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At Least 68 Dead, 11 Campers Still Missing In Texas Floods; President Trump Signs Major Disaster Declaration For Texas; Israeli Delegation Arrives In Doha For Ceasefire And Hostage Talks. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired July 06, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:02]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello everyone, thank you so much for joining us. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Atlanta alongside my colleague, Boris Sanchez live in Texas.

Boris, we will get to you in a moment.

Welcome to this Special Edition of the CNN NEWSROOM as we continue to cover major breaking news out of Texas.

Right now, frantic search and rescue efforts are unfolding in the central part of the state, which has been devastated by catastrophic flooding.

This is new video from the Fourth of July when those torrential rains hit showing Coast Guard helicopters airlifting victims from the flood waters near Kerrville, Texas.

The Coast Guard says it was able to rescue 15 children from Camp Mystic early this weekend, and today, we learned that 11 young girls and one counselor from that camp are still missing.

And new time lapse video showing just how fast the flooding happened. You can see this historic flash floods rapidly swelling in this river about 95 miles from Kerrville in just a matter of minutes. It took just 30 minutes for the Llano River to rise 22 feet. Homes, bridges, roads in the region completely washed out.

And today, first responders are entering the third day of searching for survivors as the situation looks increasingly urgent and desperate. The death toll has risen just moments ago to at least 68 now, and most of the fatalities are in hard hit Kerr County, where 59 people have died, including 21 children.

We are now standing by for a press conference from local and state officials, which is set to take place this hour. Boris Sanchez is on the ground in hard hit Hunt, Texas.

Boris, bring us up to speed on the ongoing searches there. BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yes, Fred, the situation here on the ground in Kerr County is just difficult to encompass and explain. It is so widespread. As flood waters are receding, we are getting a clearer picture of the scope of the damage and the loved ones of those missing who are now hoping and praying for a miracle. Right now, more than 400 first responders from some 20 agencies are searching here on the ground, with chainsaws and other equipment, as well as in the air where we have seen several Coast Guard helicopters and obviously in the water as well.

A number of Johnboats and airboats that have gone by us. This is an all hands on deck effort to find those who are still unaccounted for and that includes 11 young girls, campers and one counselor from Camp Mystic, which is right behind me. That number of missing significantly down from yesterday, when nearly 30 had been reported missing, but it is important to put the context in mind, all around us, there is devastation here, that water line getting very, very high.

You showed that river at 22 feet, it is approximated that the Guadalupe River, which borders Camp Mystic, hit up to 24 feet, almost 24 feet. So you can see the water line on the tall trees behind us. Right now in this area, there are crews, there is a young man, I am not sure how well you can see him, I think the banner is in the way, but there is a young man who I believe is a volunteer now, searching down there for any sign of someone who may have been a camper here.

We know that on this end, in those structures over there, according to our reporting, counselors at those structures, when they realized how quickly the water was moving up on the Guadalupe River, started breaking the glass in the windows to help the young campers out. These are girls as young as eight or nine years old and in the middle of the night, in the overnight hours three, four, five in the morning, they were having to rush out of here and swim for their lives.

We've heard stories of many people being dragged miles and miles by the floodwaters hitting the Guadalupe River, and you see some of the debris strewn on trees. There's clothing and sheets. There's actually a huge trailer right underneath us under this embankment right now that was flipped over on its end. There is an SUV on the side of this plateau here that just got crushed into that wall, its airbags deploying.

Earlier, there were crews here volunteers again, mostly with chainsaws, trying to move trees, move the debris to try to see if there was anything underneath it. Right now, all over the central part of Texas, officials are racing against the clock because every minute is precious.

CNN's Isabel Rosales spoke with one of many volunteers helping in search and rescue efforts. Here is her report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You were telling me something that also like, weighed heavily on you, was finding a sock. RYAN LOGUE, VOLUNTEER SEARCHER: So, yes, so just walking down here before we do, like walking down here, I saw there's a kid sock just right over there, and that's not the first piece of clothing I've seen since we came out here.

[15:05:01]

And just knowing that that could have been from the camp kids, that could have fallen off of a victim here or kind of, I mean, wherever it came from, it doesn't matter. But knowing that that's here, when it shouldn't be here and how it got here, my heart being broken is not even a grand enough statement.

ROSALES: Is it -- what makes this especially complicated as a search and rescue operation? Is it the scale of how far along the Guadalupe River it is, or the fact that the waters can drag things along?

LOGUE: That is -- so we are looking at a little bit of both of that from what I am really getting a grasp of right now is that, you know, when you look at a hurricane, you look at tornado destruction, you're looking at a circular area, you're looking at a larger geographic area, but centralized almost.

This is along a -- what -- almost 85-mile strip along the Guadalupe River. This goes through, you know, Hunt, Kerrville, Center Point, Comfort, down to Spring Branch through New Braunfels, all the way down to the -- down -- all the way all the way down to the Coast of America. It goes all the way down there. And that is -- I mean, that destruction is going all the way down.

I heard it got to New Braunfels this morning at some point and caused some damage. I mean, this is going to be -- this is going to be kind of like in the Western North Carolina deal. The recovery on this.

ROSALES: For Helene.

LOGUE: Yes, for Helene, you're going to hear about this for a while. You're not -- this isn't going to be over, unfortunately, the body counts, the things that you hear about, they're only going to grow. I mean, it is only going to get worse from here, I feel like, because right now, the direct efforts for search and rescue, you know, are kind of -- I hear, coming to an end.

But now, we've got recovery coming.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Isabel Rosales, thank you so much for that.

And as first responders and residents continue to search for the missing, Central Texas is bracing for more rain.

For the very latest on the forecast, let's bring in meteorologist Chris Warren.

Chris, earlier today, as we were approaching this area, we were hit with a really strong downpour. We've had bands coming in all day. Right now, the sun is out and that is a welcome relief for crews and folks that are waiting to hear about their missing loved ones, but it is likely not going to last all that much longer.

We are expecting more rain, right?

CHRIS WARREN, AIMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's exactly right. There will be some more showers that are going to be hit and miss. We are going to have much more of an extended dry period after we get through this, and this is what we are looking at right now with some showers and thunderstorms still to the north. But every once in a while, here is Kerrville right here and zooming in, you see most of the area, if you just focus on this, most of the area is dry. It is just every once in a while you'll see a shower pop up, like right here and here and a little bit more thunderstorm activity here. But overall, the trend is for drier weather.

But we have to get through this evening and overnight tonight. Still flood watches, flash flood warnings here in red still in effect. This is the Future Radar, what you can expect through time, what the radar could look like through time. A reasonable expectation of where the rain and storms are going to be.

And around San Antonio, near Kerrville, we are going to be seeing the showers and the storms. And then this is now 7:30 tomorrow. So we get through tomorrow, and then after that, generally going to be drying out and it is though going to be rather hot as well -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Chris Warren, thank you so much for that update.

Joining our coverage again today with more on the local perspective is Louis Amestoy. He is the editor and publisher of "The Kerr County Lead," which covers Kerr County, Texas.

Thank you so much for being with us, Louise.

You reported that volunteer led search teams are out -- are scouring river banks along the Guadalupe River. We've seen some volunteers come here to where we are, just outside Camp Mystic. Take us through how they're contributing to this search.

LOUIS AMESTOY, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER, "THE KERR COUNTY LEAD" Well, we've got breaking news on this because we have got confirmation on the ground that the two little girls were found all the way near Comfort. Now, where they came from, we don't know. The initial reports is that they were from at least six miles, which might be kids from the HTR Camp, which is currently our hardest hit R.V. park, which has at least 26 missing according to our count here.

But this morning, they found two girls about 30 feet up in a tree in a part of a remote -- I don't know if it is remote, but its outside of the kind of the border of Kerr County and Kendall County between Center Point and Comfort. And they found these girls this morning. There is about 500 volunteers working this sort of riverfront all along the Center Point area. And this isn't the first time that we've heard that people have been swept away downstream from either Hunt or Ingram or Kerrville all the way down to Center Point. Now, like where you're at, at Camp Mystic, that's about a 15-mile stretch of river, if not more, to get to where we are out here.

[15:10:10]

So we don't know anything about these girls. We know they were found in a tree. They've been there for more than a day, holding on, an incredible moment.

In fact, my phone just started blowing up before I came on here where there was the people in Center Point were, hey, Louis, look at this. And, you know, then we started seeing some video and some photos as well from the scene of a reporter there and she has confirmed that they did find the two girls.

SANCHEZ: Well, CNN is working to confirm that information, and if it bears to be, that would be an incredible story of survival.

Lewis, I want to ask you about the mayor of Kerrville, Joe Herring, Jr. He highlighted the way that the community is coming together at what is a very difficult time. I wonder how people are coming together here to help each other and what that symbolizes, what that tells you about this community.

AMESTOY: Well, I've lived in Kerrville for six years and I've always been taken and struck by the fact that this community comes together, rallies together for, I mean, in the six years that I've lived here, we've had Winter Storm Uri, which was, you know, a nightmare of seven days of no water and power for a lot of families. We've had other incidents here.

This community really rallied hard for Uvalde and they sent money and people down there to help with Uvalde in that recovery. So, you know, Joe Herring has lived here his entire life. He chronicles the history of this community, for me and my blog, and he does a great job of that as well.

And he is absolutely right. I think that when I go to these press conferences, you can see how all the people are from Kerrville. They're all hugging each other. I had a guy yesterday tell me that I hate you because of the way you write, but man, I love you now, you know, kind of stuff.

And I said, yes, we are united in this to make sure that we get the story straight and help each other through this time.

SANCHEZ: Yes. No question. I love to see that -- the community coming together as we watch this footage, aerial footage of officials combing through what appears to be the wreckage of a vehicle. I believe this is actually live right now.

I do want to ask you, Louis, also about that R.V. camp in Kerrville that you mentioned that has the most missing people of any single location. You reported at least 26 missing there, including two entire families that are unaccounted for. What have you learned about that?

AMESTOY: Well, that was always a concern from day one. It is sort of the confluence of the South and the North Forks. So if you can imagine in Kerrville, where you're at up in the South Fork, by the time you get down to where this camp is at, and if you look at the maps on this camp, it is right on the river.

The water would have just ripped through there at high speed. And not only that, by the time that it gets there, the two forks are going. And in Johnson Creek, which is just above that, is also prone to flooding. It flooded pretty seriously last year, and I can only imagine that a wall of water went down there very, very quickly, very early in the morning, probably between 5:00 and 6:00 A.M.

In fact, when I first started doing my reporting on this on Friday, Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly told me that that was the Sheriff's Office by the time they were responding to the 911 calls, people were already on their roofs in their campers trying to get out.

Now, I did confirm yesterday, I think we've all confirmed this, that Tivy High School Soccer Coach Reece Zunker, he and his wife were both recovered. I believe they were camping there. There is, you know, like two families there. There is one story of another family that was lost. They had a daughter at another camp, she was safe, but all her two younger brothers, her mom and her dad are all missing.

SANCHEZ: That is just so heart wrenching, and obviously we hope for a miracle as officials here in Texas have described it.

Louis, what would you say is the biggest challenge that the community is facing right now?

AMESTOY: I think it is just the shock of this. I mean, Boris, you're up in the spot -- you're up in a spot that now has completely been changed. You know, when I've driven through that area, you know, you're at Mystic and right up above there is River Inn as well. You also have Criders just below that. Criders is a very beloved spot for many Kerr County residents.

I saw an aerial photo of that yesterday, like totally wiped out. I think that's like -- I think that's going to be hard for people to comprehend. And if you come through Kerrville now, right, one of the things that defines Kerrville is the river runs through this community, right?

[15:15:02]

You have other cities that you know, they don't have a river, they might have a creek. We have this beautiful river that runs through this, and now, the whole landscape that we have come to know over the last 25 or 30 years is completely changed.

All of the trees are knocked down. It was a very lush place. We have an amazing river trail system here. A lot of that is still intact, but damaged all along the way. So I think the reason why people live here, for a lot of reasons, is because of the beauty of the Texas Hill Country, and specifically because there is this access to the river and it made this -- it is so attractive to people and like it hits them in the Fourth of July. Everyone is here from all over the state.

This is a place where people come to, you know, Greg Abbott said it, Chip Roy said it, others have said it as well. This is what they think about coming to.

SANCHEZ: Yes, Louis Amestoy, thank you so much for bringing us that context. We appreciate your time.

AMESTOY: All right, take care.

SANCHEZ: So we are closely watching as officials are set to hold a press conference here at any moment while rescue volunteers are urgently searching for dozens of missing people. The death toll now, we've learned, rising to 68.

CNN is back in just moments from Central Texas. Don't go anywhere.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, there's a cat in there. There's a cat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. That was an entire house that was floating down river there. This is -- these are new images coming in. This is from Friday, and this is a home floating down the river in Center Point, Texas. That just exemplifies the intensity of the water, the intensity of the damage that was done there.

And now today, we are getting new numbers of the death toll from the severe flash flooding. It has now risen to 68 people.

Torrential rain in Kerr County caused the Guadalupe River to surge by more than 20 feet in less than two hours overnight on Friday, and more than 48 hours later, rescue crews are still searching for the missing, including 11 girls and one counselor from Camp Mystic, one of the many summer camps that lined the river.

Joining me right now is CNN national correspondent, Rafael Romo.

You have gotten more information about victims. So many people, so many circumstances, lives lost.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So many, and it is just heart wrenching. It is just very difficult to talk about what happened here and some of the details, Fred, we are learning about the people who died in the flooding are just very difficult to talk about.

We have heard about a man who died while saving the people who mattered most to him. Twenty-seven-year-old Julian Ryan died while trying to rescue his fiancee, two children and his mother from the rising waters on Friday after they became trapped inside their mobile home near the Guadalupe River in Kerr County.

These are pictures of the mobile home they were in. Ryan's fiancee, Christinia Wilson, told CNN affiliate KHOU that within 20 minutes of Julian realizing their house was flooding, the water had already crept up to their knees. When the water was too high, she said, Ryan punched out a window to try to get his family and their pets up to the roof. The broken glass cut his arm and he suffered a wound that turned out to be fatal.

When Ryan punched the window and thrust his arm through it to help his family escape, shards of glass severed an artery in his arm. This is what Julian Ryan's sister, Connie Salas, told us about what happened earlier this afternoon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONNIE SALAS, JULIAN RYAN'S SISTER: They were literally panicking and about to drown and she -- my mother was still holding up her son, holding him up, and he looked at her and said, "I love you." So my mom has that heartbreak of looking at her son and having -- telling him goodbye, holding him while he takes his last breath.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Just very hard to hear those words. Wilson, Ryan's fiancee said his arm was almost "cut clean off." By six that Friday morning, Wilson says Ryan looked at her, the children and his mother and said, "I'm sorry, I'm not going to make it. I love you all." It is just very, very difficult to think about that, you know? But he is being remembered as a hero today by the family and the community.

WHITFIELD: Saved his whole family. Terrible.

All right, thank you so much, Rafael Romo. I mean, it is just terrible to hear all of these stories of so much tragedy, but it is also important that you're getting information about each and every individual in which we are learning about. Thank you so much.

ROMO: Of course.

[15:25:03]

WHITFIELD: All right, for more information about how you can help Texas flood victims, go to cnn.com/impact or text FLOOD to 707070.

And at any moment now, Governor Greg Abbott is set to give a press conference on this catastrophic flooding in Texas as rescue workers frantically dig through debris looking for any trace of survivors, and they are all hoping for a miracle.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: All right, this historic disaster was caused by flash flooding of rising water over the course of hours, but then also compounding matters, is you had two tropical storm systems as well.

Let's take a closer look at all of this with meteorologist, Chris Warren.

[15:30:10]

I mean, it is just all at once.

WARREN: Yes, and you know, Fredricka, weather is complicated, right? In so many different ways. I like to say it is not rocket science, but you can build a rocket, but you can't make the weather, right?

There is so much going on, and you have to sometimes kind of look back and see how did this happen? How could this happen? Really it was days, weeks if not months in the making when you look at some of the ingredients that came together, unfortunately, here on Friday.

So what took some time was getting into this big drought. And you might think, well, having a drought, wouldn't that help? Wouldn't that soak up the water? That's not necessarily the case.

When we are here in Texas, an exceptional drought, the most intense form of drought, extremely dry. It is almost like the land is going to be baked. Think like a clay pot, essentially, right? You know, it is fired and hard, right? So the water can come down, fall out of the sky as rain, and it can run off right away and it takes a while for the earth to kind of soak up and kind of get some of that water so it can get more water into it.

And then on top of that, remember, where Texas is, right next to the Gulf and then add to it, a couple of former systems and oftentimes, whether there's not much to the system, a tropical system or not, the DNA still might be there. So there is still going to be quite a bit of moisture coming in, adding to what is already going to be a humid and moist environment.

And then you get a system that comes, hangs out and just stalls and that is when you get the worst case scenario, especially when it stalls right over a drainage basin. You can kind of imagine that right here.

This, in Kerr County, the Guadalupe River, and then the South Fork and North Fork, and see how much of this rain, intense rain that sets up and this is the thunderstorms, the loud, intense, heavy rain that we are hearing about for hours and how quickly that just rushes down.

And it wasn't just right here in Kerr County. All of these counties here in Hill Country, which is prone to flooding anyways, seeing an unimaginable amount of rain. Again, all of the ingredients coming together to create this horrific episode here with the Guadalupe River at Kerrville going from under a foot.

You could essentially walk across the river if you're wearing rain boots and not get your feet wet to two storeys of water in a matter of a couple of hours, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Oh my God.

WARREN: Really horrific.

WHITFIELD: That's a tremendous visual. I mean, that really does help fill in so many blanks as to how part of this -- how this could happen in this manner.

WARREN: It really was a wave of water they are saying, a flood wave of water, which usually you don't get that kind of flooding in river basins, but in this case, it is more like a wash in a sense. But to see that, it is really remarkable.

WHITFIELD: Incredible. All right, thank you so much.

All right and then, at any moment now, we are expecting Governor Greg Abbott set to hold a press conference as rescue volunteers urgently search for dozens of people still missing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:37:34]

WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back to CNN's coverage of the deadly flooding in Texas.

Earlier today, President Trump signed a major Disaster Declaration for Kerr County, where the worst of the flooding hit. CNN's senior reporter, Betsy Klein, is with us now.

Betsy, what does this declaration add to the resources being made available?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER AND WRITER: Well, Fredricka, as we've seen over the course of the past hour or so, we are getting a sense of the scope and scale and how significant this damage is, which means it is going to be a very challenging recovery ahead that will require the state, the local and federal governments to work very closely together.

So President Trump announcing that he had signed that Federal Disaster Declaration earlier this morning. He said in a post to social media: "I just signed a Major Disaster Declaration for Kerr County, Texas to ensure that our brave first responders immediately have the resources they need. These families are enduring an unimaginable tragedy, with many lives lost and many still missing. The Trump administration continues to work closely with state and local leaders."

So what does that look like in practice? Well, according to the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been activated. They are going to pay for about 75 percent of the costs of recovery, according to this disaster declaration, as well as the U.S. Coast guard, which is involved in search and rescue operations. The Coast Guard is also providing two helicopters in the area, as well as three fixed wing aircraft with thermal imaging, and what that means is that they are able to detect movement that might not be visible to the naked eye.

But state and local leaders in Central Texas are saying so far that they are getting what they need from the federal government. And in that letter that the President sent to Governor Abbott this morning, releasing these federal funds, he wrote a personal note in Sharpie. He said: "Our wonderful Secretary, Kristi Noem, is available at all times."

But as we track the response to this devastating flooding, there are a couple of outstanding questions I want to zoom in on. Number one, the National Weather Service, that is the nation's premier weather forecasting agency. It issued a series of alerts warning about life threatening flooding on Friday overnight in those early morning hours. But it is really unclear at this time how many people they were able to reach before that flooding got so out of control.

What's also unclear is whether cuts to this agency affected how those warnings were disseminated.

[15:40:10]

So the Austin-San Antonio office of the National Weather Service currently does not have a warning coordination meteorologist. That is one key role. There are other top roles that are currently vacant, as the Trump administration had offered some early retirement incentives as it sought to really scale down the size of the federal government in its initial weeks.

At the same time, this was historic and unprecedented flooding. Sources say that this office had adequate staffing and resources, and some officials have also said, and we've heard from locals that there is a lot of warning fatigue in this area. They experience a lot of flash flooding.

It is also worth noting that the Trump administration's fiscal year 2026 budget, which they are already abiding by, includes cuts to some of the technology that is so critical for weather forecasting, technology that is needed to improve how they make those forecasts and cuts to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research labs are among the cuts to the federal government.

The President, tracking all of that here from New Jersey -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Betsy Klein, thank you so much.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:45:59]

WHITFIELD: Happening right now. An Israeli delegation has arrived in Doha for talks on a ceasefire and hostage deal. Hamas has already given a "positive" response to a proposal for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to visit the White House tomorrow for a meeting with President Trump.

But as CNN's Paula Hancocks explains in Gaza, hope is in short supply, and a warning, this report contains distressing scenes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Hamas and Israel may be closer than they've been in months to a ceasefire, but there is no evidence of that in Gaza.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Allahu akbar.

HANCOCKS (voice over): Well, over 1,000 people killed in the past 12 days, according to Ministry of Health daily counts. An Israeli airstrike killed two dozen in this house in the west of Gaza City, including eight children, according to hospital officials.

(MAHMOUD YAQOUB ISMAIL SHEIKH SALAMEN speaking in foreign language.)

HANCOCKS (voice over): "The house was targeted around 2:00 A.M." This neighbor says, "We got two people out alive after three hours of trying. There were about 35 people in the house."

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE speaking in foreign language.)

HANCOCKS: "It is horrifying," another neighbor says. "A mother and son were sleeping, then broken into pieces. There's no reason for this."

CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment, but in an update Sunday, the IDF said it continued to target terrorist organizations in Gaza and recently dismantled an observation post in the northeast.

A desalination plant in the al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City was hit by an airstrike on Saturday. Funerals held for those killed in al- Mawasi, Southern Gaza, Saturday evening.

News of a possible ceasefire edging closer has reached those who stand to gain the most from the guns falling silent.

(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE speaking in foreign language.)

HANCOCKS (voice over): This woman says, "I agree to a 60-day truce, even if its 50 days or 40 days, just to rest a little. We are exhausted psychologically and physically. No country has endured what the Palestinian people have endured."

The ceasefire at the start of this year lasted just two months before the airstrikes resumed.

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE speaking in foreign language.)

HANCOCKS (voice over): "I hope this truce will be real and not just ink on paper," this man says. Others call on both Hamas and Israel to agree to the deal. With dozens dying every day in recent weeks, every further day of negotiation will be a death sentence for some.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Abu Dhabi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Paula Hancocks, thank you so much for that reporting.

Back in this country, at any minute now, Texas Governor Greg Abbott is set to hold a press conference as rescue volunteers urgently search for dozens of missing people.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:51:00]

WHITFIELD: I want to take you straight to Austin, Texas right now, Governor Greg Abbott is holding a news conference, an update on the deadly flooding.

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): -- our focus on Kerrville. They remain a key focus in so many different ways.

We continue 24/7 operations to search for anybody who was affected by that deadly storm. We still have our Department of Public Safety assets, the National Guard, Texas Task Force 1 and 2 and game wardens all fully engaged in responding to the disaster in Kerrville.

We also intensify our focus on the families affected by this. They're going through horrific events that have turned their lives upside down. we are working to aid them and assist them with regard to counseling, grief, all kinds of things we can do to assist those families.

One of the most important things that we can do is to address their greatest concern that is there are so many families that are still waiting to learn about their loved one and we are working 24/seven to get the information that we will be able to answer their question.

What I can tell you is several things: I had the opportunity yesterday to visit Camp Mystic and get to see firsthand what happened there, as well as all the way downstream after that and it was nothing short of horrific to see what those young children went through and we will remain 100 percent dedicated, searching for every single one of the children who were at Camp Mystic, as well as anybody else in the entire riverbed, to make sure that they're going to be recovered.

We know that parents and families, they want information, they want closure, and we want them to know that we are working as swiftly as possible to get them accurate information that will provide that closure.

I do want to thank the local officials, city and county and otherwise, who also are working around the clock to make sure they are addressing those concerns. The information I am going to give you is, as of this current moment in time, knowing that this information will constantly change throughout the remainder of today, as well as in the coming days.

In Kerrville, in Kerr County, there are 59 confirmed deceased. There are still 11 missing from Camp Mystic. Separate from there in the Central Texas area, there are confirmed 10 deceased and across the state in all the areas affected by flooding, there are 41 known missing.

It is important to emphasize this, especially in the Kerrville area. There were so many people who were just camping out, not children in camps, but adults camping out near the river, people in R.V.s and things like that. There are people who are missing who are not on the known confirmed missing, because we don't yet know who they are.

We will maintain our ongoing search throughout the entire river system to find anybody who may who may be missing. One thing that could help this is if you are a relative or friend of someone that you think was in Kerrville or Kerr County that you think is missing, please contact the local officials in Kerr County and let them know that you have the name, identification and other information about a person who is suspected to be missing.

[15:55:00]

If, however, you don't have confirmed information about that and you're making phone calls, you are slowing down the process of the first responders being able to respond to those who are clearly identified as missing.

If you're doing that, you're interrupting official business, and that could be potentially illegal. Call only if you have specific information.

While we continue the search process in Kerr County, we are now also beginning the process of responding to the disaster that took place. It includes things like debris removal. Anybody seen any images whatsoever in the Kerr County area, you know, there is debris all over the place that makes roads impassable, that makes reconstruction projects unachievable, that makes search process more difficult.

And the state and local governments are working now on that debris removal process. That process is improved because of President Trump's swift declaration of our Major Disaster Declaration. He ensured in less than 24 hours that that Major Disaster Declaration was approved, ensuring that state and local governments are going to have more resources to be able to respond to that disaster, more resources to begin the debris removal, more resources to help individuals who have been impacted by this, as well as local governments that have been impacted by this.

Bottom line is this, and that is the swift and very robust action by President Trump is an extraordinary help to our response.

I also want to thank Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, with whom I spent the day yesterday in Kerr County.

I've been doing this a long time, and I've never seen anybody as responsive and as quickly in a response as what she was yesterday. She didn't wait to get back to us. She was able to, in a matter of minutes, get answers to very important demands.

And on behalf of the state of Texas, we cannot thank her or the Trump administration enough.

I've also been in contact with and people reached out from Secretary Kennedy, Secretary Burgum and others in the entire administration are a tremendous help.

I also want to add that there are governors across the country that have been in contact with either myself or with Chief Nim Kidd or state agencies offering their assistance, including Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the Governor of Arkansas; Kim Reynolds, the Governor of Iowa; and Jim Pillen, the Governor of Nebraska. Bill Lee, the Governor of Tennessee; Glenn Youngkin, the Governor of Virginia; Josh Shapiro, the Governor of Pennsylvania; the Governor of the state of Oklahoma and Governor Landry in Louisiana.

And again, I am sorry if I missed some. I know there are others that are constantly reaching out.

We are here, as I mentioned in Austin today, because there have been lives lost in this greater region and importantly, there are dangers over the next 24 to 48 hours that could pose public safety threats to people in these regions.

There is heavy rainfall that is already occurred, and there is more heavy rainfall that is expected that will lead to potential flash flooding broadly in these regions. The Big Country, Concho Valley, Central Texas, and once again, Kerrville.

The point is this, if you're in any of those regions, you need to realize for one, you're in an area with land that's already saturated with water. But for another, when more water comes down, it could lead to rapid flash flooding events.

Now there is nothing expected at this time to the magnitude of what was seen in Kerrville. That said, flash flooding can occur at lower levels of water than what happened in Kerrville. It is a particular threat for people who are driving on roadways.

Some of the lives lost in Central Texas were people who were swept away in vehicles or in similar crossing type situations. Know that rising water on roads can occur very rapidly. You may think that you can drive through it only to find out when you're in there that it is too late and that you're getting swept away.

And so we urge everybody to be extraordinarily cautious for the next 24 to 48 hours. If there is any water on the road, you've got to be safe. There is an old saying for a reason, because it is true and that is turn around, don't drown. You don't need to get from Point A to Point B if it is going to risk your life. Your job -- the most important thing you can do is to protect your lives and taking a step back for all of us up here, that's our number one job. We put public safety first and we will worry about the physical damage second. There are still public safety issues and lives to be saved in Kerr County, there are lives to be saved and all of these reasons that I just mentioned here.

[16:00:40]