Patricia Lim/KUT News
100 Days After the Flood: Remembering Central Texas’s Deadliest Disaster in Generations
October 12, 2025
Today marks a somber milestone: 100 days since catastrophic flooding devastated Central Texas, claiming at least 135 lives and forever altering countless communities across the Hill Country. As families, first responders, and elected officials gather to remember those lost, we look back at what happened during those terrifying early morning hours of July 4th and 5th, and examine how the region has struggled to rebuild in the three months since.
The Night Everything Changed
The disaster began late on July 3rd when remnants of Atlantic Tropical Storm Barry merged with moisture from the Pacific, creating a meteorological nightmare over Central Texas. What forecasters warned could bring heavy rain became something far more catastrophic. In just a few hours, four months’ worth of rain—more than 20 inches in some areas—fell across the Texas Hill Country, a region known ominously as “Flash Flood Alley.”
July 4: Tragedy at Camp Mystic
The worst devastation struck Kerr County, where the Guadalupe River rose an astonishing 26 feet in just 45 minutes during the early morning darkness of Independence Day. The river ultimately crested at 37.52 feet at Hunt—the highest level ever recorded there, surpassing the historic 1987 flood by nearly a foot.
Camp Mystic, a beloved Christian girls’ summer camp that had operated along the Guadalupe River for decades, bore the brunt of the catastrophe.
Despite receiving flash flood warnings at 1:14 a.m., evacuation efforts didn’t begin until 2:30 a.m.—by then, the river was already surging with deadly force. Of the 750 girls and counselors at the camp, 27 lost their lives, including camp director Dick Eastland, who had owned and operated the facility since 1974.
The tragedy was made more heartbreaking by what emerged afterward: at least eight Camp Mystic buildings, including multiple cabins, were located within a FEMA-designated floodway. While FEMA had placed the camp in a “special flood hazard area” in 2011, the agency later removed some 30 buildings from the official flood hazard maps between 2011 and 2020 following appeals from the camp, even as the facility continued to expand near the dangerous floodplain.
Across Kerr County, at least 117 people died—108 confirmed by local officials at legislative hearings, with 37 of them children. Many of the young victims had been staying at the 19 summer camps dotting the Guadalupe River. Other hard-hit areas included the HTR TX Hill Country Campground, Blue Oak RV Park, and the Casa Bonita community.
July 5: Sandy Creek’s Devastation
The following morning, the disaster spread eastward to Travis County. The Big Sandy Creek neighborhood in the northwestern part of the county, an unincorporated community near Leander, was ravaged by flash floods in the early hours of July 5. Nearly 200 homes were damaged or destroyed—71 mobile homes and 127 single-family houses. Nine people lost their lives in Travis County.
“My family has actually lived out here longer than that,” said Amber Noble, a Sandy Creek resident whose mobile home was swept away. “I realize the house that built me is not here anymore.”
The floods also washed out critical infrastructure, including bridges on FM 1431 and the only road leading into Sandy Creek, cutting off the community and complicating rescue efforts. Debris, mud, and the sheer scale of destruction left residents facing the grim reality that their neighborhood would never be the same.
Additional fatalities were reported in Burnet County (5), Williamson County (3), and Tom Green County (1), bringing the total death toll to at least 135—making it the deadliest inland flooding event in the United States since the Big Thompson River flood in Colorado in 1976.
The Response: Heroism and Controversy
Local and State Action
Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a state disaster declaration on July 4, expanding it the next day to include additional affected counties. President Donald Trump signed a federal disaster declaration on July 6. By that time, search and rescue operations were already well underway, with at least 237 people rescued on the first day alone, including 167 people plucked from trees and roofs by helicopter.
The scale of the response was massive. Over 2,000 volunteers arrived in Kerr County. Search and rescue teams came from at least 12 other U.S. states, including California, Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kansas, Louisiana, Colorado, Arizona, Virginia, Nevada, and Florida. Even firefighters from Acuña, Mexico crossed the border to assist.
NASA deployed aircraft to help with aerial surveillance, and North Dakota sent an MQ-9 Reaper drone controlled remotely from Fargo to search inaccessible areas.
More than 440 people were rescued in the first days. The last “live rescue” was made on July 4, according to officials. After that, the grim work of recovery began.
Federal Response Under Fire
The federal response became a flashpoint of controversy. CNN reported that U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem had implemented a policy requiring her personal sign-off for every FEMA contract and grant over $100,000—essentially pennies for disaster response costs that routinely run into the billions. According to CNN’s reporting based on multiple sources, this policy meant FEMA officials couldn’t pre-position Urban Search and Rescue crews from teams stationed regionally across the country without Noem’s approval.
Noem didn’t authorize FEMA’s deployment of Urban Search and Rescue teams until Monday, July 7—more than 72 hours after the flooding began, the report stated. Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and a former FEMA administrator both criticized the delays.
Additionally, many emergency calls to FEMA went unanswered due to a lack of personnel after Noem declined to renew contracts with four call centers that fielded most disaster assistance calls, CNN reported. These centers help survivors access various forms of assistance, including an emergency $750 payment for immediate needs.
Noem dismissed CNN’s reporting as “fake news” and “absolutely trash,” though the reports were corroborated by Federal News Network and confirmed by at least one official on LinkedIn.
The Warning System Failure
Perhaps the most damning revelation was Kerr County’s lack of an independent flood warning system. Despite being located in “Flash Flood Alley” and having a history of deadly floods—including a 1987 disaster that killed 10 teenagers at a church camp—the county relied solely on cellphone emergency alerts distributed by the National Weather Service.
This system had critical flaws: it doesn’t work in rural areas with poor cell service, it doesn’t reach people whose phones are off (like the girls at Camp Mystic, who weren’t allowed to bring phones), and people tend to ignore repeated phone alerts.
More troubling, a firefighter from Ingram called the Sheriff’s Office dispatcher at 4:22 a.m., asking them to send a CodeRED alert to Hunt residents urging them to seek higher ground. The dispatcher said they had to “get that approved with our supervisor.” The first alert didn’t go out until 90 minutes later, and some messages took nearly six hours to arrive, showing up at 10 a.m.—long after the water had receded.
Adjacent Comfort, in Kendall County, had no casualties. The town had invested about $60,000 in a computer-backed warning system linked to the National Weather Service and USGS sensors that could trigger sirens. Officials there manually activated their sirens when flood waters rose past a certain point, giving residents time to evacuate.
A county commissioner noted back in 2016 that Kerr County was “probably the highest risk area in the state for flooding.” Sheriff’s officials and others had advocated for a warning system with sirens since at least 2016, but the proposal faced resistance from some residents who didn’t want the disturbance of false alarms and cited cost concerns. Judge Rob Kelly later claimed the lack of a warning system was due to its high cost and resident resistance.
Kerr County twice requested government grants in 2017 and 2018 from the Texas Division of Emergency Management for additional measuring equipment and warning systems. Both requests were denied. While the county received funding through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, it wasn’t used for flood warning systems—partly due to opposition from residents who feared the federal money would come with COVID vaccination and masking mandates.
The Long Road to Recovery
Immediate Aftermath
The first weeks after the floods were a blur of grief, search operations, and desperate attempts to account for the missing. The number of missing persons fluctuated wildly—initially over 170, the count was later reduced to 101 by July 14 as some victims were recovered, others made contact and were found safe, and some missing reports were discovered to be duplicated or falsified. By late July, three people remained missing.
The Texas Division of Emergency Management, FEMA, and the U.S. Small Business Administration opened a Disaster Recovery Center in Kerrville on July 10. President Trump toured the disaster sites near the Guadalupe River in Kerrville on July 11, meeting with state and local officials and families impacted by the floods.
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick formed the Select Committees on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding, a joint committee with members from both the Texas House and Senate to examine the disaster response and prevention measures.
Community Support
The outpouring of support was immediate and substantial. Grocery chain H-E-B deployed its mobile kitchens and disaster relief trucks, committing $5 million to aid and recovery efforts. All Hands and Hearts partnered with Airbnb to provide emergency temporary housing for first responders, families searching for missing loved ones, and residents with destroyed homes.
The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country raised $30 million for flood relief as of mid-July. T-Mobile donated $500,000 to Kerr County relief efforts. Walmart, Sam’s Club, and the Walmart Foundation committed up to $500,000 in grants and donations, partnering with the American Red Cross and The Salvation Army. Amazon donated over 68,000 essential supplies and provided technology to help search and rescue teams coordinate.
Local businesses joined the effort. P. Terry’s donated $150,000 after pledging 100% of its July 10 profits. NBA teams—the Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, and San Antonio Spurs—sold “Texas Strong” t-shirts with proceeds going to the Texas Sport for Healing Fund.
A makeshift memorial sprang up on a chain-link fence on Water Street in downtown Kerrville, separating the Guadalupe River from the city. Covered with photographs of those killed, flowers, and signs, it became a gathering place for the grieving community. On the evening of July 11, 300 people attended a vigil there, where faith leaders spoke and survivors recounted their harrowing experiences.
Three Months Later: Still Rebuilding
One hundred days after the disaster, the recovery remains incomplete. In Travis County’s Sandy Creek neighborhood, residents are still begging for volunteers to help with cleanup efforts. The initial wave of community support has waned, leaving many families to face the overwhelming task of rebuilding largely on their own.
The challenges facing unincorporated areas like Sandy Creek have become increasingly apparent. Nearly one-third of Americans live in such communities, where disaster aid can be spotty and coordination difficult. Without municipal infrastructure or services, residents have had to navigate a complex patchwork of county, state, and federal assistance programs.
Infrastructure repairs remain ongoing while the bridges washed out on FM 1431 and at Sandy Creek have been fully rebuilt.
In Kerr County, the scars run even deeper. Camp Mystic remains closed, its future uncertain. Families are still processing unimaginable losses. The Casa Bonita community, HTR TX Hill Country Campground, and Blue Oak RV Park—once thriving neighborhoods and recreation areas—sit in ruins.
Economic impacts continue to mount. Early estimates placed the cost of the disaster at $18-22 billion. In San Angelo, where 15 inches of rain fell, flooding of the Concho River compromised the city’s wastewater system, causing two major discharges into the river. Local officials there estimated over 12,100 structures were affected.
Looking Ahead: Preventing the Next Disaster
Legislative Action
In the wake of the tragedy, Texas lawmakers have begun examining what went wrong and what can be done to prevent future disasters. The Select Committees on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding held hearings in late July, where Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly confirmed that at least 108 people died in his county, including 37 children.
State Senator Charles Perry told lawmakers that at least 138 people died across Texas due to the flooding—though the official count would later be revised to 135 confirmed deaths.
While specific legislation is still being drafted, areas of focus are expected to include:
- Mandatory flood warning systems for high-risk areas, particularly those designated as special flood hazard areas or within “Flash Flood Alley”
- Improved emergency communication protocols, including requirements for local authorities to activate warning systems without delays
- Stricter regulation of development in floodplains, including potential restrictions on camps, RV parks, and residential construction in FEMA-designated floodways
- Enhanced flood insurance requirements and updated flood mapping to reflect current climate realities
- State funding for local flood mitigation infrastructure, including warning systems, gauges, and evacuation routes
Indiana Governor Mike Braun called the Texas floods “a wake-up call” for his state and others to examine their own emergency response systems. “We have our own calamities, through tornadoes and flooding—thank goodness, nothing of that magnitude—but we all need to be prepared,” he said. “I think it’s a time to learn from it and see what we can do better, collectively.”
The Climate Connection
Scientists have been unequivocal about the role of climate change in intensifying the disaster. The 2021 IPCC report stated that climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme heavy rainfall events and flash floods.
On July 7, researchers published a rapid attribution study concluding that meteorological conditions leading to the floods were up to 7% wetter compared to similar past events. “Natural variability alone cannot explain the changes in precipitation associated with this very exceptional meteorological condition,” they wrote.
Climate scientist Andrew Dessler of Texas A&M University noted that “every weather event we see now carries some influence from climate change. The only question is how big that influence is.” Jennifer Francis of the Woodwell Climate Research Center said there was “a clear signal and fingerprint of climate change in this type of event.”
With the warming atmosphere holding more water, downpours and flood risk are increasing across Central Texas, a region already prone to flash flooding due to its limestone ground cover, shallow soil, and steep hill slopes that funnel rainwater quickly into rivers.
Misinformation and Conspiracy Theories
In the disaster’s aftermath, unfounded conspiracy theories spread across social media, particularly among QAnon-associated influencers who claimed the floods resulted from government weather control and cloud seeding. Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced a bill to make weather alteration a felony.
The anti-government militia Veterans on Patrol called on members to destroy NEXRAD weather radars. On July 6, a man broke into a radar system operated by News 9 in Oklahoma City, damaging its power supply and briefly knocking it offline. The suspect was later arrested.
A weather modification company that had been seeding clouds in other areas of Texas prior to the floods—unrelated to the disaster—reported receiving death threats due to online accusations of complicity.
Remembering the Lost
As the 100-day mark approaches, memorial services are planned across the affected region. In Kerrville, families will gather at the waterfront memorial to honor the 117 lives lost in Kerr County. In Austin, Travis County officials will hold a remembrance ceremony for the nine residents who perished in the Sandy Creek area.
The names and faces on the memorial fence represent children who will never grow up, counselors who died trying to save campers, families swept away in their homes, and community members who had lived in these riverside areas for generations.
Their deaths have sparked a reckoning about development in flood-prone areas, the adequacy of warning systems, and whether government at all levels is prepared for the extreme weather events that climate scientists say will only become more common.
For the survivors—those who lost loved ones, homes, and communities—the past 100 days have been a journey through grief, frustration, and determination. Many say they’re committed to rebuilding, even as they acknowledge that their lives will never be the same.
“The house that built me is not here anymore,” Amber Noble said of her lost Sandy Creek home. Her words echo the sentiment of thousands across Central Texas who are trying to piece their lives back together while holding onto memories of what was lost in those terrible hours of July 4 and 5.
As the memorial services conclude and the initial wave of media attention fades, the real work of recovery—physical, emotional, and communal—will continue for years to come. The question facing Texas now is whether the lessons of this tragedy will translate into concrete action to protect future generations from similar disasters.
The victims of the July 2025 Central Texas floods deserved better warning, better protection, and better preparation. The survivors deserve assurance that everything possible will be done to ensure this never happens again.
One hundred days later, that promise remains unfulfilled.
