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Official: At Least 50 Dead, Including 15 Children, In Texas Floods; Israeli Delegation To Attend Ceasefire Talks In Doha; Trump And Netanyahu Set To Meet On Monday In Washington; Rep. Chip Roy, (R- TX) Is Interviewed About Flood In Texas. Aired 9-10p ET

Aired July 05, 2025 - 21:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:01:10]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. This is CNN's special breaking news coverage.

Right now, at least 46 people are dead, including 15 children after catastrophic flooding in Central Texas. A massive search and rescue operation is underway with more than 500 emergency workers and volunteers responding. So far, more than 850 people have been evacuated or rescued and that just in the last 36 hours, many of them airlifted to safety. Officials say at least 29 people are still missing, and that includes 27 girls from Camp Mystic, an all girl's summer camp. The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, held a press conference just a little while ago saying it's all hands on deck.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GREG ABBOTT, (R) TEXAS: 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 we 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 is 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 Kreiders, 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.

REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX), DISTRICT HIT BY FLOODING: There's a lot of people saying why and how, and I understand that and I understand why parents should be asking those questions and all of the media. But where we are right now in terms of what we've done to be able to protect people, move them, get them out of the camps and the heroic efforts of people that worked in those camps, directors of the camps, people who own the camps, who not just risk their lives, gave their lives to try to go save the lives of those kids, that's who they are as Texans, and I'm so proud of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The girls' camp sits near the Guadalupe River in the town of Hunt, near Kerrville, northwest of San Antonio. There are several other camps in that area. The city manager says it's been an around the clock rescue and recovery operation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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 sure that we get them food, water. And some of these -- 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 --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Waters down.

RICE: 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)

[21:05:02]

BLITZER: We go now to CNN's Ed Lavandera who's on the scene for us just outside Camp Mystic.

Ed, you've been there all day. It's a heartbreaking story, as we all know. Tell us what you're hearing and seeing now.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we started the day by hearing from the mayor of Kerrville saying that today was going to be a tough day and it turned out to be exactly that. As we've seen, the death toll about double and the search for the missing young girls from Camp Mystic, which is just beyond the river, is where 27 of those young girls are still missing. And throughout the day, we've heard and had confirmation on the deaths of several of those missing girls. But heartbreaking nonetheless because there are still so many families awaiting answers. But with every passing hour, it's unclear that they're going to get the miracle that they are praying and hoping for at this moment.

But this is the scene there in the distance along just beyond that green area that you see there, the grass, that's what they call the flats of Camp Mystic. And these cabins here on the left side, Wolf, this is where those younger campers would be inside those cabins. And those were some of the most dangerous areas to be early Friday morning as the floodwaters raged through this area. And I've spoken with some parents and other counselors were here, and they described what they simply said is just heroic efforts on the part of several counselors, camp counselors, and these are just older teenage kids themselves who had the presence of mind to break out windows on the backside and pull girls out of the cabin windows. And then if you notice along behind those cabins, how it goes up, that's a hill.

That's not a trail or anything that kids would normally use, but in the rain and the thunder and the lightning, those counselors took a lot of those kids to safety up that way, getting them to higher ground because that was the only way out. All of this was swarming with water. The water was barricading the doors going in through the windows. The kids simply had nowhere to go except out that back way. And many of them did escape to higher ground.

But as we know, there are still several dozen more that have not been able to be found at this moment. And, you know, the damage is extensive. You see the large recreation hall there, the side that kind of faces us was, you know, blown out. We've seen, you know, much of this area was, Wolf, evacuated by late yesterday afternoon. We were Ingram yesterday just about seven or eight Miles away at the school where many of these young campers were being reunited with their family members.

And the look of horror and trauma on the faces of these young children was just stunning to see. They had really gone through an ordeal that they will never forget, Wolf.

BLITZER: Ed, what more are we learning about these young girls, basically, it's a girls' camp, seven, eight, nine-year-old girls killed in the flood waters at Camp Mystic.

LAVANDERA: You know, the generational connections to this particular camp and the camps in this region in particular, but this one special because, you know, some of the parents I've spoken with say, you know, they love sending their girls here because it was a camp just for girls where they learned confidence, how to be outdoors, how to resolve problems.

And they said that that showed, one of the parents told me that showed in what you saw the older counselors do as they got those young girls to safety. But, you know, the pictures of the young girls smiling out here, having warm memories, this is a place, Wolf, where you hear over and over where young girls would start coming here in elementary school age and they would continue coming back to Camp Mystic well into their high school years, some of them eventually becoming counselors themselves. So it's a place that many of these young girls feel a very deep connection to.

BLITZER: Yes, it's so heartbreaking to see their faces and learn about them, their ages. Ed Lavandera, you're on the scene for us. We will stay in very close touch with you just outside of Camp Mystic.

I want to turn Right now to CNN's Marybel Gonzalez in Kerrville, where RV park was decimated by the flooding.

Set the scene for us. Marybeth -- Marybel.

MARYBEL GONZALEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just going to come to me --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

GONZALEZ: -- through Q and A.

BLITZER: I think we've lost our connection with Marybel.

Marybel, if you can hear me, stand by. We'll get back to you in just a few moments. Marybel Gonzalez is in Kerrville in Texas, not far away from the worst parts of what's going on.

We're also learning more about the federal government's response to these totally destructive floods. CNN Senior Reporter Betsy Klein is joining us right now. She's over at the White House.

What are we learning, Betsy, about the Trump administration's plans to help these local efforts?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Wolf, local officials say that this is going to require a marathon search and rescue and search and recovery response, and we are starting to see what that is going to look like. It's going to require close coordination between state, local and federal governments. Now, on the federal government side, FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is fully engaged along with the U.S. Coast Guard.

[21:10:10]

And Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said a little bit earlier today that she had requested additional fixed wing aircraft with thermal imaging. Now that is going to be so critical as it starts to get dark in Texas so they can continue those search and rescue efforts. She's also requesting additional helicopters. The Army Corps of Engineer is on the scene along with U.S. customs and Border Protection. Now, Noem said that border patrol agents have special expertise and skills that can be helpful with these search and rescue efforts.

So far, we are hearing state and local officials say that they are getting what they need from the federal government. Texas Governor Greg Abbott requested a federal disaster declaration a short while ago. President Trump is expected to sign that, according to Noem, who says she has repeatedly briefed the president today and continues to stay in close touch. Now Noem is also expected to go to that girls' camp, Camp Mystic, where two dozen young women remain missing at this hour.

We still don't know the extent of the federal response that is going to be required here, whether Congress may need to step up and provide additional aid in the months ahead. But there are two other things to keep in mind as we continue to track the federal response. And one is that the president has been so sharply critical of FEMA, he says he plans to phase it out at end of this year's hurricane season and really shift responsibility to the states. So we're going to start to see how that goes with the state of Texas, how those two can work together.

And separately, the Trump administration's fiscal year 2026 budget, which it is already starting to abide by, has sharp cuts for some of these weather research labs. They provide the data and tools that is so important to forecasting these types of weather events. So we will see if those cuts move ahead going forward. But Secretary Kristi Noem was asked about National Weather Service cuts and whether that impacted some of the alerts or lack thereof. Here is how she defended the Trump administration.

(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 so unpredictable. This water rose so quickly.

Wolf, we also have a little bit of good news. And that is from Congressman August Pfluger who represents Hill Country area of Texas. He says that he and his wife were reunited with their two daughters who were campers at Camp Mystic today. He said in a post to social media, quote, "Please join us as we pray for miracles."

BLITZER: We're praying for miracles indeed. All right, Betsy Klein reporting for us.

Betsy, thank you very, very much.

Up next, we're going to hear directly from one man who went to Texas for a birthday. He and his family ended up running for their lives from the rising flood waters. Much more of our special breaking news coverage that's coming up. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:15:45]

BLITZER: All right, we're just getting an update from authorities down in Texas right now. We are now told that at least 50 people are dead and at least 15 of them are young girls who went to that Camp Mystic in that area. First responders tonight are racing, they're racing to find the 29 people still officially listed as missing as night falls in Texas. Earlier, CNN spoke to one person who narrowly escaped the floods. Here's part of that conversation. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICKY GONZALEZ, KERVILLE FLOOD SURVIVOR: So a big group of us from Houston, we decided what we wanted to have a celebratory weekend celebrating a friend's birthday and celebrating Fourth of July. We get to the Airbnb Thursday night, you know, excited to go fishing and swimming. Early Friday morning around 6:00 in the morning, one of our dogs, Nash, was pawing at the door and woke up one of my friends. And when he woke up, he happened to look out the window and noticed that one of our vehicles were drifting away in the river. And that's when we all then woke up and looked outside and I was in shock.

I just didn't know what to do. I kept hearing a big banging and come to find out one of my friends trucks was lodged underneath the second floor of the house hitting the pillars. And so were just trying to figure what we needed to do, stay calm, make sure everyone was safe. We started blowing up floaties that we had for the pool, air mattresses just to find something that could keep us afloat. I was scared that the house was going to either fall from the stilts or the water was going to raise.

The water just kept raising on the steps, going higher and higher. And I started calling my sister, I guess just to let her know, maybe say my final goodbye because it really was that scary. The water was going very quickly and you can see the river just --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

R. GONZALEZ: -- engulfing everything. The house next to us was floating away.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You saw the house next to you float away?

R. GONZALEZ: It was gone. When went to bed, it was there. When I woke up, it was gone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How did you get out? How were you all -- how did you manage to save yourselves?

R. GONZALEZ: So during that time I was on FaceTime with my sister and I just so happened to look out the window and was showing her one of the concrete fences that fell from the river. And we just happened to see someone driving by further down on the street who was checking one of their properties and I waved and she kind of came around and she was accessing the house and from the outside later we found out it was in worse condition than we thought. So her family, they were able to safely get us out, all 13 of us, including the five dogs, this family, the Garcia family, Leo and Paula, they took us in, they put us in the back of the trucks, they took us to their home, they fed us homemade breakfast. They made sure were dry. Very accommodating and sweet, I mean, just heaven sent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The city manager in Kerrville says search and rescue operations are still the top, top priority as first responders keep searching for survivors and victims tonight from the horrible flooding in Texas, they're still facing very heavy rains even now. CNN Meteorologist Chris Warren has the latest on the flooding and the rain still hitting the area.

CHRIS WARREN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Wolf, this whole disaster unfolding during the overnight hours in just a matter of hours. During the two- day period with a lot of this happening during the dark hours on Friday, more than a foot of rain in pockets in the orange and red area, widespread over several counties, four to six, even six to 10 inches of rain and all of that water flowing into the Guadalupe river basin.

Here's the radar recap. So we're starting off late Thursday night, so midnight Friday, going into the dark hours into early Friday morning. Here's Kerr County right here. And we'll just watch and see how heavy rain that was right there. After the rain upstream happened then you had that big punch, that very heavy intense rain and all of the lightning that just had to be absolutely horrific for the people that were dealing with it at the time.

And then came the flooding and more rain continuing on top of that right into the afternoon before it eventually calmed down and dried out a bit. And the water levels did go down significantly, but not as significantly as they went up, going from less than a foot in depth. Imagine that if you're wearing rubber boots, you could walk across the river most of the week and not get your feet wet and then in a matter of hours, goes up to 23.4 feet, a two story home, that's how high. Less than a foot up to about two stories in rain, that fast, it was a wave of water going downstream.

[21:20:19]

And during the overnight hours, during the dark hours as well, the National Weather Service busy issuing these flash flood warnings from midnight to noon. This is all the ones they issued and the highest level or flash flood emergencies and that did include there the Guadalupe River as well. So now here's the high resolution future radar bit of a break today, but there will be more rain later on tonight and first thing tomorrow morning for the search areas here. We'll see by the afternoon and evening hours, heavy rain, even some thunderstorms nearby. It's possible it could be shift a little bit.

So just a big heads up right there. The amount of rain, Wolf, not nearly what we saw over the past couple of days, generally speaking about two to four, maybe a little bit more than four at times as well.

BLITZER: All right, Chris Warren, thank you very, very much.

Cary Burgess is a local meteorologist with very deep ties to the area is joining us right now.

Cary, I know you were born and raised in Texas Hill Country. Describe what the terrain is like. Is it normal to see enormous flooding like this in the area?

CARY BURGESS, METEOROLOGIST, KERRVILLE DAILY TIMES: Well, this is an abnormal flood event obviously, but it has happened several times in the last 100 years. You'd call this a 100-year flood. And we've had about four or five of these in the last 100 years, 1987 being the most notable. We have some very rugged terrain here and instead of your normal dirt, you are actually dealing with a lot of limestone rock which acts almost like pavement. So when it rains in these hills, this is not level, I know a lot of folks think of Texas as being flat, that's not the case in the Texas Hill Country.

It's very rugged and some terrain changes of up to 500 to 1,000 feet can occur in short amount of distance. So that water just runs off from the hills and down into those drainage basins like the Guadalupe River. So for example, this one here yesterday was caused with of course the tropical remnants that you've already heard about from Barry. This has happened before though, in 1987 being the most historic and most recent flood that caused fatalities like this. Similar to this event, it was in July of 1987 and 10 campers were killed near Comfort, which is just downstream from Kerrville and the Guadalupe River.

That gauge that morning, it was an overnight event again, much like this one while everyone was sleeping, it started to rain. It wasn't exactly a noisy night, no thunderstorms. I was here for that event, I woke up, and the river was visible from several miles away, where it normally wouldn't be visible. And 10 campers were caught off guard downriver towards Comfort along the Guadalupe that morning. And it crested at 37.4 feet at that Sidney Baker Bridge in downtown Kerrville.

This one was a little under 37 foot. So in Kerrville, it was a little bit lower this time than the last event. But one thing that was a little bit different is that we had two cores of heavy precipitation. And there are two forks of the Guadalupe River west of Kerrville. There's a south fork west of Hunt and a north fork, and it comes together right at Hunt, Texas, about 15 to 20 miles west of Kerrville.

And these two areas picked up 10 to 15 inches or more of rainfall at the same time. So that combined to create a larger wave of water. It caught a lot of people off guard. And in some cases, it only takes 10 to 15 minutes to reach levels and speeds where you have time to evacuate. If you have that much time because of that rocky terrain, you can walk across the river up there in some cases. It's been in a drought here for several years, and we busted that with this rain event almost in less than 24 hours.

My family roots have been here since the 1800s and --

BLITZER: Was there -- Cary, let me just ask you --

BURGESS: Yes.

BLITZER: -- people are wondering, was there a way to see this horrible situation coming?

BURGESS: I think that historically, the people who are from this area have grown accustomed to that river running out of its banks. It hasn't happened in a while because we've had dry weather. We've had a lot of newcomers to this area. The Hill Country is a rapidly growing part of Texas. There are a lot of people, even that have moved in from out of state, so they may not know about this rugged terrain.

But the flash flood watch was posted the day before for Kerrville and Kerr County. And I think what aggravated the situation in this case was that you had July 4th holiday. There was supposed to be a river festival that evening, and people were gathered near the river expecting that to take place on July 4th. But unfortunately, the water wave rolled in. So a lot of these RV parks were full of people from out of town.

[21:25:03]

And those camps are typically a hotspot during July as well, typically are not impacted at the level that they were around Camp Mystic and Heart of the Hills Ranch and some of those places that suffered extreme damage. So I think this event in that capacity was far worse than 1987. I think maybe that is what really caught people off guard more than anything else.

BLITZER: I just wondering if you could tell us a little bit about the Guadalupe River, Cary. Where is it in relation to the devastation that we're seeing?

BURGESS: Well, the Guadalupe River runs right through downtown Kerrville. So that river typically is a park area down there in downtown. A lot of people go down there. There's a music festival that was set for that -- for Friday night, last night, and a fireworks display that did not take place. But the river there just runs right through the heart of Kerrville.

But a lot of people don't realize that the head actually come from underground springs in West Kirk County. And since that happened in such a shallow portion of that river, the western part of Kerr County, you can walk across the river and sometimes not see any water in it. And in this case it was almost nearly dry because of the drought. It had been running sluggish and below average. So I think that combination of just getting heavy rainfall and keep in mind this didn't fall over a period of two days, this fell in some places 10 to 15 inches of rain in less than three or four hours.

And that's a ton of water. I think it's something like 2 trillion gallons of water was produced by this flood in that river bed alone as the water comes down about a 30 to 40 foot wall as it crested in Kerrville. So it doesn't gradually run or rise. You don't have time to prepare for that. It is actually in some cases a 10 to 20 foot wall of water that hits you out of nowhere.

So and the timing of it was awful in the middle of the night when a lot of folks were sleeping. And again --

BLITZER: Yes.

BURGESS: -- it's just -- is very uncommon. So the fatality count here was, I think, just excessively. That excessively contributed to that factor just because so many people were here in town on a holiday weekend and it happened in overnight hours.

BLITZER: Such a heartbreaking development indeed. Cary Burgess, thanks very much --

BURGESS: Yes.

BLITZER: -- for joining us. And once again --

BURGESS: Yes, sir.

BLITZER: -- the latest death toll, officially announced just a few moments ago, has now risen to 50 people in Texas, at least 15 of them, 15 of them are children from that Camp Mystic, an all girls' camp. We'll have much more of CNN's special live coverage that's coming up right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:32:20]

BLITZER: We're certainly going to have much more on the breaking news out of Texas where some 50 people, now officially that number has just been updated, 50 people are confirmed dead, many of them children. But there's other important news we're also following tonight, including in the Middle East tonight. Tonight, the Israeli prime minister's office says a delegation will head to Doha, Qatar tomorrow for negotiations on a cease fire deal with Hamas.

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office says the changes that Hamas is seeking to make -- to make to this proposal in the meantime are, quote, "unacceptable." CNN Jerusalem Bureau Chief Oren Liebermann filed this report from Tel Aviv, where thousands of Israelis have gathered calling for an end to the war.

OREN LIEBERMANN, JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Here in Hostages Square, the crowd of thousands knows the significance of the moment. This is a crowd that's been out here week after week, almost every week for more than the past year and a half since the war has started. But they know that this moment is different. This is critical. With a new proposal on the table from Qatar that was put forward earlier this week, Israel accepted that proposal on Tuesday, a major development late Friday night where Hamas said they responded positively and were ready to enter proximity talks. And then on Saturday night, ahead of a full cabinet meeting from the Israeli government, an Israeli official tells us Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized an Israeli delegation to go to Doha in Qatar for proximity talks. That's one of the last stages before a deal where negotiators shuttle back and forth between Israel and Hamas to get those final details done. It's not a final deal right now, and there could still be challenges ahead. But this, from the expectations we have seen, is the most positivity and the highest expectation we've seen in about half a year. And the crowd here knows it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's too bad that it's not going to be a whole deal that brings everyone back. I think the fact that those are, you know, sort of dividing to steps that are going to take for so long, that's very dangerous. But obviously it's better than, you know, nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: The crowd here, thousands of them, are calling for a complete deal. All of the hostages hold for a complete end to the war. But they know realistically that's not what's on the table. This is a partial deal for about half the living hostages and about half the deceased hostages over 60 days. Still, it's what's right there on the table, and it's what they're pushing the Israeli government to take.

That's what we've heard from all of the speakers here and from all of the attendees we have spoken with, those who've been out here over and over again trying to get to this point and trying to do what they can to push it to make sure that ceasefire deal comes into effect and as quickly as possible.

Oren Liebermann, CNN in Tel Aviv.

BLITZER: Oren, thank you very much. We'll see what happens at Doha, Qatar tomorrow. And then on Monday when the Prime Minister Netanyahu is in Washington for his meeting at the White House with President Trump. These are important developments.

[21:35:09]

The White House and National Security Correspondent for the New York Times, David Sanger, is joining us right now. He's also a CNN Political and National Security Analyst.

David, thanks very much for joining us. Israel, as you know, is calling the changes that Hamas wants to make to the proposal unacceptable. We what sticky points do you see in these negotiations?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Wolf, thanks for having me on. He -- Israel has not said and Prime Minister Netanyahu has not said what is not acceptable here. But we've been through this so many times that we have a pretty good guess and that is that at the end of these 60 days, of course, Israel wants to be able to continue the war after the truce is over until Hamas is defeated, because they cannot live with Hamas still running the territory and running Gaza. And of course, Hamas' view is the opposite, that this has got to lead to some kind of a permanent ceasefire in which they do remain in some kind of role, though what that role is not clear.

And Wolf, if this sounds like where were six months or a year ago, it's because it is. You know, this has not changed. What has changed is Netanyahu's confidence now that he has been through the 12 days of war with Iran and emerged having almost totally dominated the skies there, the Iranians barely were able to respond. And of course, once the United States came in and struck the three major nuclear sites, we had all feared that there would be a regional war, that hasn't happened.

BLITZER: As I mentioned, Prime Minister Netanyahu is expected to meet on Monday at the White House with President Trump. The president says he's optimistic a cease fire deal in Gaza could be agreed to next week. Do you think he pushes Netanyahu towards this? And does Netanyahu listen to President Trump?

SANGER: Well, Netanyahu has not listened to President Trump very much. He owes President Trump a huge one here for having come in on Israel's side and taken that military action in Iran. The last time that Netanyahu was in Washington, it was to push the president to do that. And he got a fair back of -- fair bit of push back. But that said, I think what Netanyahu has learned is there's not much of a price to be paid for defying the president on this issue, that President Trump is not willing to issue any kind of sanction or cost to Israel for holding back and waiting for the total defeat of Hamas and he's not pressuring them, particularly on how they're delivering food and so forth.

So my guess is that this mostly be a celebration of the victory in the -- in the conflict with Iran, a victory that might be a temporary one if Iran reconstitutes its nuclear program.

BLITZER: Yes, that's another development that we're watching. Our David Sanger, as usual, thank you very, very much.

Up next, we'll get back to the breaking news in Texas, where the flooding has now left at least 50 people dead and more than -- or at least close to 30 people still missing. And we'll have a live report at all the latest developments, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:43:26]

BLITZER: Welcome back to our special breaking news coverage of the catastrophic flooding in Texas. At least 50 people are now confirmed dead, including 15 children. Officials say 29 people are still missing. Right now rescues are taking place in several parts of Central Texas, including Kerrville. And that's where we find CNN's Marybel Gonzalez.

Marybel, what are you seeing there now? M. GONZALEZ: Yes, Wolf, this is no doubt one of the hard hit areas, but unfortunately, this is the case in south so many parts along the Guadalupe River, the river that you see right behind us. We are standing at the Blue Oak RV park. Here, Wolf, is where there were several RVs, and the property owner tells us those were swept away on the night, early morning of the July 4th holiday. As you can see behind me, there's also a mangled car.

Now, first responders were here just moments ago. Actually, they just left. They were working on that car for several times -- several hours, I should say. There were volunteers on the scene. They thought that somebody was stuck inside that car.

They even put up tents to block the view from the public in case they were to find somebody. But at the very end, we're told by the property owner that they did not find anyone in that car. But we know that there has been people that were missing from this RV park. The property owner, Lorena Guillen (ph), says there was at least one family that she heard herd that got swept away in the rivers. This was a family of five -- in the river, this was a family of five, two parents and three small children.

[21:45:03]

She told me the oldest looked to be about six years old. She lives on this property and she heard the screaming and when she came out, she realized that that family was clinging to a tree. They did get swept off by the current and it's unclear if they have been found. Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Marybel Gonzalez in Kerrville, Texas, for us. Mary Bell, thank you very, very much.

Joining us now on the phone is Texas Congressman Chip Roy.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. I know you've been watching all of this unfold. What's the latest information you can share with us right now?

ROY: Yes, Wolf, I mean, the reporter had it right. I was actually literally standing in that same location where she was just talking at that camp site, which is different than like, you know, kids camps where all of those trailer homes and RVs and stuff were washed out. There's a story that's not as big national news about the non-children that have been -- that have lost their lives in this process. And we think that number is going to be a lot bigger than people understand. We're working hard right now to try to find everybody that was lost.

Obviously, the kids are front and center. You know, I just met with a bunch of the families of the individuals who have not yet had their children identified. Obviously, it's hard down here, but I can't say enough about the coordinated effort local, state and federal in terms of what's been going on. There's 1100 boots on the ground, state and federal, that are helping the local law enforcement and they're doing the Lord's work. They got 850 people, those kids out of the I think there's 18 camps in that stretch of the Guadalupe River and we've got, you know, a bunch of them removed. But obviously we've got these that are missing and that we've lost some children. So, you know, we've got 43 confirmed. Obviously, there are some numbers that have been reported a little higher, and we do believe that number is going to increase not just in terms of children, but in terms of the adults and others along the way at the various RV parks.

BLITZER: It's so heartbreaking to hear these developments. Have you spoken, Congressman, to some of the families and if you have, what are they telling you?

ROY: Yes, I've spoken to families who have recovered their children. I met one of my law school classmates down here who was literally picking up his daughter from one of the camps where they'd been isolated and had been without food and water for the last 24 hours. We were able to get them removed with air assets. I was able to meet with some other people. One of my kid's schoolmates was a story of a girl that was floating on a mattress for a few hours night before last and was able to be recovered and she's at home with her family.

But I spent time with the families today that have not had good news. They've either been delivered the bad news that their child has been found or they've still not been able identify their child. And it's heartbreaking. I don't know what to say. I've got a 15-year-old, I've got a 14-year-old. It's heartbreaking.

But it's a resilient community. A lot of people rallying around. There's churches, there's people of faith, there's a lot of prayer and we're, you know, we're working hard to deliver and make sure, you know, we rescue mission as long as we can hold out hope that we can find anybody. And a recovery mission, you know, after that.

BLITZER: One of the biggest challenges, Congressman, that you see right now is this effort to find people who are missing continues and is underway, I'm worried about more rain that is now forecast.

ROY: Yes, well, we got a break today. It cleared up a decent amount. It was a little misty and foggy this morning. I did a helicopter ride with low visibility for a bit. But you know, it's just tough terrain right now because there's been so much stuff washed out.

I mean like again, the reporter who was down there at that RV park where I was at earlier, there's just debris everywhere. And so, you know, you have to navigate that and navigate the terrain down there. But you know, hopefully they'll continue to have hope and be able to find anybody if there's any remaining survivors. Obviously, as time goes on, it becomes, you know, more likely a recovery mission. But you know, the governor said it today, we're continuing to operate, that it's a rescue mission as long as there's at least a chance.

And combing the area again, like I said, 1,100 bodies down here, 900 different assets from the state. We've had volunteers that have been able to get -- you know, that are vetted and people we've worked with before that are out there engaged. And so, you know, we continue to try to do the best to rescue and recover.

BLITZER: Do you think this area of Texas had enough advance warning, Congressman, that something horrible like this was on the way?

ROY: You know, I'm not going to make a judgment call on all of that. You know, that's for the after action review. You know, we'll need to look at it and understand between NOAA and between the stuff and the feds in the state and how it was reported. Things can always better, right? Things can always be overplayed as well.

[21:50:04]

There's a lot of, you know, impulse, I'm not saying you won't, but in general, right, the media, they're asking the question, I understand why to, you know, do the sort of finger pointing, figure it out after. Like -- look, right now we're still finding bodies, we're still doing the tough work.

And I'll just say this, I mean, people need to understand, like watch the videos of the flood and how quickly the water rose. It's extraordinary. My family goes down to that part of Kerrville every year for Fourth of July. The stage set up for the concert with Robert Earl Keen, William Beckmann, a bunch of Texas artists. And that flood level went from zero.

It went up 26 feet in about less than an hour. And that's just an extraordinary amount of flash flooding. It was a unique storm, a unique set of circumstances. Maybe there could have been more warning, maybe we could add, you know, information, I'll reserve judgment on all that later. That's what hearings are for. And we'll make determinations out and improve the system. But right now we're just in the recovery and rescue business.

BLITZER: They certainly, the authorities are going to -- state, local and federal are going to see what happened and learn lessons to make sure if they could have done better, they would do it the next time to prevent this kind of horrible situation from happening.

ROY: Yes.

BLITZER: Texas Congressman Chip Roy, thanks so much for joining us.

ROY: Thanks, Wolf. I want to give a shout out to people who have done great jobs saving 850 lives too. So thanks and God bless.

BLITZER: Yes. And I applaud all those who are working so hard to rescue these individuals right now. It is so, so important.

Congressman, thanks once again.

BLITZER: And CNN Senior National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem is joining us right now.

Juliette, some officials have blamed the National Weather Service Forecast for a lack of information. What else do you think might have contributed to this catastrophe?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So there's a number of ways to look at this we don't know yet. So I want to reiterate what the congressman said and urge him and in their oversight capacity to do the honest lessons learned, not to place blame, but because there will be more floods and there will be more damage. And the numbers that we're seeing, and unfortunately -- and the number of casualties, the numbers that we're going to see, I think overnight over the next 24 hours are going to make -- you know, are even going to be more heart wrenching.

OK, so one theory or one explanation is National Weather Service and NOAA either did not provide accurate information, in other words, that the weather was just hard to predict or did do so in a timely fashion. And there's just a -- in my world, there's a lot of debate about that right now. People are -- there were notifications -- July 4th and depletions in the National Weather Service and NOAA which are being speculated as maybe a cause because of DOGE and firings, we don't know right now. So that would be one line of inquiry.

The second line of inquiry is was the information available put out enough -- how this works, Wolf, is once there's the warnings, then and the whole system unfolds in terms of notifications. Was there too much of a delay between what the National Weather Service was telling the local emergency managers and what they were doing on the ground? So that -- those are going to be really the only two explanations. I don't -- people get harmed in horrible disasters. But we cannot say, well, this was a fluke or, you know, people die in a flood.

This -- we have to understand how the numbers got like this and why there was this gap in understanding that a flash flood was coming. This is an area that encounters flash floods and the kind of deaths we're going to see. Where it's -- these numbers are going to go much higher unfortunately.

BLITZER: As you know, Juliette, President Trump and his administration have promised to get rid of FEMA --

KAYYEM: Yes.

BLITZER: -- the Federal Emergency --

KAYYEM: Yes.

BLITZER: -- Management Agency, giving states that responsibility. How would that affect the federal assistance that Texas Governor Abbott is now asking for?

KAYYEM: Yes. Yes. We don't know yet. So the person running FEMA now is, I think the third so far because there's this -- we don't quite know what the plan is for FEMA, but just here's how it works and that's why it's hard to understand what the White House actually means. Locals always respond. The federal government never is the first responders, always then we say locals.

Then we say, locals response as state -- the state government provides capacity, so if they need more help, the state is going to deploy resources. So we saw Texas's state emergency manager having a very prominent role and then the federal government supports. In other words, do we need more helicopters, as Secretary Noem was saying? And that's a very, very sophisticated and mature process that worked today, in fact, that you saw that.

[21:55:09]

I think what President Trump means is the recovery. Is that the kind of declarations that we saw Governor Abbott ask for quite publicly? I thought that was interesting. You don't normally see that sort of wanted to put the White House in a public position, that the White House wants to stop providing relief funds to these communities. And what worries a lot of us who watch this is that those decisions will be made not on merit, not on need, not on what or harm, but will be based on political calculations and because we don't know what the White House has in mind.

Disasters are always political. We should all, you know -- there's nothing surprising about our times when it comes to politics -- I mean, to disasters. Disasters are the fight for limited resources during times of need. What we don't want to see is that the decision to provide support to Americans, Democrats or Republicans is based on whether Trump likes the governor. And I think you saw this governor who's close with Donald Trump, remind the president of how supportive he is of Texas.

BLITZER: Yes, he did. All right, Juliette Kayyem, thank you very much. And we'll have much more of the breaking news coverage on this horrible flooding in Texas and the impact. We'll be right back.

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