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Death Toll From Texas Floods Reaches 43; Many Still Missing; Texas Rain Still Expected Amid Deadly Flooding. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired July 05, 2025 - 20:00   ET

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

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[20:01:24]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking news.

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: It is the top of the hour here in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Erica Hill in New York. Thank you for joining us for the breaking news which we are continuing to follow out of Central Texas, catastrophic flooding has killed at least 43 people including 15 children and we are beginning to learn more about those victims.

Tonight, the parents of two young girls went missing in the flood waters has just confirmed to CNN that their daughters, 13-year-old Blair Harbor and 11-year-old Brooke Harbor, who you see here have died saying Blair was a quote gifted student who had a generous, kind heart while Brooke was a quote light in any room. People gravitated to her and she made them laugh and enjoy the moment.

Tonight, 27 children are also missing after those powerful floodwaters swept through their summer camp. We know at least four campers are confirmed dead. Nine-year-old Janie Hunt, who you see here, nine-year- old Lila Bonner, Sarah Marsh and eight year old Renee Smajstrla. Her family telling CNN the news is quote truly devastating.

That camp, Camp Mystic sits near the Guadalupe River in the town of Hunt. It's near Kerrville. This is the northwest of San Antonio and there are a number of other camps in the area. The city manager says it has been a round the clock rescue operation.

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DALTON RICE, KERRVILLE CITY MANAGER: We've been rescuing people out of these camps by the hundreds, you know, all day. So, there's a lot of folks that are shelter in place so we leave them in place to make, get them food, water. And some of these camps actually now are self- rescuing if you will. Maybe that's not the right word, but they are self-extricating, if you will.

So they're getting waters down, they're getting their own resources. They're not having to tie up, you know, local and state, you know, resources. We are monitoring them and they're -- but they're accounting for their own folks. So that has been going on obviously for over 800 plus people and we're continuing to do that. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: We have also heard from Texas governor Greg Abbott who earlier today signed a disaster declaration requesting immediate assistance from the federal government.

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GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R) GOVERNOR: We will be relentless in going after and ensuring that we locate every single person who's been a victim of this flooding event. We're not going to stop today or tomorrow. We will stop when the job is completed, between now and whenever that day arrives, when the job is completed. This is a 24, 7 operation day and night because we know that we are looking for Texans and Americans and we put them as our top priority. We will find every one of them.

My instruction to every state agency involved in this is to assume everybody who is missing alive. And there's a need for speed. Not just every hour, every minute counts, which is why there's people in the air, people in the water, people on the ground right now because they're looking to save every last life. And we will not give up that effort.

MAYOR JOE HERRING, JR., KERRVILLE, TEXAS: We will rescue those in peril and we will find those who are lost. I continue to ask everyone who sees this day to pray for Kerrville and Kerr County. We need your prayers.

JUDGE ROB KELLY, KERR COUNTY: It's going to be a long time before we're ever going to be able to clean it up, much less rebuild it. But there's nothing on the other side of Criders.

[20:05:02]

It's just hill country. And we didn't know. We know we get rains. We know the river rises, but nobody saw this coming.

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HILL: CNN's Ed Lavendera is just outside Camp Mystic. Ed, you have been there for most of today. You've also been making your way, of course, around the area. There's been a lot of activity at the camp today. What are you hearing? What are you seeing?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, just moments ago, just a Texas warden search and rescue team using dogs were going through this debris that we've been standing next to for several hours, making their way. They're just down here at the end of this street on some of the other piles of tree debris that have been -- that were forced out of the flood waters as they raged through here early yesterday morning and into yesterday as well. So that gives you kind of a sense of how these search operations continue.

This as we've seen drone efforts to look overhead for any -- anybody that might be out in this area. We've seen people combing through the hillside on the other side of the river. And Erica, as you mentioned, that is Camp Mystic. This is where all of those young campers who have come here for generations were.

And it is specifically those cabins that you see here on the edge, on the left edge of your screen there, those are the cabins that are in the lower line area. They call that the flats. That is where the youngest kids of Camp Mystic would spend. You'd kind of graduate your way up the camp as you got older. So it was the younger kids.

And if you notice, the only way out is on this side, the side that we're looking at behind those cabins. It goes straight up a hill. And that is the only -- that was the only way out for those campers. As the waters got up into those windows and those kids couldn't open the door. They were just in there with their counselors, who were just older teenagers.

And I've talked to several parents and other counselors that the kids who managed to get those younger kids out of that situation, they've been described to me as heroic today. They broke out windows on the backside and then climbed up that hill to get to higher ground to get those kids to safety.

Now, having done all of that, there are still 27 kids from Camp Mystic who are missing at this point. And with every hour, Erica, that continues to go by, the hope dwindles for finding the idea and the hope of the miracle of finding those young people alive. And that is heartbreaking.

I was Ingram yesterday when we're watching a lot of these young campers being reunited with their parents. And I've often found in tragedies that kids actually handle stuff better than you would think.

But yesterday, Erica, what I saw were kids who were just simply traumatized. I kept hearing them say, I just want to go home. I just want to go home. And you could see the look, some of them still trembling and shivering from the memories of what they witnessed. One of the most raw and traumatic experience I've ever young people go through.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. And you speak about the young people you mentioned to those counselors who are still, I mean, they're still kids themselves to have the quick thinking and the wherewithal to work so hard to get some of these kids out and save them, it is really remarkable. Ed, appreciate it. Thank you.

CNN's Marybel Gonzalez is also with us. She's joining us now from an RV park in Kerrville. And I know you've spoken with the owner and there has been some pretty significant damage there. What more did you learn from the owner about at that park specifically.

MARYBEL GONZALEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Erica, there's devastating damage here. In fact, over on my side, we can't show you, but I can describe to you what is happening. So there are a group of volunteers here. They've been trying to take this vehicle that is flipped upside down into the river. They've been trying to get into it. And just moments ago, right before we came to you, there was a fleet of Kerr County sheriff's deputies. It appears in Lorena, the owner of this RV park tells us that her volunteers have located a body inside that car. So the volunteers have called officials to come in here and to try to

retrieve that body. It's just a devastating scene, Erica. But I actually do have the owner of the Blue Oak RV Park, Lorena Guillen. Lorena, tell us what you're currently living. We've been talking to you since this afternoon. What's happening here on the ground?

LORENA GUILLEN, RV PARK OWNER: A lot is happening. It's just an amazing amount of volunteers, just local community people, friends, family. They're just coming in here to help us to clear all this debris, to cut the trees down to, you know, the power lines were down, plumbing was, you know, we're losing water.

[20:10:05]

We had no electricity, no water. They were just coming to help us.

GONZALEZ: And you told me that all of the RVs on your property were washed away. How many is that? And you also said there were some potential victims also in those RVs.

GUILLEN: Oh, absolutely. We actually were able to evacuate pretty much everybody except for one family. They did get swept away, but were able to get 28 RVers out of here on time. We couldn't save their RVs, the vehicles, but were able to save everybody, thankfully, except for that one family.

GONZALEZ: Is that family children as well?

GUILLEN: Yes, there was three little kids and two adults that were absolutely adorable. Having a lot of fun here on the Fourth of July weekend. And they were within 10 feet of the water, which was absolutely perfect and beautiful that day, July 3rd, it was the best day.

GONZALEZ: Everything changed really quickly. I know that. And you said that your volunteers are also been helping find the bodies of the victims who have drowned during this flooding?

GUILLEN: Oh, absolutely. I mean, the thing is, while you're cleaning the debris, where there is a lot of debris, they're finding, unfortunately they're finding people within debris and that's why we need so much help because, you know, these are two-story high debris mangled together. Then you don't know what's in the middle of it.

And it's just important that you know that we get help because the river goes for miles and miles and miles. I mean, we're just a tiny, tiny little stretch of the river. There is it goes all the way from Hunt, Texas further up, all the way to New Braunfels to, you know, Seguin and it keeps going. This is the mighty Guadalupe and that's the reason why everybody comes here because it's such a beautiful river.

GONZALEZ: Thank you. Lorena, thank you so much for letting us be here and speak with you about this tragedy. And Erica, we will be staying here throughout the evening and we will of course keep you updated on if they were able to recover somebody. It looks like they just put sheets up to block the view, so it does

appear to be that way. We will keep you updated as we continue to cover this devastating story.

HILL: Marybel, really appreciate it and appreciate you having Lorena to join us as well to share with us. Thank you.

Well, even with these desperate rescue and income cases, of course, recovery operations underway in Texas. There is rain in the forecast. Not what folks want to hear there. Chris Warren joining us live with more on this. So what is coming their way, both tonight and into the next couple of days, Chris?

CHRIS WARREN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: There will be more rain. Some of it will be scattered showers, some of it will be thunderstorms, but not the widespread, long lasting rain that we saw the past couple of days. And over the past 40 hours, 48 hours. This is the amount of rain that fell radar estimating over several counties in yellow, two to four, orange four to six inches. And then widespread several counties in that six to 10 inch range with pockets of more than a foot of rain.

This is a remarkable amount of rain falling on extremely dry, drought stricken land. And this darker red right here is exceptional drought. And this is where the catastrophic flooding happened. And you might think, and it would be intuitive to say, well it's dry, then a lot of water can get into the ground. But that's not necessarily the case.

When you have intense drought like this, the ground is essentially baked and it's hard. So when water falls that fast, that quickly, it doesn't have much time to get absorbed in the first place. So a lot more is going to run off. And it happened just in a matter of hours.

From around midnight on Friday through here, it's 5:30 in the morning. So already about five hours continuing here in Kerr County. And then more 10 o' clock in the morning on Friday now into the afternoon. Finally, finally after more than 12 hours of rain, sometimes some of the most intense rain you can imagine or might not even be able to imagine has fallen, it moves off. So that's what really led to this right here.

What was the Guadalupe river at Kerrville? Below a foot. Imagine that. Below a foot, water, right, water in the stream where you could essentially walk across it, no problem. And then a matter of hours, 23.4 feet, that happening while it was still dark.

So, in the very early morning hours a wild and hard to imagine going from well below flood stage to major flood stage, very short period of time. And during the overnight hours the National Weather Service busy issuing flash flood warnings from midnight to noon. So 12 hours, more than two dozen flash flood warnings in this area. Four flash flood emergencies. The highest category of flash flood warnings that does include the Guadalupe River right there.

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And currently what we have is flash flood warnings ongoing right now. You can see right here also flood watches posted for some of the same areas. So that's what we're seeing right now in terms of the threat. This is what we're seeing right now in terms of the rain.

Now, the rain right now generally light with a couple of thunderstorms forecast. Radar shows what the radar could look like through time where there could be some of the stronger storms. And this is now tomorrow morning at 7:30. So starting pretty early here in the hill country with some rain and storms continuing into the afternoon. This is mid-morning now going into the afternoon, evening hours. Here's Kerrville not too far away.

Some of the strongest and heaviest rain here, strongest storms and heaviest rain. So it's possible it could be near there, could see some river rises.

But overall, overall, Erica, the amount of rain expected here, 2 to 4 inches and some areas might not get any. So it's more of a spotty rain and thunderstorm kind of a day tomorrow.

HILL: All right, Chris, really appreciate it. Thank you.

Still to come here, the man in charge of the response in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Lieutenant General Russel Honore, talks about what is priority number one in this moment for first responders in Texas. That's next right here in the CNN Newsroom.

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HILL: As we continue to follow the breaking news out of Central Texas where torrential rain caused deadly flash flooding, I spoke a short time ago with retired Lieutenant General Russel Honore who of course led a special joint task force with FEMA in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

We talked about the situation on the ground there in Texas. Here's some of our conversation.

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HILL: Right now, for these emergency crews on the ground. We have been told this is obviously this is air, water, land, canine, human, everyone working together in this moment. Time is of the essence. Walk us through what would be happening in this moment as they're also trying to get around all of the devastation so that they can do these search and rescue efforts.

LT. GENERAL RUSSEL HONORE, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Yes, the big thing is the command and control to make sure all the terrain is being covered and we're talking about miles and miles across counties, not just in Kerr County. That would be a challenge along with the ability to communicate across those county lines and to get people to go into the areas where that water rushed through, Erica, because all those brush piles have to be searched.

And from what I've seen on television, Texas ought to be committed for their response. But they're going to have a lot of questions answer on why we had a flood watch the night before and why actions weren't taken to move people out or to provide siring warnings and then who's responsible in those camps for the evacuation when we looking at a flood watch before dark the night before.

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HILL: Certainly important questions that will need to be answered. Of course, moving into the future so that we don't see something like this again as we see these boats out here. There was an emphasis on the efforts of the Coast Guard on hand helping and Secretary Noem noting that there would be more coming in looking for more air help as well.

Just walk me through some of the challenges. I know early on in this disaster there were some challenges with low cloud cover, which made it difficult, of course, to get in the air. There are the communications issues that you mentioned, the debris, but also just when you're coordinating a massive effort like this, what is the challenge, if any, when you are working with all of these different groups and bringing them together?

HONORE: Well, if they're using the national military -- National Incident Command system, it should simplify that is sponsored by FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security. It appears that they have good network inside that county where they've been doing the news conferences from. But how does that spread across the other counties? And are they using NIMS and are they -- have they created a grid for the search?

And my hat's off to those magnificent pilots and those on the ground who've gone in and rescued so many, over 800 people already. And they've done it in some very extreme situation. But the weather was the issue.

But you know, Erica, Texas is going to have to stand up to this. The same thing happened in 1987 on July 16th along the same river in Kerr and there was a flood, 10 people died, this exact same scenario.

So Texas is going to have to fix this. People in Texas love to go out and camp. People have been going there for decades. But they're going to have to fix this because this is a repeat. The same thing happened in 1997 along the Guadalupe River.

HILL: When we look at where things stand, the messaging, the communication is key, not just for the first responders here, the teams going in, but also of course, for the community. There was some confusion in the last hour. At this most recent press conference that we had, the local county judge said that this was basically shifting to a recovery effort. And then reporters press them on those comments because the move from rescue to recovery signifies, of course, that they don't believe that those who are missing will be found alive.

We didn't get a clear answer on that except there was some pushback from the governor, basically saying, look, in this moment we are still assuming that all those missing are alive. He basically said he wanted this to continue as a rescue operation. I mean, just walk us through why that messaging is so important,

especially when we're talking about the difference between rescue and recovery in this moment.

HONORE: Yes, well, recovery, you're doing it in a total different manner. You doing primarily a lot of daytime searches. Whereas in rescue, the governor wanted to continue to do 24, 7, take all risks possible to go in and find people alive. And that's a significant phase. And it's a message to the families when we say we go into recovery, that there's very little hope of finding anybody. So that was a sensitive moment.

I watched that happen. And I must say it happens in just about every major disaster and they need to work through that. But I heard the governor, he's a senior elected official. But my recommendation to governor, you need to get two or 3,000 people walking those banks, not just 500. Task Force One is good. They can only do so many hours a day and there's about 80 people in there.

You got about 15,000 troops at Fort Hood. You got 21,000 troops in the Texas National Guard. You need to get some more boots on the ground and walk that ground because -- and get more helicopters up. That would be my recommendation to the governor.

They can do more, but they need to do it now. They got maybe another 24 hours, but they need to get more boots on the ground.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

HILL: Texas Emergency Management says they are searching additional areas as those waters recede. We are continuing to follow all of these developments. Of course, the latest that we heard just in the last hour or so, Texas officials updating the number to say at least 43 people have died in the flooding, including 15 children.

As we continue to follow all of these developments. Stay with us. You're in the CNN newsroom. We're going to fit in a quick break here.

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HILL: Continuing to follow the breaking news now out of central Texas. Areas just absolutely destroyed by flash flooding in the region. Those dry creek beds, as a result of so much time of drought, quickly turned into raging rivers. We just got an update from officials a short time ago. Here was the latest.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a lot of people here. We got a lot of help, but we're very fortunate. Here's some new updated numbers for y'all. As of 5:30, we have recovered 43 deceased individuals in Kerr County. Among these who are deceased, we have 28 adults and 15 children. 12 adults pending identification and 5 children are pending identification at this time. I tell you, the governor has assured us, along with the federal

government, that we will have all the resources we need and we do have that.

[20:30:02]

We've got all the resources we need. We're in really good shape to keep going for several more days.

RICE: Since 6:00 a.m. this morning, we've had a combined primary clear so aerial and ground of about 100 meter distance on either side of the Guadalupe River from one mile north of Camp Mystic up through Hunt and Ingram.

Obviously out here the damage is extensive. Right now we're really focused on life safety. We are searching, focused on search and rescue. Search and rescue is the priority. So we're not really red tagging buildings now. We do have structural teams come out, they will mark stuff, you'll see spray paint. A lot of that is to identify where we've at least primary searched.

But we are not going into the structural side of things unless it poses a risk to first responders. Our primary focus is on search and rescue of every single person involved and we'll continue through the night to make sure that happens.

Yes, real quick, we are finding bodies and stuff. We knew today was going to be that day. So our numbers are going to constantly be changing. We are constantly working on identification and working with our local partners to ensure that we bring in all the resources so we can make sure that we partner with folks.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is the communication procedure for letting camps and other places along the river know when to evacuate in situations like this?

RICE: So each camp is obviously, you know, mostly private or they have different ownerships and so on these -- especially in this situation. So let's talk about this one more specifically. The event happened very fast, you know, rose over 20 feet, 30 feet, within less than, you know, a two hour time span on a holiday in the morning there wasn't a lot of time in this case, you know, as far as warnings, obviously there's a lot of things going around. We want to make sure that we focus on the early level.

Regardless of the warning side of things, again, we want to make sure that we take care of our local community and focus on search and rescue operations. So please keep that question. We definitely want to, you know, get these addressed. But right now we want to focus on getting everybody that we possibly can out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has that number of the campus campers at 27 changed?

RICE: As of right now I do not think it has changed. It is still 27. Yes, I am. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know how many people you guys are searching

for as of right now or is there no cap on that number?

RICE: So right now there's -- we're kind of looking at this in two ways. Call it the known missing, which is the 27, you know, camp kids that are missing. We will not put a number on the other side because we just don't know. Campers are coming in for Fourth of July weekend. People are camped along the riverbank. People are coming in to visit.

There's a number that we just don't know yet. And we don't know what we don't know. So as things are starting to develop and as things are starting to move along, we're not going to put a cap on this. We are just going to continue until we find everything else. One more question.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are there any cats --

RICE: Let me give it to somebody else.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just one question about current rescues. Can you give us a sense about how often you're seeing a rescue and just in terms of kind of like for example, when your last rescue was.

RICE: So you know, with, obviously with the camps, we've been rescuing people out of these camps by the hundreds, you know, all day. So, there's a lot of folks that are shelter in place so we leave them in place to make sure that we get them food, water. And some of these camps actually now are self-rescuing if you a -- maybe that's not the right word, but they are self-extricating, if you will.

So they're getting waters down/ They're getting their own resources. They're not having to tie up, you know, local and state, you know, resources. We are monitoring them and they're -- but they're accounting for their own folks. So that has been going on obviously for over 800 plus people and we're continuing to do that. So. Good.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sorry, one more question. I can absolutely appreciate that right now the focus is finding the missing. It's very active search and rescue. But what do you say to the parents that are in grief, understandably frustrated as to how in the world this could happen? How in the world you could have so many campers in the way of this danger and not taken out of there ahead of the storms?

RICE: Yes, you know, that's the question of the hour. But you know, with these, this is last time it was this bad and this one is even worse than that was 1987. You can't predict it. Everybody in the media even knows everybody who does this and sees this every single day. You have the inverse effect of if you continue to push it and you see this in Houston areas all the time, you cry wolf.

What happens when you continue to ramp things up and you continue to put a lot of information out there. You know, again, not to, you know, harp on the media, but there's a lot of stuff that gets over spun up and we see that way too often, and then that cut trickles down. So we did look at stuff. Obviously I had told the story.

I was out on the river trail at, you know, 3:30. I left about 4:00 o'clock. We did not see any signs of the river rising.

[20:35:00]

And by 5:20, we almost weren't able to get out of the park on the upper end. It rose that quickly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So was it a matter of just rising so quickly and this being a massive tragedy or people weren't taking it seriously?

RICE: No, this was a massive tragedy. Hands down. We are hitting -- we are hitting from our again flood maps. We're seeing some areas where it's hitting the 100 year flood thing. And again, we talked about the north and south fork. That water hit perfectly. You heard Chief Nim Kidd talk a little bit about, you know, the wide area.

This went from San Angelo to Waco and all they stage where they can. But you do not know what's going to happen one, until water falls and two, the predictions were definitely off. That water and rain fell almost double of what was anticipated both in the north and South Fork and converged into one place and it rose that quick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So an update there. I do also want to update you on some other information that we're getting in. So that of course was an update on Kerr County. That's a lot of what we've been talk the focus on Kerrville, on Hunt, on those areas along the Guadalupe River in Burnett County which Governor Abbott actually added to his list of counties under a disaster declaration. This is northwest of Kerr County.

We have also just learned three people have now been reported dead, two are missing. This is according to the county emergency management coordinator. He also noted telling CNN that the county has suffered damage to its major roadways and its bridges as well as some widespread power outages. Some of that power coming back. But again, in Burnett County, which along with five other counties earlier today was included in Governor Abbott's expanded disaster declaration for the state.

We're now up to 20 counties who fall under that disaster declaration. Three people dead, two still missing. So this brings the number of dead in Texas as a result of these flash floods in this water to at least 46. And we know that 15 children are among them.

As for that federal response, Governor Abbott also signing the request for that federal response, this federal disaster declaration. CNN's Betsy Klein is joining us now with more about the Trump administration's plans, what that will mean in terms of assisting and adding to local and state efforts. And we know there are already federal assets on the ground there in Texas. Betsy.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER AND WRITER: Certainly. And we heard local officials say that this is going to be a marathon of search and rescue, search and recovery efforts. And we are starting to see that very close coordination between local, state and the federal governments working together to make that effort.

So far from the federal side, we are seeing FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, fully engaged along with the U.S. Coast Guard, which has been helping with search and rescue efforts. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said a little while ago today that she is requesting additional fixed wing aircraft with thermal imaging.

Now that is something that is going to help when it starts to get dark in the coming hours here. That's going to be so critical so they can still work on search and rescue efforts. She's also requested additional helicopters.

The Army Corps of Engineers is also on site along with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Noem said she has engaged Border Patrol agents who have unique capabilities and expertise to help here. Now, Governor Abbott, as you mentioned, has requested federal disaster aid. Noem said that President Trump will plan to sign that. We've asked the White House if he already has or if he plans and when.

But so far local and state officials say that they have what they need from the federal government. Noem says she has briefed the president several times today. She's also expected to go to Camp Mystic where 27 girls remain missing.

We still don't know the extent of the federal response that will be needed, whether additional aid will be needed. But I want to point out two additional things as we continue to track this federal response.

Number one is that the president has been deeply critical of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He says that he plans to phase it out at the conclusion of this year's hurricane season.

Separately, the Trump administration's proposed fiscal year 2026 budget is which it's already abiding by, offers massive cuts to some weather research labs that are vital to forecast extreme weather events like this. They collect better data for better forecasts and the tools that they are using here are experiencing cut right now.

Now, DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency has also cut staffers at NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as the National Weather Service. But Secretary Noem was really pressed on the National Weather Service's alerts leading up to this. Here's what she said as she defended the administration.

[20:40:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: That is something and one of the reasons that when President Trump took office that he said he wanted to fix and is currently upgrading the technology. And the National Weather Service has indicated that with that and NOAA that we needed to renew this ancient system that has been left in place with the federal government for many, many years. But I do carry your concerns back to the federal government and to

President Trump and we will do all we can to fix those kinds of things that may have felt like a failure to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KLEIN: Of course, this storm was extremely unpredictable. The water rising so quickly, so unprecedented. We also have a little bit of good news. Congressman August Pfluger, who represents the hill country area of Texas, announced that he and his wife have been reunited with two of their daughters who were campers at Camp Mystic. He said in a post to social media. Please join us as we pray for miracles.

HILL: Betsy, appreciate the updates. Thank you. Well, in Caraville, local officials say search and rescue operations remain their top priority. Courtney Friedman from CNN affiliate KSAT spoke to some folks in the area who had to evacuate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COURTNEY FRIEDMAN, KSAT REPORTER (voice-over): A terrifying 5:00 a.m. wake up call for Jonathan Meyer and his daughter Isla.

JONATHAN MEYER, KERRVILLE, TEXAS RESIDENT: The upper headwaters were rising. City officials did a great job of letting people know along the river what was coming down the lines.

FRIEDMAN (voice-over): Their house is directly across the street from the Guadalupe River in Kerrville. And they said the water made it up three of their front steps.

KERR: It was definitely shocking to see it get that high.

FRIEDMAN (voice-over): As for Isla, she was at Vista Camp in Hunt two weeks ago, but never expected to see remnants of that camp 20 miles down the river where she lives.

FRIEDMAN: One of your canoes, it said your camp's name on that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, it said our, like our tribe, we have like a tribe. And it showed our Sioux.

FRIEDMAN (voice-over): It was just one of many things they've seen in the river.

FRIEDMAN: And we're getting a view of how fast that water was moving, taking out massive trees, ripping the bark off and not even just breaking them in half, but bending over, you can see how fast the water is moving now. It must have been moving so much faster before. And this is how high up it was up to this tree. Broke this tree, trapped this inner tube and left debris like a camping chair and a hat behind.

HANNAH JOHNSON, KERRVILLE, TEXAS RESIDENT: I wanted to cry when we drove over the bridge. I was like, this is horrible. So bad. We've never seen it this bad before. We've had flooding, not to this extent. It's a catastrophe.

JARED JOHNSON, KERRVILE, TEXAS RESIDENT: We've heard that this is worse than the flood. And I think 87 or so. This is worse than that one.

FRIEDMAN (voice-over): Jared and Hannah Johnson were supposed to host a July 4th party, but their house had flooding. Still, they're grateful to have their lives. They and Meyers both have the same thing in mind. Helping however they can.

MEYER: Help is going to be needed in the coming days, you know, on the clean picking up and recovery of things. So, you know.

FRIEDMAN: So you'll be ready for that.

MEYER: We're ready for that. And anybody that wants to come and help and volunteer their time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: Our thanks again to Courtney Friedman for that report. In the nearby town of Hunt, the floodwaters washed away the local post office entirely. Here's Taylor Whartnaby of CNN affiliate KABB with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAYLOR WHARTNABY, KABB REPORTER: I want to walk you through. They didn't want to be on camera, but they walked me through this area and what it did look like. So they said that this was once all boarded up, this was all brick and now completely opened up. That just goes to show how fierce that storm was and how it powered through.

You know, walk with me down here closer so we can get a closer look inside the actual building, you could just see just the debris that is completely clinging on to the building. But if you take a closer look here inside, you could just see it is just completely packed in there. Just all the debris that just swept right into the Hunt store here in Hunt. This was a staple, they were telling me.

I did speak to the cashier who worked here for many years, and so he saw a lot of residents come into the area. I also want to mention that closer down here again, there's lots of debris, branches down, power lines. What I thought was just devastating. What they told me was right over here is where the post office once was. If you believe it. I was completely shocked. He said, this is the brick from the post office.

And as you can see, it's completely gone at this -- it's no longer here. But what we did find was a Cassandra, what's her name tag, which was somewhere further where we first started. It's just everything is scattered here. It's just devastating, just the amount of destruction this floodwater caused here in Hunt. So we're still speaking with residents here.

And I did ask the cashier here about like rebuilding, you know, how, where do you go from here? And he says, you know, you just completely take this. You just rebuild from the start, bottom up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[20:45:00]

HILL: And our thanks again to Taylor Whartnaby for that reporting. Just ahead here you'll hear from some who survived the deadly flooding. Those remarkable tales after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: We continue our breaking news coverage tonight of the deadly aftermath of those floods in Texas which have now killed at least 46 people.

[20:50:00]

That includes at least 15 children. Round the clock search and rescue operations are still continuing to find the dozens who are still missing. That includes more than two dozen young campers, their families desperately waiting for news.

We are also hearing from people who managed to survive the flooding and from those lucky enough to be on higher ground. Earlier, CNN's Ed Lavandera spoke with one of those residents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: Jerry, just walk me through what this was like, this experience like for you.

JERRY ADAMS, FLOOD SURVIVOR: It was just unbelievable. Like I say, I up at 3:30 and started get to come see what was going on. And as far as I got was right up there, about probably 100 yards up there. And this whole thing was just water and trash and everything going down the road.

And I stopped and I just, you know, I had to pinch myself to make sure I was still awake. I guess. I just couldn't believe the destruction. And we ran around here for a while trying to see what needed to be done. And there was a girl that worked here at the Hunt store that lived upstairs. And she said that she heard something and she walked over there and opened her door upstairs and there was the water.

LAVANDERA: Wow.

ADAMS: And so she got out, her and her daughter and her dog and got on the roof and she was up here on the roof and I was down here. And I guess it was nearly daylight. And somebody asked me, somebody else had showed up and said, do you have a ladder? And I said, yes. So I ran and got a ladder, got her off the roof.

LAVANDERA: When you got down here and you saw what was happening, did you know that this was going to be as deadly and as horrific as we learned? ADAMS: It's probably a pretty good idea. Because like I say, I've seen water up to the road right there, but I've never seen it 36 feet, you know.

LAVANDERA: So we would have been well underwater here?

ADAMS: Oh, yes. Yes, we'd have been -- the water -- the water level right at the roof right there.

LAVANDERA: Wow.

ADAMS: That's where the water level was.

LAVANDERA: And it's hard as we stand here, it's really hard to have people understand just if the water is this high, were what, about 100 yards from the river?

ADAMS: Yes. That's a lot of water.

LAVANDERA: It's a devastating amount of water.

ADAMS: It is. And it just, like I say, it's just unbelievable. And I feel so far sorry for the people that have lost houses and, well, especially family members and kids at camp and whatnot. You know, it just -- it pretty much shut down the whole community. And you know, this was the lifeblood of this community with the camps and criders and all that, you know, during the summer months, you know. And, I mean, that was everybody bread and butter. And it's just -- now it's just nothing.

And it's going to be -- I'm going to guess it's going to take two or three years before this thing ever gets back to where it kind of was, you know, it's never going to be the way it really was, but it's going to take a lot of time and a lot of effort and a lot of praying to get this thing back.

LAVANDERA: You were telling me that you came down here to the river and you actually saw a young boy sitting in a tree.

ADAMS: Yes, he was down there honking on the root of a tree down there and had a pair of shorts on, and that's about it. You could tell he was freezing to death. But pardon me, everybody was saying, let's get him out. And I kept telling him, I said, no, just leave him alone, because if you try to go out there and get him, you're going to get somebody else in a bind and get hurt or drown or, I said, just leave him alone. The water will go down eventually and you can walk over and get him or safely go get him, you know.

LAVANDERA: Do you think he had been swept away in the water and grabbed onto the tree or what --

ADAMS: He came from up at Merrymead, which is about six miles up here.

LAVANDERA: Wait a second. The boy that you saw in the tree lived six miles away? So he got blown down through the flood waters --

ADAMS: Heck, he stayed above water and got here alive. You know, only God can tell you that. Pardon me.

LAVANDERA: Yes.

ADAMS: But he -- and I saw him yesterday afternoon. I went up and to a guy's house and sure enough, that kid was there.

LAVANDERA: How old was he?

ADAMS: He's probably 12, 14 maybe.

LAVANDERA: OK.

ADAMS: 15, something like that.

LAVANDERA: What was his demeanor like?

ADAMS: He was fine. I mean, he was kind of scratched up and whatnot, but he was -- otherwise, he was in good shape, you know, so. But he --

LAVANDERA: I can't even wrap my head around that.

ADAMS: I mean, like I say, just to sit there for hours, you know, -- it was -- safely could go get him, you know, right. Everybody, like I say, everybody was wanting to do something. I said, no, don't, because I've seen that happen. I've seen him.

LAVANDERA: Was he high in a tree?

ADAMS: No, he would -- he was down just right -- probably right about where the water line was at that time.

[20:55:02]

LAVANDERA: You think he'd made his way down?

ADAMS: It was down, you know, down there. Got it.

LAVANDERA: But he was way out there in the river.

ADAMS: Yes. I can take you over and show you where he was, but yes.

LAVANDERA: We'll do that in a second. But you've also seen some -- the tragic side of all of this. You've seen some of the victims who've washed away up here.

ADAMS: I'm not sure what the count is, but there's going to be some fatalities. I know they found one little girl here behind the store that came from, I think somewhere up there. I'm not exactly sure where, but it was several miles.

LAVANDERA: Possibly Camp Mystic.

ADAMS: I don't -- I don't think you -- I think it was a family that was at a -- there's a deal up here called Casa Bonica, a bunch of little houses.

LAVANDERA: Got it.

ADAMS: And it's completely gone. And I think they may have been in one of those.

LAVANDERA: Got it.

ADAMS: Yes, got it.

LAVANDERA: So just with family for the weekend or something.

ADAMS: I think maybe the family was gone too, But I'm not -- don't quote me on that. I'm not sure.

LAVANDERA: But you've seen several of the victims' bodies?

ADAMS: Well, a couple of them.

LAVANDERA: Yes.

ADAMS: I mean that, you know, where they said I didn't see this one but I saw the one down there by the road the other day that they had covered up waiting for the coroner or somebody to come pick it up. You know.

LAVANDERA: I'm sorry you've had to see all that.

ADAMS: That's just, you know, it's just sad. It's just really sad for the community and I'm sorry, I'm trying not to do that. But.

LAVANDERA: Totally understandable. Really.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: And our thanks to Ed for his reporting. Thanks to all of you for joining me tonight. Here in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Erica Hill. Please stay tuned. CNN special coverage of the devastating aftermath of the flooding in Texas continues at the top of the hour. My colleague Wolf Blitzer picks things up after the short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)