Rescue teams in helicopters and on horseback continue to scour through debris as officials warned that unaccounted victims could still be found.
“Know this: We will not stop until every missing person is accounted for. Know this also: There very likely could be more added to that list,” Gov. Greg Abbott said during a news conference Tuesday.
Abbott added that officials have been gathering information about the missing who did not register at a camp or a hotel and may have been in the area without many people knowing.
Sheriff Larry Leitha said Wednesday there are at least 95 fatalities, including 36 children. Five campers and one counselor remain missing from the camp.
Public officials in charge of locating the victims were grilled during a news conference about their response to the Friday morning flooding, with several reporters appearing to get heated when an answer could not be provided.
Sheriff Leitha said he wasn’t notified about the disaster until between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m.
Lt. Colonel Ben Baker of the Texas Game Wardens stepped in and acknowledged the many questions but said the team is currently “focused on bringing people home.”
Damage is seen next to the Guadalupe River on Tuesday, July 8, 2025, after a flash flood swept through the area near Ingram, Texas. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Just two days before the flooding, Texas inspectors had signed off on the camp’s emergency planning. But five years of inspection reports released to The Associated Press don’t provide any details about how the camp would instruct campers about evacuating and specific duties each staff member and counselor would be assigned.
After taking a tour of the disaster zone in a helicopter, Gov. Abbott dismissed a question about who was to blame for the deaths, saying, “That’s the word choice of losers.”
“Every football team makes mistakes,” he said. “The losing teams are the ones that try to point out who’s to blame. The championship teams are the ones who say, ’Don’t worry about it, man, we got this. We’re going to make sure that we go score again and we’re going to win this game.’ The way winners talk is not to point fingers.”
Trump signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County over the weekend, activating the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to Texas.
“These families are enduring an unimaginable tragedy, with many lives lost, and many still missing,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “The Trump Administration continues to work closely with State and Local Leaders.”
He confirmed during the sixth cabinet meeting of his second term that he would be visiting the area with First Lady Melania Trump on Friday.
“We’ll be taking a trip and we don’t want to get in anyone’s way because that’s what happens, the president goes and everyone’s around focused on, I don’t want anyone to focus on us,” Trump said. “But it’s possible they could have, they could have somebody saved still. You know, there are a lot of areas. It’s a big area. It’s probably unlikely at this point, but there could be.”
The destructive, fast-moving waters rose 26 feet (8 meters) on the Guadalupe River in only 45 minutes before daybreak Friday, washing away homes and vehicles.
The National Weather Service on Thursday advised of potential flooding and then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies — a rare alert notifying of imminent danger.
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Editor’s note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.
