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The Amanpour Hour

Interview with Palestinian Poet Mosab Abu Toha; Officials Give Update on Deadly Flooding in Kerrville Texas; 18 Adults, 9 Children Confirmed Dead in Texas Flash Floods. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired July 05, 2025 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[11:00:46]

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to THE AMANPOUR HOUR.

Here's where we're headed this week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: As fireworks light up the skies all over America this July 4th weekend, we are highlighting voices that lit up the year.

From Gaza to Hollywood, from Broadway to the beaches. Pulitzer Prize winner Mosab Abu Toha talks to me about war poems on the anguish in Gaza.

MOSAB ABU TOHA, PALESTINIAN POET: I think for any writer or journalist to win a Pulitzer Prize is a satisfaction. But this satisfaction is lacking because the stories that I wrote about in the past year and a half have been happening and happening again.

Then breakout star and Oscar winner Mikey Madison on letting go of impostor syndrome.

MIKEY MADISON, ACTRESS: Like, why did he choose me? I kind of feel like all my dreams are coming true a little bit, which is like, I don't know, maybe there's woods somewhere, you know --

AMANPOUR: Yes, knock on it.

MADISON: -- knock on it.

AMANPOUR: Plus, with Iran in the spotlight, one of the most acclaimed chefs of the year, Iranian-born Nasim Alikhani talks about her contemporary spin on the delicious Persian cuisine I grew up with.

NASIM ALIKHANI, IRANIAN-BORN CHEF: When you cook, you need an audience. You cannot just cook for the heck of it. You need an audience. And that audience, how they receive the food completes the circle.

AMANPOUR: And vaccine conspiracies in "Eureka Day", the play starring Jessica Hecht and Bill Irwin that took the Tony Award for best revival.

And from my archives, a very Trumpian 4th of July, my only ever encounter with the Donald, as his wife called him then, a New York businessman.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This boat was not owned by a person of this country, and I'd like to see America taking a lot of the great jewels of the world, to be perfectly honest, and bringing them over to here.

AMANPOUR: And finally, the 50th anniversary this year of one of American cinemas greatest. That would be "Jaws".

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Welcome to the program, everyone. I'm Christiane Amanpour in London.

Now, as Americans mark this July 4th weekend, we are celebrating some of the most widely acclaimed voices and talents who've shaped this past year, from film to theater to cooking and the written word.

We wanted to focus on some of the most remarkable and recognized people in their fields.

First, one of the year's defining writers, the celebrated Palestinian author and poet Mosab Abu Toha. He took home the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in May for his series of "New Yorker" essays documenting the suffering of people in Gaza.

Mosab himself lived in the enclave for most of his life. He and his immediate family were able to escape, first to Egypt and then to the United States in 2023. But so many, many more of his family remains.

And since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th, the war against them in Gaza has taken thousands of civilian lives too. Abu Toha has lost more than 50 of his own family members now.

Here's our conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Mosab Abu Toha, welcome back to the program.

Firstly, congratulations and I wonder if you feel a sense of satisfaction or at least doing your job to raise the plight of your family and friends and others in Gaza, because it's so difficult to get word out.

TOHA: Yes. I mean, thank you so much, Christiane, for having me again. I think for any writer or journalist to win a Pulitzer Prize is a satisfaction, but this satisfaction is lacking because they -- the stories that I wrote about in the past year and a half have been happening and happening again every day.

Every day it's the same stories that I wrote about -- the destruction of Gaza, the blowing up of houses after forcing people to leave them continues until today. The destruction of the refugee camp continues until today.

The starvation about, which I wrote just today morning, continues until today in different ways.

AMANPOUR: The stories you tell of the humanitarian need and suffering are so visceral that it's really, really -- it's really hard to read.

[11:04:50]

AMANPOUR: For instance, your latest piece that you referred to, you talk about family members who were forced to eat rancid flour. One of your family members said, you know, basically they had put -- you had seen this -- I'm going to read what you said.

"I could see some plates in a bowl nearby. They have nothing in them, your Uncle Jaleel said. We let ourselves imagine that there is salad and some chicken and pickles as we chew the rice."

You know, and another one you say, your wife's mother, your mother-in- law, in order to cook, they're drilling outside to get the asphalt because we ran out of wood and paper, your Auntie Maan (ph) says. The asphalt contains petroleum.

I mean, these are visceral and really telling anecdotes about the desperation and the lack.

What are your family -- what else is your family saying to you?

TOHA: Well, you know, Christiane, there are adults in Gaza and there are children who are 50 percent of the population. What they are telling me is that these kids, some kids are one-year-old, some kids are five years old, adults are saving food. They are denying themselves some food that they have, even though it's rancid, to keep for the kids, they are asking.

I have the cousin of my wife, her name is Sama (ph). She's six years old, and she was crying. And my mother-in-law who lives in the same tent with them, she tells her, please just be patient. Be patient. We are going to eat after sunset.

They are unfortunately forcing these kids to fast 15 or 16 hours. And they would rely on drinking water that is not easy to get, right? So, these -- they are forcing, unfortunately, kids to fast for about 15 hours.

And I have another friend of mine who is living in a tent since October, 2023. He has a daughter who is eight months old, and she doesn't have diapers, which is something that we don't talk a lot about. He started to put rags of cloth instead of the diapers because they can't get diapers in Gaza.

So, these people are starving and there is no medicine again. There is no medicine. I have a neighbor of mine, (INAUDIBLE). And this is -- the story that I'm going to tell is not part of the piece because there is no -- there are lots of stories that I can write.

He told me that his wife was injured in a nurse (ph) wreck a week before the ceasefire in January. And she had metal rod -- she has --

(BREAKING NEWS)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

This breaking news -- we want to take you straight to central Texas now in Kerr County, where Representative Chip Roy is speaking now about the tragic loss of now the updated numbers are 27 people who have been killed, nine of them children, after a flash flooding last night there in central Texas.

Let's listen in.

REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX): My kids' school, there was one of their schoolmates was missing and was one of the kids -- she was -- she was on a mattress for two or three hours in the middle of the night. And, you know, she's united with her mom, and that's wonderful.

And that's the kind of blessings that we should be celebrating while we're also mourning the loss of life as we identify those that didn't make it and are now home with their lord.

So I just want to appreciate the first responders, the coordinated effort from the state, local, federal partnerships.

Yesterday I was on the phone with the president, with the secretary. I expect we'll have, you know, some additional visitors today. I'll let other people talk about that.

But I couldn't even get the conversation out with the secretary, trying to explain to her what we were dealing with. That doesn't happen often for me. But it took me a while to collect myself to even be able to tell her what we were looking at.

And they've been fantastic, made available immediately at the request. I talked to them about the need for, you know, help with the Army Corps, talked to the secretary and their team and their immediate. It's been an extraordinary partnership.

I think there's been a thousand or so boots on the ground combined between state, local and federal. I'll let them say the numbers, but obviously hundreds of people that have been rescued, 160-plus air rescues. I think that number is going up, you know, airlifting and taking in resources to some of these camps that were isolated.

So let's focus on that. Let's focus on finding those who can be found, and then we can always assess what we need to do later going forward.

But extremely proud of this community. Let's finish the job here over the next few days. Support the local law enforcement and first responders and pray for -- pray for the families, particularly those who have lost loved ones. With that, I will turn it over to the mayor.

MAYOR JOE HERRING JR., KERRVILLE, TEXAS: Thanks Chip.

I'm Mayor Joe Herring Jr., mayor of Kerrville, Texas. I'm glad you're here. And I have a few comments to make.

[11:09:50]

HERRING, JR.: People need to know, today will be a hard day. It will be a hard day.

This is the message I want to share.

The city of Kerrville is thankful. We have help from our city crews, from county personnel, from state agencies and federal resources including the Coast Guard.

I have been asked how people can help. The sheriff has mentioned that a fund has been set up by the community foundation of greater -- the Texas Hill country. Information about this can be found on the city's Facebook page.

In fact, if you want to know how to help, I know from my phone, or my texts, from my emails, thousands of people across our state and the world want to know how they can help.

The easiest way to get information about that is to follow the city of Kerrville Facebook page. City of Kerrville, City Hall Facebook page.

They have done an admirable job of making sure all resources and all information is available, not only to the citizens of Kerrville, but to the citizens of the world.

I'm thankful you're here. Today will be a hard day. Please pray for our community.

Thank you.

Next up is city manager Dalton Rice.

DALTON RICE, KERRVILLE CITY MANAGER: Thank you, Mayor. Dalton Rice, the city manager for the city of Kerrville.

Just wanted to give a couple of updates on operations. Operations did continue through the evening. We used specialized equipment with a lot of helicopters trying to identify any areas that we could -- we could find, you know, heat sources or whatever.

So operations did continue throughout the night. Obviously, the water did recede into this morning. I do want to encourage folks with road damage, even though a road may be open. Please use extreme caution if water does get under the road.

We are seeing a lot of debris, a lot of asphalt that is washing up, so there could be some other damaged areas. We do -- we did start boots on the ground operations about 8:00 a.m.

this morning and started about southwest of Hunt. So southwest of Camp Mystic.

These folks will be traveling very difficult terrain up through Ingram. And we're going to start getting information.

So again, as the sheriff had alluded to, the information is changing constantly and it's going to be changing by the minute.

Talk about roads. Don't do your own searches. We know everybody wants to get help. As the roads start clearing up. You're going to -- you're going to want to get out there. We are in constant communication with, you know, with families. We're in constant communication with those around.

And so we will continue to effortlessly work through working with our partners. Again, we've been working with border patrol, Texas DPS, game wardens, federal side, U.S. Coast Guard is here. We want to thank them. Air assets; again, we have hundreds of state and federal and local resources out here supporting this community.

We do have grief counselors out there, so if there's anybody that needs any support, please don't hesitate to reach out as well.

We still are operating shelters. Shelters are the same ones that we gave out before. Good news is, is a lot of the shelters have gone down in numbers. So there's either been, you know, those that have been reunited or kind of, you know, moving on.

A couple of locations, we had 18, you know, girls in there that have been reunited with their families. We're down to about four that we're working on, on reunification as well. So reunification efforts are continuously ongoing from the missing persons side.

Here over the next few hours, were going to be putting more information out there as far as missing persons on how to contact, if you have somebody that is missing or a loved one.

You all have the camp number right now, we are continuously working on the other missing persons side.

The best way that I can sum this up is we have the known, which is the 27, you know, potential missing campers that we're looking for now. The unknown is how many people were here locally, visiting, on vacation, you know, doing other things in the community that we just do not have numbers. So these numbers are going to -- are going to change throughout the day.

And with that we will take five questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- from the missing individuals 27 those all of those, all the children. And then also, you know, the total number of missing that we know of, not the unknown, but the most of adults and children there.

RICE: The 27 missing is the children from Camp Mystic that we have as far as right now for the number.

[11:14:50]

RICE: As far as unknown other missing, we do not have an accurate count, and we don't even want to begin to estimate at this time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you expand on that? A lot of the community business owners along the river have area concern -- the number of missing (INAUDIBLE). And they want to know more about how you guys are looking for them, what the efforts are, maybe even some of the challenges.

RICE: Yes, absolutely. So like I alluded to with the operations piece, we have basically a team of about 34 folks from Texas Task Force One, DPS, game wardens and border patrol that are boots on the ground on each side of the river starting in Hunt, and they're starting to make their way up.

Across this entire area, it's probably about a 17-kilometer stretch. They are going to be in very debris terrain, very difficult, challenging contours along the riverbanks. So it is -- it is a very harsh environment.

We are doing what's called a primary search, which is basically a very quick search, but when I say quick, that is up, down, sideways or turning over as many rocks as they can, culverts, up in trees, they are looking at every possible location.

And then we'll start going into a layered approach or what we also have from the locals, which has been a really great resource. In the floods that we have, there are known collection points where debris tends to collect along the river bank.

We do have intel on what sites and locations those are, so we can also put additional resources into those collection sites and start getting a more focused approach on that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We see a lot of tragic flooding -- we've seen a lot of tragic flooding in central Texas over the past few weeks. There are so many people, I know this is so early, but there are so many people already asking what can be done to stop the loss of life.

We saw 13 in San Antonio. We have seen an unknown number, but at least 27 here. They're scared.

RICE: Yes. You know, it's a great -- it's a great question. And I think that's a question that we definitely need to answer at some point in time. Right now our focus is on the search and rescue efforts, making sure that we get these families out, you know, get some closure, you know, where we can.

And so I think that is a great question that we need to ask ourselves. But right now we want to focus on search and rescue operations.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are there rescue efforts going on right now? RICE: Yes we are -- we have been in continuous search and rescue

operations. Again, you know, this river, even though it started in west Kerr. This goes all the way down through east Kerr County and continuing on, you know, to the southeast.

So yes, search and rescue operations are continuously ongoing and we'll continue to update on that one.

One more question.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where are you finding these folks right now through active rescues this morning? Are they stuck in the island? Where are they?

RICE: Typically rescues, if we do find them, they're going to be in trees or we find them either on high ground. Again, most of the rescues that we are having at this point in time are other camps.

So we have a lot of camps and they are all accounted for, but they are isolated because of road damage. So we know where they're at. We're getting them food, water, resources. And now it's a matter of just getting them safely across, you know, low water crossings or other areas to other shelters, so.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- about -- you know, we know that there's missing kids, there's pictures and there's names and all this stuff. Are you going to give a list of the names of the kids?

RICE: Absolutely not. We are not going to give a list of the names. We want to protect, you know, those families and their information.

The other thing I want to point out, and thank you for bringing that up, these families are getting bombarded with spam calls and spam information. So we want to keep the kids' information.

And these families' names out of, you know, out of any public, you know, light to give them the opportunity to grieve and to make sure that we give them the best possible resources that we can and get them reconnected as soon as possible.

(CROSSTALKING)

RICE: So some of them are, and some of those have been a great help as well. So yes, it is a double-edged sword, but we need to work through it.

So our next one will be at 2:00 and we'll give updates then. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. That briefing coming from Kerrville, Texas there in central Texas, after this horrific flash flooding took place yesterday along the Guadalupe River.

And this is a river that is dotted with dozens of summer camps. People come from far and wide in the thousands for their kids to be going to camp along the Guadalupe River there. And we just heard the update from authorities there -- including the mayor, U.S. Representative Chip Roy, as well as the city manager -- saying that they have 27 recovered deceased now. 18 of them are adults, 9 are children, but 27 remain missing.

And they are campers coming from Camp Mystic, one of the many camps along the Guadalupe River there. And the ongoing searches are being conducted.

There will be another press conference, local time 2:00, and then again at 6:00 p.m. there in central Texas.

And of course, well cover that as best we can and bring those to you as long as we have a good signal.

[11:19:45]

WHITFIELD: It's a tragedy taking place there. And you heard from the city mayor who said, it's a hard day. He said it several times. And you could -- you could feel his agony. This is a very hard day.

All right. Our Betsy Klein is traveling with the president. Betsy, you have a response coming from the White House right now?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right, Fredricka. We are starting to hear from the president and others at the White House about the federal response to really what is an unfathomable tragedy in central Texas.

The president posting to social media a short while ago, quote, "The Trump administration is working with state and local officials on the ground in Texas in response to the tragic flooding that took place yesterday. Our Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, will be there shortly."

He goes on to say that "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."

Now we learned from that press conference a moment ago that the president spoke with Texas Congressman Chip Roy, a top Trump ally. Roy spoke about this in really emotional terms as he described the 27 people who have died, including nine children.

The president also addressed this aboard Air Force One late last night as he made his way here to the Bedminster area, where he is at his golf club today.

There is a lid at the White House, which means we are not expecting to see the president for the rest of the day. But as he noted, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is heading to the site of the flooding.

The president said, we are going to take care of Texas. He has activated FEMA, the U.S. Coast Guard. We are also expecting the Army Corps of Engineers to be on site.

And the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, said that DHS has sent Coast Guard to help with search and rescue efforts. There were helicopters punching through some of these storms yesterday, trying to help recover some of the people.

It's also worth noting that the president has been so deeply critical of FEMA. He says he plans to phase it out after this year's hurricane season. He wants to shift responsibility to state and local governments.

We also have heard from the first lady. She said in a post to social media earlier this morning, quote, "My heart goes out to the parents in Texas during this difficult time. I'm holding you in my thoughts and sending prayers for strength, comfort and resilience."

Vice President J.D. Vance also sending his thoughts and prayers.

But we also don't know the full extent of the federal response so far. We don't know whether the president has spoken with Texas Governor Greg Abbott, but we do not expect to see the president for the duration of this day, Fredricka.

Obviously, the White House monitoring this very closely and will be watching very closely when they have that 2:00 updated press conference with more information here.

WHITFIELD: All right. Betsy Klein, thank you so much. We're going to continue to monitor the situation as well. And we'll carry those press conferences at 2:00 and 6:00 local time there in central Texas as it happens. We'll be right back.

[11:22:54]

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WHITFIELD: All right. Continue our breaking news out of central Texas. Here's what we know at this hour.

The fast-rising flash floods have now claimed at least 27 lives in Kerr County -- 18 adults and nine children. A desperate search continues for 27 missing campers.

Through the night, at least 14 helicopters, 12 drones and over 500 people from various units were rescuing adults and children. Some were being plucked right out of trees, bushes and off utility poles.

More heavy rainfall today is prompting additional flash flood emergencies across central Texas.

Meteorologist Chris Warren is here. So Chris, there's a lot going on, but let's zero in on central Florida. They're not out of the woods yet. Even though we saw overcast, there is still potential for more.

CHRIS WARREN, AMS METEOROLOGIST: There is. There's still going to be some rain, some showers. But the heaviest of rain and the possibility for additional flash flooding is more now moving to the east.

So the system that really led to this slow moving when we're talking about a rain event, a significant, overwhelming amount of rain. Often what happens is an excess of moisture, just a lot of available moisture. And then the system that helps get that moisture out of the atmosphere just lingers. And that's what happened here. Rounds of heavy rain leading to this.

So the Guadalupe River does have several counties that drain into it. So you've got you think of it as like a, a big saucer, right. So anything that falls in that saucer or a large plate will kind of go down to the middle and pool.

In this case, you tilt that saucer and bend it and it's just that much more dramatic of just the water funneling down, funneling through. So you take this amount of water here in the orange and red -- that's 4 to 6 inches, 6 to 10 inches, and it's not just a couple of spots. And you can see a couple of spots did get more than a foot.

But it's the fact that parts of whole counties, huge areas, some of these completely draining into the river basin, which ended up causing that catastrophic flooding. So it's this huge area with the system that lingered for a long time with rounds of rain and intense rain.

[11:29:47]

WARREN: So you're getting an overwhelming amount of water and how fast its coming as well, leading to the scenes that we've been seeing throughout the morning.

And this going back to Thursday into now, Friday, Friday afternoon, still raining, still going, still with some thunderstorms, heavy rain, adding to the water that ultimately went to the Guadalupe River.

And then this is what we also saw away from that area northwest of Austin -- more showers, more thunderstorms. That was new this morning, creating more flash flooding, more flash flood emergencies.

And this again, a life-threatening situation. In addition to what we've already seen. Now, while this is -- these are flash flood warnings dangerous, you know, seek higher ground, stay off the roads. This is now moving to the east.

So Fredricka, this is giving us, you know, kind of a glimpse of one -- another way to look at the fact that the bulk of the moisture in the system is finally moving to the east, but we are once again expecting more showers, more thunderstorms throughout the day tomorrow for some of these same areas.

WHITFIELD: Oh my goodness. Well, hopefully it does not stand in the way of the continuing efforts to look for those who are missing.

All right, thanks so much, Chris. Appreciate it.

And of course were going to continue to watch this breaking news out of central Texas where there are urgent search and rescue operations underway. Right now, 27 missing campers from Camp Mystic there in central Texas.

We'll be right back.

[11:31:08]

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WHITFIELD: All right. We continue our breaking news coverage of the deadly flooding in central Texas.

Ed Lavandera is in Hunt, Texas. Ed, you've talked to a number of people. We heard from the city mayor in Kerr, in Kerr County, as well as the sheriff there who says they've recovered 27 bodies -- 18 adults, nine children. But there are 27 missing campers now from Camp Mystic.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's just devastating and heartbreaking to continue to hear and just, you know, the impact of all that is that the shockwaves of all of this is being felt across the state as so many of these campers come from all over Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth and Austin.

You know, these kids and these families come from all over the state to spend their summers here at these camps along the Guadalupe River.

We just -- moments ago, we saw high water rescue teams and other rescue teams going through this area. This is part of the Guadalupe River that winds its way through these communities of Hunt and down to ingram and down to Kerrville.

Camp Mystic, where all of those missing young girls are unaccounted for at this moment, is upstream several miles. But you can really kind of get a sense -- a sense of just how quickly all of this water was moving and the ferociousness that these floodwaters were ripping through this area.

I mean, look at these massive chunks of trees and debris that have been just pummeled through here. You saw over here as the river winds its way across this way and then turns back toward us here you can see all the debris piled up against the one roadway that brings you into town.

But that is the destruction that we're seeing, but it is the stories and the personal stories of the horror that people are dealing with.

We just ran into a man from Beaumont, Texas who raced here yesterday. His 21-year-old daughter is missing. We literally met him as he was walking up and down the banks of the river of the river, calling out her name, trying to find her as they have -- they lost contact with her at 4:00 a.m. early Friday morning. So it's now been almost 30 hours since they last heard from their daughter.

And then we saw other people who raced down to here. And people are literally coming across the victims' bodies in this debris field here. And that is why you see such a wide stretch of search and rescue teams combing through the area. This is still very much an active situation, as many of these areas

still haven't been properly accessed. The water has finally gone down enough, but you can still see the water is running pretty, pretty swiftly.

But the floodwaters got way up here well over the road. You can see how much of the road and the asphalt on the road was washed away. Damage to that bridge as well.

But you know, people Fredricka, are making their way through here, others trying to help out in the situation. We've seen other people on ATVs combing through these through these areas. You know, the river bends back that way.

But, you know, a lot of this was just covered in water. So victims, literally could be anywhere within 100 yards of the river right now, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh, this is so terribly -- I mean, just absolutely horrible.

And then I wonder Ed, if you could tell me a little bit more about this area along the Guadalupe River where, you know, I saw that there were dozens of centuries' old summer camps dotted along this river where, as you already did mention, people from all over the state would send their kids to these camps.

Talk to me about just, you know, where you are. I mean, is this an area primarily known for the camping, or are there other industries taking place there too in the summers?

LAVANDERA: Yes.

No, those summer camps are just a huge part of the summer culture here in central Texas. You know, there's Camp Mystic, which is an all-girls camp. Just here in hunt, there's a camp called Camp [overtalking]z, which is for -- it's all-boys.

[11:39:50]

LAVANDERA: But there are still several others. So you know, the past time of families across the state sending their kids to this part of Texas and spending, you know, a week or maybe a couple of weeks along the river. It's almost like a rite of passage.

There are many kids who start off going to these camps as young kids, elementary school. They grew up. They keep coming back as their seniors, and they -- and their counselors.

And I was talking to one of the counselors of Camp Mystic yesterday who was in charge of an older group of kids, and they were describing to me how in the lower level of the camp, that's where the younger kids live and spend their time in the cabins down there.

And that is why many of the missing, those missing young girl campers are so young in age, because those young girls were the ones that were in the cabins closest to the river. And as you move up the hill of the campgrounds, that's where the older kids spend their time.

So, you know, many kids have kind of graduated through that process. But that is also what is making much of this simply so devastating, because these flood waters rose very rapidly in the early morning hours.

In fact, one of those campers told me that her campers had woken her up because it was raining and they felt it was -- how scary it was at the at the moment, as the storms kept getting more intense and more intense throughout the hours of the early morning hours of July 4th.

But you know, spending time here along the banks of the river in these -- in these camps, is you know, it's really just kind of a rite of passage for, you know, thousands of kids who spend their summers here every year.

WHITFIELD: And is it the case as far as we know right now, that, you know, the water rose so rapidly, was moving so strong that it actually broke up some of these cabins or structures or, you know, lifted them away. Do you -- do you know in detail how some of this happened?

LAVANDERA: It's hard to say although we can presume some things there. We haven't been able to reach Camp Mystic and get a clear picture of just how much devastation there was there. But in -- as we've made our way through Hunt and a little bit further upriver from here, which is closer to Camp Mystic, we did see a number of homes that were severely damaged by the -- by the floodwaters. Several of them ripped off their foundation.

So, you know, it's not out of -- out of the question to imagine that the damage that is seen at camp -- at Camp Mystic and the cabins that were there must have kind of gone through some incredibly treacherous moments, if not just severe damage there.

So I expect that once we are able to get a closer look at the campgrounds there, that we're going to find that many of those camps and cabins were simply washed away in these flood waters.

WHITFIELD: Well, it's terribly sad.

All right. Ed Lavandera, thank you so much. Again, we heard from the briefing not long ago the latest update. They said as of 8:55 this morning, that 27, you know, deceased have been recovered -- 18 adults, nine children. And they continue to look now for 27 missing campers, all primarily from the Camp Mystic.

We're going to continue to watch the development from this area. And staying abreast of any new information that might be coming out to share with you. We'll be right back.

[11:43:12]

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HERRING, JR.: Today will be a hard Day. It will be a hard day.

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WHITFIELD: That was the mayor of Kerrville, Texas a short time ago speaking at a news conference. A very hard day with 27 recovered bodies after that flash flooding yesterday, and the ongoing search for 27 missing campers.

The Guadalupe River has a number of camps just all along. People from far and wide send their kids there. And now this horrible tragedy has cost the lives of so many.

Meteorologist Chris Warren is here. What kind of conditions are those search and rescue teams going to encounter?

WARREN: Well, there is going to be some more showers and possibly some thunderstorms. A bit of a break today as the system that really helped bring this -- all of the heavy rain across several counties and extreme amount of rain.

That moisture is moving off to the east. But there will be more showers and thunderstorms again tomorrow.

But first, just try to get your mind around how this happened when some cases these camps are quite a ways -- we've seen some of these maps -- quite a ways away from the Guadalupe River, but it was just an extreme amount of water coming down and rising so high going from no flooding to major flooding in just a few hours here.

So it took this. It took all of this water here again, 4 to 6 -- up to 10 inches over several counties, not just a few spots in a county, but this widespread, heavy, intense rainfall over several counties, all essentially draining into the same place, being funneled down and causing the catastrophe that we have been witnessing throughout the morning.

Showers and thunderstorms from Thursday into Friday. That's what we're looking at now. Fourth of July into the morning hours continuing to push through and cause the scene.

[11:49:48]

WARREN: While this morning there are flash flood warnings still in effect, Fredricka, but they are now a little bit farther to the east. And that's going to be the trend. But again, more showers and thunderstorms tomorrow.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Chris. Appreciate it.

All right. We'll be right back with much more.

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[11:54:44]

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back. We're following this breaking news out of central Texas, where at

least 27 people are dead from severe flash flooding. Officials say more than 20 girls from a summer camp in Kerr County are still missing.

Let's go to our affiliate, KSAT reporter Patty Santos, who is tracking the latest.

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PATTY SANTOS, CNN AFFILIATE KSAT REPORTER: Here is where we are right now.

This is the Guadalupe River, and we're standing here to show you that the road here is still closed right on the other side. There used to be lodges. They are now gone.

But also take a look at these trees. All of this area was covered in trees. Take a look at how high the trees are. We could see some of that debris all the way up to those trees.

And I've gotten a chance to talk to some of the people that live here. They tell me this entire landscape looks very different than what it did just a few days ago.

We have seen a lot of people walking this area here by foot, and also some search and rescue crews with other just kind of taking a look here to see what they're seeing. We're seeing a lot of crews making their way up north with boats, with canines, with other equipment. As the search continues and as the cleanup continues just north of here in at that camp at Mystic Camp.

And so this is the scene that we're seeing right now. It is just devastation, catastrophic. Those are the words that are being used by people who live here, who used to see this river very differently. And what they're seeing it now.

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[11:56:14]

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