

This tragedy makes painfully clear what’s at stake when political rhetoric turns against the very institutions tasked with safeguarding human life during natural disasters (Valenzuela, 2025).

We grieve for the lives lost. We pray for the children still missing and the families shattered by this storm. And we recommit ourselves to demanding leadership that values preparedness, community, and the right of all people—especially the most vulnerable—to survive and thrive.

References

CBS News. (2025, July 5). Central Texas flash flooding leaves dozens dead, hundreds rescued. Link

FEMA. (n.d.). About FEMA. https://www.fema.gov/about

Mazzone, C., & Reader, G. (2025, July 6). 4 dead in Travis County, 13 missing in devastating flooding. KXAN. https://www.kxan.com/news/local/2-dead-in-travis-county-at-least-10-missing-in-devastating-flooding/

NOAA. (n.d.). Our mission and vision. https://www.noaa.gov/our-mission-and-vision

Reuters. (2024, May 20). Kristi Noem calls for end to FEMA. https://www.reuters.com

Tabachnick, C., Czachor, E. M., & M., Breen.  (2025, July 6). At least 70 dead in devastating Central Texas flash floods, over 2 dozen remain missing. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-hill-country-severe-floods/

The Hill. (2024, March 3). Trump says he would abolish FEMA. https://thehill.com

Valenzuela, A. (2025, July 7, 2025). When the Waters Rose, So Did Mexico. Where is Our Humanity? [Blog] Educational Equity, Politics & Policy in Texas https://texasedequity.blogspot.com/2025/07/when-waters-rose-so-did-mexico-where-is.html