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Urgent Search For Survivors After At Least 90 Killed In TX Floods; Search Continues For Missing Fire Chief Michael Phillips; Search Continues For Missing Camp Mystic Camper Blakely McCrory; Hero Coast Guard Officer Helps Rescue 165 Texas Campers. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired July 07, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. I'm Boris Sanchez coming to you live from Kerrville, Texas, alongside my colleague, Jessica Dean, in the nation's capital.

Here in Texas, officials now say that at least 90 people have been killed from the devastating floods in the central part of the state. First responders and volunteers continue to battle difficult conditions as they continue to search for the dozens of people who remain missing. The White House announcing earlier today that it is planning for President Donald Trump to visit the region on Friday.

Earlier, CNN's Pamela Brown spoke with the mayor of Kerrville, Texas, who became emotional about the lack of warnings in his city ahead of the torrential rainfall that caused this catastrophic flooding. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JOE HERRING JR. KERRVILLE, TEXAS: I think everyone in Kerrville, everyone in Kerr County wishes to God we'd had some way to warn them - to warn those people. I've lost two friends. We left them and they're gone. You know, they're gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: The mayor there, understandably emotional. The scenes here are just staggering. The devastation is so widespread here where I am on the Guadalupe River. This is just downstream from Camp Mystic and Hunt, Texas, where some 10 campers and one counselor at this time remain missing. We're hoping to get an update from them.

But you can imagine in the overnight hours, very early in the morning, hours and hours' worth of rain came down and overflowed the Guadalupe River, not only extremely wide overcoming its banks, going into neighborhoods, but also just from a perspective of height. We're talking about more than 20 feet of water coming very quickly downstream, moving all kinds of debris. There's all kinds of detritus around us.

We're looking at mattresses that are wrapped around trees, cars. There was a pickup, a large pickup not far from where I'm standing right now that looks like it was crushed like a small soda can. On top of that, you have just piles of trees and other brush. That actually slammed into the bridge that's behind us right now where crews have been working at an urgent pace to try to clear that bridge to get it open.

I do want to point out that bridge is some 10 to 15 feet or actually I should say 15 to 20 feet above where the water of the Guadalupe stands right now. And it's just scenes like that over and over again across the area. Survivors have described just having been picked up by these waters and dragged for miles and miles.

We're joined now live by CNN's Tom Foreman, who can paint a picture for us of just how quickly these waters moved, how fast and how high the floodwaters got. Tom, this area is known as Flash Flood Alley, but even for folks that were around back in the 1980s when they last saw something like this, this is unprecedented for them.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes. This is remarkable, Boris. What you're seeing around there is evidence of it. And so is this, look at this time lapse from up on the Llano River. That's - this is coming up from this, level 22 feet in 30 minutes. You see the cars back there, the people gives you an idea, 22 feet in 30 minutes. Why does that happen?

In part because the hill country there has a tendency to funnel the rain that falls onto it. It rushes down these mountainsides into these valleys and rushes down through these areas. And all that debris you're talking about can very often sort of form temporary dams in effect. And then, as it breaks loose, you get this massive flooding effect.

If you put it in comparison to an actual building out there, each floor about 10 feet roughly, this would be enough water coming in a half an hour to cover a two-story house. That's how rapidly this came in and why it was so difficult for people to react to it, Boris.

SANCHEZ: And not to be too graphic out of respect for those who are still missing and their loved ones, but that's - what you just described as part of the difficulty that crews have in combing such a widespread scene like this, because all around us there are literally piles of debris.

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And as I was walking along this area, you could smell what is clearly rotting flesh. And so, you can imagine all the wildlife that was caught in that. Officials have to go essentially pile by pile with chainsaws and other equipment to try to determine what might be underneath.

Notably, Tom, a lot of folks are talking about what warnings came before this flood swept through the area. And there was actually a discussion about updating the flood warning system in Kerr County, where the majority of fatalities are years ago, right?

FOREMAN: Because of the magnitude of what you're talking about there, Boris, I would say in some ways this resembles earthquakes that we've covered, where it happens very, very rapidly with very little warning, and then you have this enormous debris that you simply have to work your way through to find anybody who may have survived and sadly many who have not.

This was the sequence of what we know about the timeline here. Thursday here, at 1:18 P.M., the flood watch was issued. By 6:30, they're talking about intense rain and flash flooding. But look at this, just about 12 hours after the flood, watch what they issued, you're getting the emergency alert coming out near Kerrville, where you are in that area.

And all of this is happening - look at the hours here - this is the morning of 4th of July. All of it's happening really well before sunrise there. So, that's one of the problems, too. Even what warnings they had, people were asleep. And yes, they had talked about this.

Back in 2016, nine years ago, the county commission in Kerr County had looked at this, and they said we're looking at the flood warning system to see what we might do, if anything, to enhance and improve it. We're not saying we need to. They're just going to check it out.

But a month later, when they talked about it, having looked at it some, they said our system is quite simply pretty antiquated. It's marginal at best. It's okay. It serves some purpose. But it's not what we should have.

And as you know, Boris, very often the best intentions out there get sidetracked by budgets and political concerns and all sorts of things. But in this circumstance, in an area known to have flash floods, there are many people looking at it today saying, so what really happened? Why did this not get into place? And can it be put into place now?

SANCHEZ: Yes, and sadly, too often it takes a catastrophe like this one to expedite those kinds of changes.

Tom Foreman, thank you so much for giving us that perspective.

I want to discuss all of what we're watching unfold in Central Texas with Louis Amestoy. He's the editor and publisher for The Kerr County Lead.

Louis, thank you so much for being with us. When we spoke yesterday, we had been talking about the hope that folks that may have gone missing might still be out there alive. I wonder what you're hearing from community members now, more than 72 hours removed of when these floods hit, about a sense of hope as these search and rescue operations continue.

LOUIS AMESTOY, EDITOR & PUBLISHER, THE KERR COUNTY LEAD: We just posted a video on our Facebook page of a man who's looking for his parents and still holding out hope that they're going to make it. They were at the HTR camp that's right there on the Guadalupe River next to the Blue Oak kind of trailer park there.

And, you know, I think Camp Mystic today acknowledged that the chances of those children and some of these others being rescued are very slim at best. And, you know, we got caught up in this yesterday, too, and we talked about this a little bit.

You know, we were all holding out hope that there was going to be some miracle story. And at this point now, I've almost got to be like the cynical person that says, that's not possible. That's not going to happen, unfortunately.

And I think now we - I think a lot of people are probably in that mode now that we are going to be looking for people for many, many weeks, probably. They'll be missing for - because, you know, Boris, you've seen it. You've seen the debris fields here. I mean, there's probably people possibly buried in some of those debris fields, and it's going to take a long time to get those folks out.

SANCHEZ: Yes, it's just heart wrenching to think about. It's also hard on those folks who live in this community and are trying to reassemble their lives. What are you hearing about challenges that residents are facing as they try to get aid?

AMESTOY: You know, I'm really hearing that people are getting aid. They're getting - taken care of. You know, Hunt Independent School District has been very active in making sure that people have supplies they need. They said - they sent out a post yesterday, don't go into Kerrville and, you know, and we've got it here for you.

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Ingram ISD, same way here, they're making things available for folks. The H-E-B grocery store chain has set up kitchens. There's food everywhere for people. Here, I do the show - my show here every morning at Pint & Plow Brewing Company. They're in the back. They're making food for folks. The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country is leading an extraordinary effort to help the nonprofits by raising funding. The Kerrville Area Chamber of Commerce has got a fund developing for small businesses to make their way through this because a lot of these folks have lost equipment or lost their entire businesses along the river.

I also think that we've got other groups here. The Salvation Army is a really well-respected and beloved kind of - organization in this community. They're doing some great work, as is the American Red Cross.

SANCHEZ: Yes, it seems like an all-hands-on-deck effort. And I wonder, as the flood watch has been not only expanded but also elevated. It's now three out of four. Are you hearing about more preparations? Are you hearing about concerns that folks have that this may not be over?

AMESTOY: I think everybody's in that mindset right now. And I think everyone's looking at the weather forecast and keeping an eye on what is happening here. Yesterday, I was out at the HTR RV camp, and there was a panic almost there from people. The Ingram Police Department came running down. You have to get out of the deal (ph) and get up here because there's four feet of water coming. But I think now that we've kind of been lulled into several years of the river being, you know, below or severely below average, as far as it's run - the way that it runs through the community here. I think that - this has reinforced a healthy respect for this river.

Any - you know, anytime that you're around water like this and knowing the geology of the Texas Hill Country and how it runs, you kind of have to - you have to really respect it because this is a bomb went off, basically. I don't care what people say about the notice. I think that there could have been better notifications through wireless phones. And that's another story.

But you had something that extraordinarily happened, and the data sort of proves it, you know? It just popped up, and boom, it dumped, and it dumped, and it dumped, and especially in those areas on the north and south fork of the river, creating just a confluence that is unbelievable, so ...

SANCHEZ: Yes. Louis Amestoy, we appreciate you bringing us that context. Thanks so much for sharing your afternoon with us.

AMESTOY: All right. Take care.

SANCHEZ: Yes. The search for the missing continues here in Texas. Fire Chief Michael Phillips is among them. We understand that Chief Phillips went missing while he was responding to a water rescue call at 4:30 Saturday morning. Sheriff's deputies say that they watched his vehicle get swept off the road. Authorities and volunteers are also searching for Blakely McCrory from Camp Mystic. Her brother tells CNN that they are praying for her safe return. The family has been going through a lot. They actually just lost their father back in March. Stay with CNN. Our breaking news coverage continues in just a moment.

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SANCHEZ: Anguish wrought by the Texas floods has intensified after officials have now raised the state's overall death toll to 90. Crews in several counties are still searching for dozens of missing people, including 10 campers and one counselor from Camp Mystic, which we've heard so much about.

Earlier, I spoke with a Coast Guard Petty Officer who is part of the swim rescue team. This was actually his first mission, and he's being described as a hero after he helped 165 campers there get to safety. Here's some of what he shared with us earlier.

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SCOTT RUSKAN, U.S. COAST GUARD RESCUE SWIMMER & PETTY OFC, 3RD CLASS: Our original tasking was just to get to Camp Mystic, and we heard there was about 200 campers there, and they were in need of air lift. There was no other way to get them out. Bridges were gone. Roadways were gone. And the water was coming up too high for boat rescue, so the only option was air lift.

We kind of assessed the scene a little bit, had an internal crew discussion with the rest of the crew with Ian Blair (ph) and Seth (ph) and myself. We decided the best course of action would probably be to leave me there. At the time, there was no triage coordinator, and just because, you know, it was kind of hectic, a lot of people were needed on other assets and other airframes. And we just decided that, hey, we can fit a couple extra kids if we leave me on scene.

That air crew with Ian Blair (ph) and Seth (ph) kind of went to a more dangerous location to try to, you know, air lift a few more people out of a tighter landing zone, and they were able to airlift about 15 people, 15 children out of there, and they left me on scene at Camp Mystic. And there, yes, we kind of - I kind of helped facilitate some of the organization and the triage, just comforting these kids and getting 165 of them out on the Army Black Hawk helicopters.

SANCHEZ: Is there anything that stood out to you about them? I understand that there were some counselors that had to bash open some windows in a cabin to help get them out as the floodwaters came in.

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Did they share anything with you that is going to stay with you?

RUSKAN: Yes, it's a good one. There definitely was a lot - there's going to be a lot of heroics from this, not only from, like, first responders, but just the people that were the survivors, right? Like, caught in the flood. Hearing stories from some of the camp counselors when I was on the ground with them, I'm just telling them, hey, I was throwing kids out the door just to get them out of the floodwater, grabbing one Croc for them. Like, a lot of the kids didn't even have shoes on. I was just carrying them to the helicopter because they're stepping on wet rocks, and their feet might be cut up and stuff.

So, just that experience of, like, yes, these camp counselors. And the kids, too. Like, they're being so brave and tough and like - I know there's a lot of them I was able to get hands-on with. And if you (INAUDIBLE) seriously, like, you guys were the best. Like, I'm sorry this happened to you guys, but you guys were so brave and tough, and it made me a better rescuer, because you guys were acting so bravely.

I'm just a person, right? I'm just a guy. I'm just a dude. I, you know, I chose to enlist in the Coast Guard. Anyone is able to do this. Anyone's able to do this job if you raise your right hand and do it. So, I'm just happy I was given the opportunity to help these people out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: For his effort and his humility, Scott, he's a hero.

Let's discuss the efforts to rescue folks with Jason Pack. He's a former FEMA external affairs officer and an experienced EMT first responder. Jason, talk to us about the experience of these first responders on the ground here in Texas as they continue to try and rescue and find survivors now, more than 72 hours after this happened. And as we learned actually, just a moment ago, we've confirmed that the death toll has now climbed - 94. Ninety-four people killed as a result of these floods.

Jason, what do you make of the effort by these rescuers so many days out now continuing to try to find any sign of life racing against the clock?

JASON PACK, FORMER FEMA EXTERNAL AFFAIRS OFFICER: Boris, the longer this goes on and as the days advance, the more I think that Hollywood could not have written a more throat-punching script. This is just absolutely horrendous. And as your last piece with the Coast Guard rescue (INAUDIBLE) said, these are ordinary people that have been thrown into extraordinary circumstances.

Clearly, he signed up to be a rescue swimmer, but just hearing those stories of the - just the bravery of the camp counselors and just the ordinary citizens there, I think for days and weeks to come, we're going to be hearing a lot about that.

Now, talking about the rescue, we're in day three here, and it's - from that press conference earlier they had today, that emergency information that was coming out of Kerrville. We do know that the mission is still a search and rescue mission, so that is definitely the operational priority today in that unified command system, as he mentioned earlier.

So, like you mentioned, too, that the wall of water that came up was 20-something feet. It's not just going along these banks and wading into that nasty water full of sewage and debris, looking under these sticks. They have to look up 20 feet - however high the wall of water got. They have to search all the way up those tree lines.

And the Coast Guard rescue swimmer was also talking about the helicopter pilots. It's (INAUDIBLE) easy job navigating those tight areas where the pilots have to get in and oftentimes put a skid on something, and it's really, really a dangerous operation there. So, we haven't really talked much about the heroics of the helicopter pilots.

Certainly, they have a tough job, too. But in some other video that we've seen, we saw those cars, Boris, coming out of the water. And you saw the rescuers peek in there. In some cases, they have to take hand tools, open those doors, and then they're scraping out mud, shovel by shovel, just to see if anybody is in these cars and trapped in there.

We heard the county executive or the county mayor there say this could be a hundred-kilometer-long search perimeter, so that could take days and maybe a week or so before they thoroughly search this area.

SANCHEZ: Yes, that was my next question, how they go about doing that in such a broad area and in such an expanse. Is it - does it work sort of like as a grid or are there areas where the priority is flagged in the sense that there's suspicion that there might be someone there? How does it work? What's the order of priority?

PACK: I think it's definitely gridded off in the GPS coordinates from where other (INAUDIBLE) have been located, could give some indication and some intelligence to kind of guide those rescue operations. You want to use your manpower and your staffing in the most - you know, most - the best manner that you can because you have limited resources, even though they say they have plenty.

You have these urban search and rescue teams like you and I talked about yesterday, these highly trained folks looking under those bridges, looking in houses and homes, and looking for these overturned RVs that were at the trailer parks there and the RV parks along the Fourth of July for - as people were camping.

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So, I think they're going to - what they're going to do is use their resources wisely, and they'll grid that out and coordinate under that unified command.

SANCHEZ: Jason, I also want to get your perspective on the overall approach to disasters like this. The White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked a question from CNN's Kristen Holmes about whether the President might reconsider his plan to phase out FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, after these floods. If you could help us understand the kind of role that FEMA plays during events like this and will be playing as Texas looks to rebuild, versus the sort of vision from the President and the administration of a decentralized, state-based effort to respond to these kinds of disasters.

PACK: Well, there's a lot of misconceptions about what FEMA does and doesn't do. The people that work at FEMA are some of the most dedicated people in government, there to help in times of need. But all disaster response starts with state and local folks. And FEMA, they don't have fire engines, but they know how to get them. They don't have helicopters, but they know how to get them.

So, they're the coordinating agency and arm and the funding arm of the federal government. They have reach back into all different forms of government resources. So, each disaster is different, but for the most part, the local emergency managers work with the Texas, in this case, the Texas Department of Emergency Managers with those needs. And if they can't meet those, then that's when it goes to FEMA. I'll leave it to the politicians there and the people on your network who are better political analysts than I am. I'm a first responder and a rank-and- file guy, so I will it to the experts for that.

But I know the questions going around there today from at least my circle of first responders is just the - it's hit him really deep. Like the questions like how could something like this happen and why do certain people make it and certain people don't? Just that faith- shaking questions as you're going along there on day three in this hot, sweaty weather and this nasty water, trying to do your best to find anybody that you can out there. So, it's really has shaken the first responder community across the country. SANCHEZ: Yes. I mean, it's difficult at times like this when the scale of devastation is so hard to process. People look for meaning and accountability in every way that they can. But the work of these first responders, it is taxing not only physically, but emotionally as well and it is so appreciated at a time like this.

Jason Pack, thank you so much for sharing your point of view with us.

PACK: Thank you, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Of course. So many families are living through their worst nightmare right now, including the family of Janie Hunt. Her mother tells CNN that Janie was at Camp Mystic and was swept up and captured by the floods and passed away. Janie was just nine years old. She is now one of more than a dozen people who passed away at Camp Mystic. And there are still 10 survivors and one counselor who are still missing that crews are frantically searching for right now.

Stay with CNN. Our breaking news coverage continues after a quick break.

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