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Official: At Least 50 Dead, 29 Missing In Texas Floods; Noem Defends Federal Govt. Response To Texas Disaster; Tropical Storm Chantal Forms In The Atlantic; Palestinians: More Than 50 Killed In New Strikes On Gaza; Israeli Protesters Turn Up Pressure For Ceasefire Deal; Ukraine Claims Strike On Russian Air Base; 14-Year-Old Camper Recounts Surviving Deadly Texas Floods. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired July 05, 2025 - 22:00   ET

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

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[22:00:52]

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 live breaking news coverage in Texas.

At least 50 people are confirmed dead from massive flooding and at least 15 of them are children. 29 more are missing right now. One of the areas hit hardest is Camp Mystic, a girls' summer camp in Kerr County, Texas. 27 of the missing are children from that camp.

The parents of two young girls confirmed to CNN that their daughters have died. 13-year-old Blair Harper and 11 year old Brooke Harper. Their family tells us that Blair was a, quote, "gifted student and had a very 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."

Other campers confirmed dead include nine year old Janie Hunt, who you see here, nine-year-old Lila Bonner, Sarah Marsh and eight-year-old Renee Smajstrla seen in this photo. Her family confirmed her death to CNN and her uncle told us that it's truly, truly devastating.

This is a look at one of the many rescue scenes that have happened since the flooding started. The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, says emergency crews are working nonstop to save people.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

GREG ABBOTT, TEXAS 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.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BLITZER: Let's hope. Camp Mystic, by the way, is near the Guadalupe River in the town of Hunt, Texas. It's near Kerrville and northwest of San Antonio, as you can see on this map. Torrential rains caused the river to rise more than 20, 20 feet in less than two hours.

CNN Senior National Correspondent Ed Lavandera has more on Camp Mystic and what happened there.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Just beyond the Guadalupe River over there is Camp Mystic. And these are the cabins where so many young people were swept away by the floodwaters. 27 by last count still missing. And at this point, every hour that has gone by, it becomes harder and harder to hope that these children can still be found alive.

But I have talked to a number of people who had children or were counselors at the camp, and they described -- these cabins that you see here in the distance, this is where the younger children would stay. This is kind of where you start out and then you graduate your way up through the ranks here as you get older.

But several people tell us that as the floodwaters came up in the middle of the night, the children couldn't get out this way toward us because that's where the floodwaters were coming from. The water had them pinned inside, that it was the young counselors. And by young, I mean, these are just 18, 19-year-olds who were inside the cabin with those children unable to get away.

Several people tell us that a lot of those counselors were breaking windows in the back of those buildings and then pulling kids through the windows and -- in their pajamas, making their way up through the hillside there to get to higher ground and to safety. That is some of the heroic work that these young people managed to do to help save as many lives as possible.

There were some 750 kids at this camp. And you can see how extensive the damage is. First of all, just look at the ferociousness that these floodwaters came through, uprooting massive trees and just decimating the riverbed here as everything was rushing downstream.

[22:05:04]

When you look at the campground here, you can see the recreation hall is still standing for the most part, but part of the wall there ripped apart. You know, all of this was underwater. And that is the one thing that has been really hard to kind of describe in all of this is just the amount of water that these floods brought, where we're standing, was underwater at some point.

And consider how high above the river we are at this point, gives you a sense that all of this was barreling downstream. People were just simply unable to get out of the way as these floodwaters went up as fast as they did. And that is why this situation has been so extremely deadly.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, near Camp Mystic, Texas.

BLITZER: And a special thanks to Ed for his truly excellent reporting.

CNN's Marybel Gonzalez is joining us now live from Kerrville, Texas. Marybel, update our viewers. What can you tell us?

MARYBEL GONZALEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Wolf, that tragedy, that devastation extends here to Kerrville. We are at the Blue Oak Park RV Park. Now, this RV Park was gearing up for the Fourth of July celebration. The property owner, Lorena Guillen, she tells us everything was in place to make a perfect holiday. The weather had been great.

They had been experiencing a bout of drought, but luckily they had gotten some rain earlier that day. So that meant fireworks. They hadn't been able to light the fireworks due to the drought. She had even spent $1,000 to have those fireworks and set them off right here at this RV Park for all of the visitors to enjoy.

But that changed, and it changed very quickly, she said. Around 3.30 in the morning on Friday is when she said this, the Guadalupe River that you see behind us, had swelled so much. There were residents that were screaming for -- to help the families that were trapped.

And they were also trying to tell everybody to get out that the conditions were getting really bad. One of those families, a family of five, she told us, Lorena told us, that it was a family with three children. The oldest looked to be about six years old.

Now, that family, the RV that they were in had been washed away. They were clinging onto a tree, she said. But, unfortunately, they were swept away by the current. It's unclear, Wolf, if they are part of the people who have been found. That is the hope. But, of course, we just do not know yet.

At an adjacent property, at another campsite, she said there are 40 people unaccounted for. People don't know where they are. And, of course, this is an issue that we're hearing over and over again. Because of the connection issues, cell phone service has been spotty. And, as you can see, it is really hard to find people in these conditions.

Wolf, there are downed trees you can see behind us. There are slabs of concrete. And Lorena said that water was coming so strong. It was knocking down everything in its path. It was knocking cars, entire vehicles into these 200-year-old trees. Some of those trees completely uprooted on this property.

There is nothing left here except for the dirt and the water that you see behind us. And mangled cars, including one that is just right behind us that you can see in the distance.

BLITZER: Those cars were thrown around, if you will.

All right, Marybel Gonzalez in Kerrville, Texas. Marybel, thank you very much. Volunteers, meanwhile, are battling through very dangerous debris and downed trees to help find any survivors. A member of the United Cajun Navy, a volunteer rescue group from Louisiana, says the outlook grows bleaker with each passing hour. Nick Sortor told CNN that search teams working in pitch-black darkness overnight had trouble communicating because radios were down and cell phones didn't work. Low-hanging clouds are also making it difficult for helicopters to reach the area, slowing down further rescue efforts.

Brian Trascher is the vice president for United Cajun Navy. He's joining us now from New Orleans. Brian, thanks very much for joining us. I know your teams have been battling very tough conditions on the ground, and we're grateful to all of them for what they're doing. Give us a sense of what rescue efforts have been like.

BRIAN TRASCHER, VICE PRESIDENT, UNITED CAJUN NAVY: You know, it's been really challenging. It's like deja vu all over again in western North Carolina following Hurricane Helene, where you had mountainous or, in this case, hill territory that was inundated by an extreme amount of rainfall. And, of course, gravity has nowhere to go but down, and it made its way down into these lower valley areas, unfortunately, where a lot of these youth camps were located.

Extremely fast kinetic flood waves, and that's made rescue efforts extremely challenging. You know, we're used to swift water rescue, but we're used to doing it in, you know, kind of slick floodwaters.

[22:10:06]

This is more like rapids. Like, we really could use, like, people who are very experienced at whitewater rafting, I guess you could say, to help. So we kind of transitioned. We initially had sent an airboat team out, but we transitioned to some of our partners to send up helicopters because that seemed to be the most effective way to get immediate extractions done.

BLITZER: The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, says the search mission is focused on rescuing victims who are still alive. How crucial is this time, this time framework right now?

TRASCHER: The first 48 is the most crucial. You know, when people are -- when they're in floodwaters, obviously they get wet. When the sun goes down, temperatures go down. You can have hypothermia. If they haven't had enough hydration or food, they can start to experience mild forms of hallucinations or dementia, which affects their decision-making capabilities and overall survivability.

So every hour counts. It's crucial. The closer you get to that 48- hour, you know, 58-hour mark, the less a chance for survival. And I don't want to, you know, throw any kind of grim, you know, projections on anybody because we're hoping for the best. But as soon as we can get to the people that are missing, the better.

BLITZER: You're absolutely right. What do families, survivors, and residents need the most right now? TRASCHER: They need prayers. You know, they are people who have not heard from their loved ones, really just need support. We are in the process of sending -- we have our own chaplain, Tony Dickey, who's a chaplain for the United Cajun Navy, and he's got decades of experience with the Alabama State Police, and he's got decades of experience in bereavement, counseling for families and who've lost loved ones, who have loved ones that are missing.

And he's also has partners with him who specialize in first responders, because we unfortunately see a spike in suicide rates among first responders after they go through traumatic events like this. But, you know, we need to just kind of hope for the best. One of the things that we've been pushing is that communication is everything.

We learned that after Hurricane Lee in Western North Carolina. So we've been fortunate to get some donated Starlink units out into the field, trying to get signals up to where people can connect and get in touch with their loved ones. And fortunately, SpaceX has been cooperating, and they're trying to outfit every emergency responder vehicle in that area with Starlink, and they usually waive connection fees like they did in North Carolina. So we appreciate SpaceX for that.

BLITZER: Brian, what are your United Cajun Navy teams and other volunteers, for that matter, and first responders need mostly on the ground right now?

TRASCHER: You know, we really -- we're following the lead of the local emergency managers. And, you know, at some point they're going to transition this from a search and rescue to a search and recovery. And we have assets and capabilities for both scenarios. We've already deployed a team of K-9 dogs to help with searches, and we are continuing to send supplies to our volunteers that are already there.

We were fortunate to be invited by the O'Reilly Auto Parts Store in Kerrville, Texas, to set up shop in their parking lot to cook and feed first responders, our volunteers, and anybody else who just needs a hot meal. But right now, because of the nature of the missing being adolescent girls, we have not put out a wide call for volunteers, usually what we call special ops volunteers, because we just don't have the time to vet new people when we're looking for minors. You just have to be very careful with people you send in to help to avoid, you know, bad actors looking for opportunities.

BLITZER: Yes, good point. What other relief does the United Cajun Navy provide to families and survivors?

TRASCHER: So, you know, we have traditionally -- we're really good at picking out, you know, what we call the first 72 packages. It's basically what we've seen over the years that we've done this. The first 72 hours when people have potentially lost everything due to a fire or flood, something like that.

And it's, you know, snacks, water, hygiene equipment, just basic supplies, just to try to get them through until they can figure out what their game plan is for relocation. In this case, you know, most of these folks had sent their children to these camps. So they're at home and most of them are fine at home. But they're just obviously beside themselves waiting for word for the loved ones to get some kind of word that they're OK.

[22:15:07]

And again, at some point, you know, you get to where it gets past the point of where survivability chances go down. And that's where we offer the bereavement services, like through our chaplain and through partners that we have that have experience in this. We don't want to, you know, throw any grim projections like that out there, but inevitably, that's what happens.

So the best case scenario, you bring somebody's loved one home to them safe. And then the second best scenario is you bring, you know, someone's loved one home so that that family can have closure and observe their, you know, religious customs, things like that, because it's way better than just not knowing what happened.

BLITZER: Brian Trascher is vice president of the United Cajun Navy. Thanks to everything your teams are doing right now, saving lives and hopefully finding survivors. Appreciate it very, very much.

TRASCHER: Thanks for having us.

BLITZER: And coming up, we'll have much more on the breaking news, including warnings that more rainfall could actually be headed for parts of Texas in the coming days. We'll speak to a meteorologist about what to expect. This is serious. Stay with us.

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BLITZER: We're following the major breaking news tonight. Search and rescue operations are still underway in Texas as crews continue looking for the 29 missing people, 27 of whom are children. The kids went missing from a girls' summer camp near Kerrville, Texas, when flash floods swept through the area, turning the nearby river into a torrent.

At least 50 people are now confirmed dead, including at least 15 children. Kerrville officials say rescue efforts will continue through the night into Sunday until they find every single person. The Trump administration says it will honor the disaster declaration that Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently signed.

[22:20:02]

Joining us now from Kerrville, Texas, is Louis Amestoy, editor and publisher of the Kerr County Lead. The newspaper there. Thanks very much, Louis, for joining us. I know you've been speaking to residents. What have they been telling you?

LOUIS AMESTOY, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER, THE KERR COUNTY LEAD: Well, I mean, they've shared a lot of stories with us here. You know, people are in shock over this. You know, the damage that's been done to the river. You know, if you're used to seeing the Guadalupe River, you're used to seeing it look a certain way, and it is that's all gone now.

And then you top the number of people that are still missing. And we have a very high estimate that we're working on with multiple people here in the community. And the death toll, which was last reported at 43, 28 adults, 15 children. It's hard to comprehend this right now.

And I was out earlier walking, you know, around the community and people were just like in shock. They were dazed by what they saw, especially here in Kerrville, where the river is -- runs right through the middle of town.

BLITZER: Tell us a little bit about the communities who live in Kerrville.

AMESTOY: Well, Kerrville is, you know, a city of 25,000, about 52,000 live here in Kerr County. And we have a smaller communities like we have the city of Ingram, which is just the west of Kerrville. And then you have Hunt, which is where most of the damage -- severe damage has been played out.

We also had Center Point, which is to the east of us. And Center Point's another small city on the river as well, which was deeply impacted by Friday's storm. It's mostly a retirement community, but for a lot of people in Texas, they don't realize -- I mean, you don't realize like this area is beloved by many, many people because of its unique terrain, of the river and of these summer camps that generations of Texans have gone to.

Mystic is one of the most famous of the summer camps here in Kerr County. And I think there's about 18 of them here and they're all historic. They're all beautiful. And they're always packed with kids this time of year.

When the other part of this, too, is there's a lot of recreation here, too. So people come here and they go camping here along the river. And that's where we've seen some of the biggest problems of that.

BLITZER: Yes. What more can you tell us about the missing children from Camp Mystic?

AMESTOY: We get still a lot of conflicting reports on how many children are actually missing. I had a report earlier this morning of at least 15 or 16 girls that were unaccounted for. And Wolf, this is the hard part about this for me is a lot of these little girls are eight years old or seven or nine years old little girls. And we just don't know what's happened with them.

There's a little bit of a higher number. I'm not exactly sure of why there's a difference there. But the numbers I got it from this morning were from parents, including a parent of a child who died at Mystic.

BLITZER: It is so, so heartbreaking and our deepest condolences, deepest condolences to the families. Sweet little girls suddenly have got killed in an incident like this. It's so heartbreaking indeed.

AMESTOY: You know -- hey, Wolf? BLITZER: Yes?

AMESTOY: One thing to think about -- just real quick, is that this is a community that gives back. This is a community that rallies. This is the community that stepped up and supported the community of ALDI. And I am confident we are going to come back stronger from this than ever before.

BLITZER: Well, good luck to you. Good luck to everybody in Kerrville.

Thanks very much, Louis Amestoy. Appreciate what you're doing.

And when we return, we're going to bring you the latest developments on the tragedy in Texas. Dozens killed by flash floods and dozens more still missing. The latest on the search and rescue efforts, we'll update you on that when we come back.

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[22:27:07]

BLITZER: Now back to the breaking news out of Central Texas where at least 50 people have been killed by catastrophic flash flooding. Kerr County officials say 28 adults and 15 children have died in that county alone. Search and rescue missions are ongoing.

Right now, 29 people are still officially listed as missing, including 27 children from a private summer camp in Kerrville, Texas, Camp Mystic. The camp is located along the Guadalupe River, which rose more than 20 feet in less than two hours on Friday. The Kerrville city manager says they have been evacuating hundreds of people from other campsites by the river.

Joining us now, Senior Meteorologist at MyRadar, Matthew Cappucci. Matthew, thanks very much for joining us. First of all, give us an update on the current weather conditions and what people can expect in the hours and days ahead because there's a lot of expectation about yet more rain.

MATTHEW CAPPUCCI, SENIOR METEOROLOGIST, MYRADAR: Wolf, that there is right now the air mass is so incredibly juiced up still. We have a figure we call PWATs, Precipitable Water indices. It basically tells you how much water is in a column of atmosphere bottom to top. And every column of the atmosphere is still holding more than 2, 2.5 inches worth of liquid equivalent.

And so if you get more downpours, the environment is primed for heavy downpours. That said, I think the bulk of the activity is pushing east of I-35, allowing the hardest hit parts to sort of begin the recovery process. But to give folks some geography, this is part of the hill country of Texas. The Permian Basin is farther west.

This is the Edward Plateau area. The terrain is very hilly. In fact, they grow grapes there. They have wineries there. And so when you have heavy flooding in this area, you get all the water to wash downhill into only a few streams and tributaries. And very quickly you get rapid rises in water.

Now, this area only averages about, like, 30 to 35 inches worth of precipitation per year. Keep in mind, many of these places saw the equivalent of, like, four or five months worth of water in a single morning. That's why the flooding was so bad. That's why the water rises were so bad. And that's why the results are really speaking for themselves.

BLITZER: We all know, having covered extreme weather over the years, that extreme weather isn't necessarily new to Texas. Why did this area see such devastating historic flooding?

CAPPUCCI: So last Monday in Tamaulipas, Mexico, Tropical Storm Barry moved ashore. And it didn't really do too much for the United States other than truck an incredibly moisture-rich air mass into Texas. Over the past five, six days, that air mass advected or migrated north. So we had antecedent very wet conditions in Texas.

The atmosphere was primed, but we needed a forcing mechanism, some sort of feature to get the downpours going. There were no broad, large cold fronts or anything like that, no big low-pressure systems, so nothing obvious. We knew that if a downpour was to form, it would have a ton of moisture to work with.

[22:30:05]

And what wound up happening was that storms off to the west on Tuesday died, and they left something called an MCV, or a mesoscale convective vortex. Basically, this little, like, 20-mile-wide swirl in the atmosphere. Very weak, subtle, difficult to detect. And it was so small that weather models could only really see it about six or seven hours out.

And that's why Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, a lot of folks went to bed not really expecting all that much to happen, and then suddenly that swirl, which kind of happened at the last minute, was able to focus moisture, get downpours going, and it stalled and stagnated. And you had 3-inch-per-hour rainfall rates in some cases for five, six hours at a time, leading to 1 foot or 1.5 foot of water falling in only a single morning.

In fact, Berna (ph), Texas, a little bit west of Killeen, recorded 3.6 inches in a single hour this morning. They got 8.26 inches in three hours' time, and it's one of those things where we knew that somewhere flooding could happen. We didn't necessarily expect it to be this high-end because it was what's called a mesoscale event, a localized thing that you can only see, you know, a few hours out.

BLITZER: Many residents say the flooding came, Matthew, without warning. Were proper alerts given? And what more do you think could have been done?

CAPPUCCI: Well, Wolf, I think it goes to that sort of low-probability, high-impact event that we talk about so often. You know, there are so many times when we know something can happen, but the ingredients don't always fall into place. And so, when things like this happen, you know, even though that potential is there, I think folks are always going to inevitably be caught off guard.

In this case, there was a flood watch in effect, the National Weather Service hoisting that alert long in advance to let folks know, hey, tonight into tomorrow there could be some flooding. We were expecting max totals of 6, 7, 8 inches. I think what surprised us was that there was this local corridor where just nothing moved, and that's how you got those double-digit totals.

And the fact that it happened so close to the Guadalupe River is what led to that higher-end flooding there. And so, you know, we can issue watches, we can issue warnings, and those watches and warnings were in place. I think it's one of those tricky scenarios where when you have 100-year or 1,000-year rain event, folks don't necessarily have anything to compare it to in the past. And so even if you tell them what to do, it's difficult for them to sort of grasp the reality of what's happening until it's too late.

BLITZER: Yes, good point.

Matthew Cappucci, thanks very much for all your important work. We appreciate it very much.

Still to come, the White House is defending its response to the Texas floods, even as it slashes funding for some life-saving weather forecasting equipment and technology. Our breaking news coverage will continue right after a short break.

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[22:35:48]

BLITZER: An update now on the deadly flooding in Texas. At least 50 people are confirmed dead, and at least 15 of them are children, 29 more are missing. The disaster stems from torrential rains that caused the Guadalupe River to rise more than 20 feet in less than two hours.

One of the areas hit hardest is Camp Mystic, a girls' summer camp in Kerr County, Texas. Twenty-seven of the missing are children from that camp. The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, has asked for federal assistance. President Trump says the White House is working with state officials, and that assistance will come.

With rescue efforts still underway, local officials are keeping a very close eye on the weather forecast over Texas. Meteorologist Chris Warren has been tracking the storm system and brings us the latest on what to expect in the immediate days ahead.

CHRIS WARREN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: This whole disaster unfolding in a matter of hours, during the overnight Friday into Friday morning. So Thursday night into Friday morning, with areas receiving more than 1 foot of rain, but widespread over several counties in this orange and red color here, which is 4 to 6, even 6 to 10 inches of rain.

This is how it played out on radar from overnight Friday to 5:30 in the morning. Here's Kerrville and Kerr County right here getting so much rain. It just continued throughout the mid-morning and into the early afternoon. So several hours of non-stop and occasionally intense rain leading to serious fast flooding here along the Guadalupe River in Kerrville.

Most of the week, the water level was under 1 foot, 0.7, and then in a matter of hours, it goes up a little bit to 3 feet and then jumps to two stories high. About 23.4 feet, so it's about two stories high just so quickly. That's something you just do not see very often at all. It's hard to imagine that happening, that wave of water.

Meanwhile, flash flood warnings were being issued between midnight and noon. 24 -- more than 24, more than two dozen issued by the National Weather Service. Highest level flash flood emergencies, and that was something through here near Kerrville as well.

Here's the high resolution future radar. Through time, more rain is expected, some overnight, but really going to pick up tomorrow morning into the afternoon and evening hours, not seeing some of the heaviest storms right over Kerr County. However, with the high resolution future radar, you have to give a little bit of wiggle room here.

It could drift a little bit farther to the south, so just a big heads up there for the surge efforts ongoing there as well. So the forecast rainfall, the amount that we're expecting, generally about 2 to 4 inches in the highest amounts. Nothing compared to what we saw the past couple of days.

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

Meanwhile, the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary is strongly defending the federal government's response to the disaster in Texas. Secretary Kristi Noem says President Trump is, quote, "currently upgrading technology at the National Weather Service." However, the president's mega bill, which he just signed into law, makes cuts and even closes some weather research labs that help make forecast improvements. And his DOGE team, as it's called, fired hundreds of employees at the National Weather Service and at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA.

CNN Senior White House Reporter Betsy Klein has more on the federal response to the disaster.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, local officials are expecting that this is going to be a marathon of search and rescue and search and recovery efforts, and it is going to take the close coordination of state, local and federal governments together to get that done.

So here's what we know so far about the federal response. The U.S. Coast Guard is helping with those rescues. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem says that she has requested additional fixed-wing aircraft with thermal imaging. That is something that is going to help in the overnight hours as it gets dark and they continue to search and rescue.

Separately, FEMA is engaged, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, along with the Army Corps of Engineers, as well as U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Noem says that Border Patrol agents are stepping up. They have been tapped in with certain expertise and skills that they can use to help in this situation.

[22:40:09]

But so far, state and local officials say that they are getting what they need from the federal government. Texas Governor Greg Abbott says that he has submitted a federal disaster declaration request to the White House. It is awaiting President Trump's signature at this time.

But President Trump has spoken with Secretary Noem several times today. Noem was expected to visit Camp Mystic, where dozens of girls remain missing. But we still don't know the extent of the federal resources that are going to be needed here, whether Congress is going to have to step up with additional aid.

But there are two other things to keep track of as we continue to track the federal response here. Number one is that President Trump has been sharply critical of FEMA and says he plans to phase out that agency by the end of the next hurricane season. That is something we'll be watching closely for how the federal government coordinates with the state of Texas here.

And separately, the president's fiscal year 2026 budget has steep cuts to some of these weather research labs that are vital to improving forecasts. These are the tools that can help detect these types of storms better. They are currently experiencing cuts.

DOGE also has cut hundreds of staffers at NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as the National Weather Service. But Secretary Noem was really pressed on some of the alerts at the National Weather Service. Here's how she defended the Trump administration.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, U.S. 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, 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 VIDEOCLIP)

KLEIN: Of course, this storm was truly unpredictable. The water rose so fast. It was really unprecedented. We also have a little bit of good news, and that is that Congressman August Pfluger, who represents Texas Hill Country in Congress, says that he and his wife have been reunited with two of their daughters who were campers at Camp Mystic. He said, "P lease join us as we pray for miracles." Betsy Klein, CNN, traveling with the president in New Jersey.

BLITZER: Special thanks to Betsy. Thank you very, very much.

And still ahead, stories of survival from the devastating floods in Texas. We're going to hear from one of the children who was able to reunite with his family.

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[22:45:59]

BLITZER: We're, of course, following the breaking news in Texas, and we'll have a lot more on that coming up in just a moment. But first, another weather situation we are currently tracking is named Tropical Storm Chantal. Strong winds are expected through Saturday night and into Sunday morning along parts of South and North Carolina.

This will make for a very soggy remaining holiday weekend for a lot of folks on the East Coast. Flash flooding could occur in some areas. Beaches can also expect dangerous surf conditions and rip currents. Rain is expected to spread to the mid-Atlantic into the early part of next week. Chantal is the third named storm of this 2025 Atlantic hurricane season.

Other important news we're following in the Middle East right now. Israel says its negotiators will be headed to Qatar on Sunday for a new round of ceasefire talks with Hamas. Hamas said it responded positively to the latest U.S. truce proposal on Friday, but it also requested some major changes, which Israel says is a nonstarter.

Officials in Gaza say more than 50 people were killed by Israeli strikes and gunfire on Saturday, and dozens more could be trapped in a collapsed four-story building near Gaza City. As Oren Liebermann reports, some Israelis are taking to the streets, demanding a hostage and ceasefire deal now.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN 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 expectations we've seen in about half a year. And the crowd here knows it.

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ORLY EREZ-LIKHOVSKI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ISRAEL RELIGIOUS ACTION CENTER: 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.

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LIEBERMANN: The crowd here, thousands of them, are calling for a complete deal, all of the hostages home, 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: In Iran, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made his first public appearance since the start of the conflict with Israel. Iranian state media broadcast Khamenei's attending a religious gathering in the capital, Tehran, on Saturday. Worshippers who were there observing Ashura, the holiest day of the Shiite Muslim calendar, stood and cheered the Supreme Leader as he entered the hall. Khamenei had reportedly been in a, quote, "secure location" at the onset of the air war with Israel.

Turning now to Russia's war against Ukraine, Kyiv says it struck an air base inside Russia that houses fighter jets and glide bombs. Saturday's counterattack comes in the midst of Russia's dramatic escalating bombardment of Ukraine. On Friday, Kyiv endured the biggest attack since the start of the war more than three years ago.

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Moscow launched a record number of drones and nearly a dozen crews and ballistic missiles toward the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. The U.N. Secretary General condemned the attacks on Saturday and once again called for a, quote, "full, immediate, and unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine."

Coming up, we're monitoring the search and rescue efforts underway right now in Texas after torrential rainfall and flooding left dozens of people dead. Our special breaking news coverage will continue right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: Back to our special breaking news. Communities in central Texas devastated by the catastrophic flooding are now bracing for the possibility of even more rain. At least 50 people have died, including 15 children. There are still more than two dozen people missing. Officials say they will continue with search and rescue operations until they find all the missing residents.

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COLONEL FREEMAN MARTIN, DIRECTOR OF TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY: We brought in over 100 troopers this morning, and they worked all day, rescues, high water vehicles, boats, rescue drivers -- divers, seven rescue helicopters with hoist capabilities. And that was just today. We have another shift coming in tonight and another shift in the morning. We'll really ramp it up in the morning, but we will not stop.

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BLITZER: Elica Hills' (ph) family says they're still searching for her and three of her friends. The vacation home they were staying in has been swept away, according to the family. Their car is in the river and some of their belongings have been found miles away. More than two dozen children have been reported missing from the summer camp inside the Texas flood zone.

CNN's Fredricka Whitfield spoke with one 14-year-old camper who was reunited with his family. Windom Etheridge described sheltering in a cabin as torrential rain swept over Hunt, Texas.

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WINDOM ETHERIDGE, ATTENDED CAMP ALONG GUADALUPE RIVER: Well, I'm reflecting more on how it all went down. I mean, it started out with just a little bit of water and it started slowly becoming more and more. And we didn't learn about what really happened to the rest of the camp until it woke up in the morning.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: So you were in, what is it, your cabin, when, you know, it started raining or when you started hearing or feeling something, you know, was going on outside?

ETHERIDGE: Yes, we woke up to (technical difficulty) people from the other (technical difficulty) bunks down towards more of the river. And we woke up to them coming to seek refuge in the downstairs at our cabin, because we were on the side of a hill.

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BLITZER: If you'd like to help those affected by the tragic flooding in Texas, go to CNN.com/impact. There you can find resources for donations and will be connected to charities that are on the ground right now in Texas.

That's all at CNN Impact Your World. Thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. I'll be back Monday morning, 10:00 a.m. Eastern in The Situation Room.

Our breaking news coverage continues next with my colleague Brian Abel.