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Texas officials pressed about lack of countywide siren warning system
Kerr County officials were pressed today about why there is no countywide siren system to warn people about natural disasters like flash flooding.
Cruz and Cornyn say they'll travel with Trump to Texas
Talking to reporters during Senate votes today, Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas said they plan to travel with Trump when he visits the flood damage in their state Friday, but they said it’s too early to say whether Congress will need to approve additional supplemental disaster funding to respond to the tragedy.
Both senators defended the response to the flooding and criticized Democrats for trying to link cuts to the federal workforce to any potential delay in alerting flood victims.
Cruz also stressed that the functions of FEMA were important but said he’s open to having a conversation about moving those functions into different agencies.
On the Senate floor, Cruz recounts touring the devastation at Camp Mystic
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, spoke on the Senate floor this evening, calling the devastation he saw while touring Camp Mystic “the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Cruz described the Texas Hill Country and the Guadalupe River and said that yesterday when he saw it, the river was “peaceful” but that “the morning of July 4, it rose with a ferocity that the cabins at Mystic, just about every one was 8 feet deep in water. I could see the water line. Where it rose, it shattered out the windows. The force of the water pulled furniture out of the cabins.”
“I cannot imagine the terror those girls experienced,” he said.
Cruz said crosses honoring some of those who lost their lives are displayed outside the cabin where many of the youngest campers stayed.
"I stood in front of those crosses and just wept,” Cruz said. “While I was there, there was a mom and dad who came and knelt in front of one of those crosses. They leaned over and kissed the cross, then the mom walked to the cabin and looked in the window in the cabin ... and she just stood there and wept.”
He said two of the girls whose names are on the crosses went to school with his daughter.
Cruz also said he spoke with Trump in the immediate aftermath, saying: “I will tell you what President Trump told me. He said, ‘Ted, whatever Texas needs, the answer is yes.’”
Cruz caught some heat over the weekend for a report from The Daily Beast, which spotted him on vacation in Greece on Saturday, a day after the floods killed dozens of people in his state.
The sighting drew criticisms from some who compared it to when he and his family took a vacation to Cancún, Mexico, during a historic winter storm in Texas in 2021. Cruz’s office said yesterday, however, that he had been on a planned trip to Greece when the floods happened and that he “promptly booked a flight back home.” He was on the ground yesterday morning, his office said.
Abbott applauds Trump administration for quick response
In his remarks this afternoon, Abbott said Trump's "immediate granting of the major master declaration" has been speeding up recovery efforts.
"It immediately opened not only access to more funding, but also access to more resources to be able to more quickly, more effectively respond to this storm. That includes debris removal, which has already begun," Abbott said.
He also applauded Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who traveled to Texas after the floods.
"I've been dealing with events like this for 10 years; never have I seen someone respond as quickly and as effectively as what Secretary Noem did," Abbott said.
Texas family reunites with their 'angel' who helped bring them to safety
A Texas family reunited today with their hero who woke them up during the flash floods and guiding them to safety before their house washed off its foundation.
Matthew Crowder, Crissy Eliashar and her children shared a joyful reunion after a harrowing rescue.
Texas state rep urges Abbott to include natural disaster legislation in special session
State Rep. Drew Darby, who represents the Concho Valley, is urging Gov. Greg Abbott to add emergency disaster preparedness and relief to the Legislature’s July 21 special session agenda.
Darby said in a letter: “While we cannot change the past, we must act now to better prepare our communities for future natural disasters.”
“This includes, among other things, investing in a more robust and comprehensive alert system, as well as ensuring a coordinated, long-term recovery effort that leaves no community behind,” he added.
Darby asks Abbott to include natural disaster preparedness legislation in the upcoming special session, with provisions “to develop and deploy a more sophisticated, statewide emergency alert system — one that ensures timely, localized and accessible warnings to residents in both urban and rural areas.”
Catholic school student dies in Texas floods
A young Catholic school student has been added to the death toll of victims.
St. Anne Catholic School in Beaumont shared a eulogy for Mary Grace Baker on Facebook.
"Mary Grace was a bright light in our close-knit school family, known for her kindness and friendship to all, her joyful spirit and her love for her faith and family," the statement read. "Her giggle was contagious, as was her spirit. She loved art, dance, her school and playing at West End Little League."
Mary Grace had recently celebrated her first communion and finished the second grade, according to the school.
The longest night of Camp Mystic mother's life
Ten-year-old Lucy Kennedy described the harrowing moments when floodwaters began to rise at Camp Mystic.
She said that at first, she evacuated from her bunk to a rec center. Then, at daybreak, she was driven to another camp, where a helicopter picked her up and took her to safety.
Lucy’s mother, Wynne, said the hours when she waited for news about her daughter were the longest of her life.
‘Here’s the Scoop’ podcast: The 10-year-old recalls fleeing the rising water
Kerr County has had 87 of 110 deaths
The death count rose to at least 110 today when an additional death was reported in Williamson County.
Abbott said earlier today that 161 people remained missing. The following are deaths by the counties where they occurred based on reports from authorities.
- Kerr County: 87 deaths — 57 adults and 30 children
- Travis County: 7 deaths
- Burnet County: 5 deaths
- Kendall County: 7 deaths
- Tom Green County: 1 death
- Williamson County: 3 deaths, including the one reported today
Father surrounded by love, volunteers in his heartbreaking search for son
Thad Heartfield and his wife, Melanie, greeted strangers with smiles and warmth, despite the close of another day spent searching for their son and his friends.
Heartfield, an attorney from southeast Texas, said a couple of times that he did the hard task of making his anguish public through an interview with NBC News to send a message of gratitude for the many from all around Texas who have come since day one to help search for his son, Aidan, his son’s friends and all the other victims of the flood.
Aidan was with Joyce Badon, Reese Manchaca and Ella Cahill at their family’s home on the river when the floods hit. Badon’s and Machaca’s bodies have been found.
Heartfield has been in the area since Saturday, the soonest he could get through floodwaters and debris. He searched in the first days but has stopped and is trying to help organize searchers and lend his help to state law enforcement when it asks for reinforcements.
“As time goes on, I’m emotionally not prepared to find my son’s body in, you know, the condition that naturally occurs after this many days,” he said.
He stood beneath the shade of a tree on the drive to his home in Hunt on the banks of the Guadalupe. Behind him, the giant trunk of a felled cypress tree lay alongside the slab of the home where his son and his three friends were spending the holiday weekend.
Parts of the home were found in the river, twisted around the trees, some covered by branches, bark and mud the water left behind.
Aidan had called his father at 4 a.m. Friday, telling him 4 inches of water were in the house. Heartfield said he told his son to get the girls and go to higher ground across the street.
“Within minutes, he started reporting there was now 4 feet of water in the house,” he said.
Aidan and the girls made it to the back side of the house. He said that he was urging them to drive to the highway but that the water was rushing in too fast, the cars were washing away, and they couldn’t make it, Aidan told his father.
Aidan told his dad he had to help Ella and handed his phone to one of the other girls, who told him his son and two of the other girls were gone.
“And then within seconds the phone went dead,” he said.
On Friday night, he showed up in Ingram, and a group of about 20 people showed up to help him search. Now it is more than 100 people.
They have searched from Hunt to Ingram Dam, about 7 miles downriver, at least three times.
“What fills my heart with love and joy is the volunteers who came to assist,” he said.
