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Update From Texas Governor Abbot On Deadly Flooding; New Flooding Threat In Texas Prompts Evacuations; At Least 71 Dead, 11 Campers Still Missing in Texas Floods; Now: New Flooding Threat in Texas Prompts Evacuations. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired July 06, 2025 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): There's an old saying for a reason, because it's true, and that is turn around, don't drown. You don't need to get from point A to point B if it's 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'll 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 these reasons that I just mentioned here. We want our fellow Texans to be safe and secure, and you can do more about that yourself than anybody else can.
With that, I will, I think, pass it to you, Colonel.
FREEMAN MARTIN, DIRECTOR, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY: Yes, sir.
ABBOTT: Colonel Freeman Martin of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
MARTIN: It's been a tough three days for Texans, and I can assure you here at this table today that everything that can be done is being done. Currently, we have operations going on in several different counties. Williamson County had three people missing. They recovered one. Two are still missing. Ongoing searching. Burnet County is missing, two people missing, the fire chief and a 17-year-old female.
The Department of Public Safety is offering any and every resource that we have to help those searches, whether it be boat teams, rescue divers, helicopters, drone operators, drones. So there's a lot of work being done. The governor is very accurate. The ground is saturated. So now a little bit of rainfall and watershed can cause issues. Williamson County is well aware of that. The ground was saturated.
They knew they had issues and they evacuated neighborhoods which saved lives and all that being done, they still have three that were washed away.
I'll touch on Kerr County. We have about 230 DPS personnel assigned to Kerr County, and everybody thinks about search and rescue and what we're doing. There's a lot of stuff going on. We're filling every gap, and first off, this is nothing negative about Kerr County. They've got a very good sheriff. Their fire chief is exceptional. Their police chief is exceptional. Everybody is working together. The outpouring of support, there's a lot of volunteers.
There's a lot of good stuff going on, but there's a lot of -- there's just a huge need and it's a, it's a large area. So we're providing 18 tactical Marine units with boats. We've got 65 CID personnel assigned, over 230 in total, 11 Texas Rangers, 28 from our special operations group, our SWAT guys. In addition to that, we've got nine helicopters with tactical flight officers. We're providing cell towers and trying to solve the issues with the radio communications and their cell phone communications.
We provided communications operators to embed with them to handle 911 calls and handle calls with concerned family members. Dealing with the families of these missing individuals, there's, there's no higher priority for us than finding those children. We've assigned commission personnel and victim service personnel to the family that are working -- they're with them 24-seven can answer or address any needs that they have and get them any information they have.
This is, this is tough work recovering them. So we have victim service personnel there to work with the officers that are conducting the search operations additionally. We have some unidentified individuals at the funeral home, adults and juveniles. The Texas Rangers are collecting DNA from family members and from the deceased victims. And we're flying those to the University of North Texas in Dallas. And we will have answers with rapid DNA in hours, not days, to get some closure and information back to these families.
We have a -- in the last couple of days, an outpouring of support from our federal partners, DEA, HHS, and FBI. We've embedded them with our search and rescue teams. This is tough work. It's hot. They're in the mud. They're removing debris. There's snakes, there's water moccasins. This this is God's work that they're doing. So, you know, the top priority is the family and the victims, pray for them but throw -- throw our first responders in there because there's a lot of good work going on.
We're not taking away from any resources from Kerrville to pre-stage here. We're pulling from south Texas, west Texas and north Texas into central Texas to prepare for emergency response. We're well prepared. The legislature, the governor, in previous years have been overwhelmingly supportive of law enforcement and gave us the resources, so we're prepared to respond to events like this in multiple regions of the state at the same time.
So, Governor, thank you.
[16:05:02]
ABBOTT: Thank you very much.
Now, General Suelzer with the Texas National Guard.
MAJ. GEN. THOMAS SUELZER, TEXAS ADJUTANT GENERAL: Good afternoon. The Texas Military Department remains decisively engaged across the flood operations area. Our current force composition, we have 230 personnel operating. We're flying eight helicopters, and we've increased the size of our force of high profile military vehicles to help evacuate people from high water areas.
We've also expanded our operations area to not only include Kerrville, but we now have personnel operating in San Saba and Burnet. The additional resources we've added since our last briefing are behavioral health officer in Kerrville, a chaplain in Kerrville. We also sent a chaplain to San Saba. We've expanded the state's air operations center, which is a multi-agency air coordination center hosted by TMD. But it includes every agency that operates across the interagency in Texas.
So inside the operations center, we can ensure that the right asset is going to the right location to do the right job. Additionally, today we have launched the MQ-9 Reaper, remotely piloted aircraft out of Houston. That aircraft departs Houston, goes out over the Gulf of America, and climbs to 18,000 feet and then along a special FAA corridor, traverses over to the Kerrville area to conduct a persistent SAR, persistent incident awareness and assessment operations. It's truly an eye in the sky for our search and rescue people.
I'd like to thank the Federal Aviation Administration today. Due to weather at 18,000 feet, we could not transit from the Gulf of America to the Kerrville area. The FAA granted a temporary flight, restricted area through a lower altitude, which allowed our aircraft to safely transit across Texas and operate in the Kerr County area.
In terms of rescues and evacuations for the Texas Military Department, we have a total of 525 rescues or evacuations, 366 have been by air and 159 by ground. Of those count, 20 ground evacuations occurred in San Saba and five air evacuations occurred in Burnet.
That concludes my report. Thank you, Governor.
ABBOTT: Thank you.
Now, with the LCRA. Phil.
PHIL WILSON, GENERAL MANAGER, LOWER COLORADO RIVER AUTHORITY: Yes, sir.
Good afternoon. I'm Phil Wilson, general manager of the Lower Colorado River Authority. I think the most significant message we have in the general area right now is that if and when we get more rain, please stay off the lakes. Highland Lakes have a lot of debris right now. It's not safe to be boating. It's not safe to be out there. We'll let you know when it is. But critically, stay off the lakes. It's July. People are used to summer and this is not a good time to be out there.
I just want to echo, we're working very closely with law enforcement. We have our rangers deployed to Burnet County right now with our mobile command center, trying to support the activities up there. It's a partnership, working all together. The law enforcement team and everyone that's showing up to help assist this very critical time for us.
Like what the governor said, we have a lot of saturation. We opened gates up at Wirtz and Starcke the last couple of days. Those are closed right now. We're ready just in case we need to. We've added more than 350,000 acre feet to the Highland Lakes, in Buchanan and Lake Travis. We're 67 percent full. We have a lot of room and headroom in case more water does come in to make sure those reservoirs do what they're supposed to do, which is to capture the water for the future and protect against flooding.
Thank you, Governor.
ABBOTT: Very good. Now, Chief Nim Kidd.
CHIEF NIM KIDD, TEXAS DIVISION OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Thank you, Governor, and I want to, want to remind everyone life safety is still our number one priority. And what I mean by that is, and Colonel Martin said it very well. Kerrville and Kerr County have great local emergency managers and responders.
They really do. But they're a community of about 55,000 people. And they had a lot of people there that were not from that area, visiting, vacationing, and their resources, and this is what state agency, what the state government does when a local community gets overwhelmed is we send in additional resources.
So our hats are still off to all of those local responders that live and work in that community, and that their homes and families were also impacted, and they're still there on the job. We owe them a great amount of gratitude.
Second, we continue with our search not only in Kerr County, but everywhere that we know we have missing people. And I need your help in being very cautious. Let's not get wrapped around the axle on the word recovery. You're going to start hearing the word recovery used in a lot of different contexts. Be very careful how you use that word, because I'm going to be careful how I use that word as well.
[16:10:02]
We are going to begin recovery operations. That is debris cleanup. That is opening roads. That is not mean we are no longer doing search for live victims because we still are. We are still out there in very much hopes, very much fueled by the compassion that we show for these families, that we're doing everything we can to find their missing loved ones. So please help me in making sure that we're not wasting our time and efforts on debating over the meanings of words. Let's get clarity when we ask those questions.
Second I'm asking, we've driven around Kerr County and the other areas a lot. We have a lot of people that are traveling in because they want to see firsthand the damage. I'm asking you, if you're not from the community and if you're not involved in our response and rescue and recovery efforts, stay out of the area. Stay out of the area because you don't know the area. Another thing I'm getting right this minute during this press conference is reports of an additional wall of water coming down some of the creeks going into the forks.
I want you to think about that for a second. If you're not from that area and you don't know the low water crossings, you could find yourself in a very dangerous situation.
The next thing is we see a lot of information on social media about volunteers and spontaneous volunteers being frustrated because they can't help. We are evacuating parts of the river right now because we're worried about another wall of water coming down in those areas. If you're a volunteer there that you're not checked into our operations, we have no way of accounting for you right now. There is a process that we use to get volunteers into the response, and I'm asking for your help and to get that message out.
It's not that we think we don't need any help, it's that we want to make sure everyone helping is doing the job that we need, where we need it, and when we need it, and we have the ability to communicate with them. And then finally, I want to talk a little bit about the word recovery as it relates to the president's disaster declaration. We are very excited to begin those recovery operations with our federal partners who have been here with us in the emergency operations center since last Thursday, since before all of the actual flooding and disaster started.
And we're going to work very close with those partners to help our local communities and our families that are impacted by this, recover from this disaster as fast as possible.
Thank you, Governor.
ABBOTT: Thank you. We'll take a few questions. Go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I know that you mentioned 10 deaths in central Texas. Is there any way you could give us a breakdown of the cities?
ABBOTT: We sure can. Chief Kidd has it.
KIDD: So we're showing three in Burnet County, one in Tom Green County, five in Travis County and one in Williamson County. And again, those, those numbers are a few hours old. Those numbers could go up. But that's what we had as the time preparing for this briefing.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You said Tom -- what county?
KIDD: Tom Green.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Tom Green.
KIDD: Yes, ma'am. San Angelo area.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You just said something about a wall of water that you're just now getting reports about. Can you talk more about that and what you're seeing there?
KIDD: Yes, I'll share some of that so I apologize for looking at my phone during the press conference. But this is the live updates that we're getting right now from the field is there are, unconfirmed at this point, reports of additional water coming in. And as the governor mentioned, there's rain still falling on the area. It's not going to take the same amount of rain that caused this damage to make the current water levels rise up, right, because the ground is already saturated. So any rain that falls can be perceived as life-threatening rain.
And so if you're in a low lying area, we need you to move yourself out of that low lying area. We've got DPS aircraft that are flying up to try to find this wall of water right now, and the people in the reported areas, again unconfirmed, that are on our communication systems. We're asking them to get out of the water and out of the way so that we don't wind up having to do additional rescues.
ABBOTT: Go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Governor Abbott, CBS Austin. You have mentioned that there are dozens of central Texans missing. Local resources can't continue searching in the dark of the night. Does this Federal Disaster Declaration mean that we have federal resources to continue searching when its pitch black?
ABBOTT: Sure. Well, first of all, on the Federal Disaster Declaration, it applies right now to Kerr County. Let me go back. Let me see the total. My disaster declaration counties. So let me walk you through this. So I made an original state disaster declaration, and then I amended it to add more counties. Let me first go back over those counties. Then I'll explain to you what's going on,
Under the State Disaster Declaration includes the following counties. Bandera, Bear, Burnet, Caldwell, Coke, Comal, Concho, Gillespie, Guadalupe, Kendall, Kerr. Kimble, Llano, Mason, McCulloch, Menard, Reeves, San Saba, Tom Green, Travis and Williamson. That means because of that, that the state is providing additional resources for those counties and state based assistance.
On the Federal Disaster Declaration, for the time being, that includes only Kerr County, and they are waiting to see the magnitude of what happens in other counties before they may potentially expand that, the Federal Disaster Declaration to include other counties.
[16:15:11]
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So for now local resources have to stop search and rescue efforts when (INAUDIBLE).
MARTIN: That's not accurate.
KIDD: No.
MARTIN: We have drones and helicopters that have thermal and night vision and flare where they can search at night. Our special operations groups have that. And you know, at the law enforcement level, we don't really wait for a federal declaration. The feds come, they're there. They're helping. They offer assets and resources.
You know, this helps with funding and additional resources and bringing in from out of state. But our local federal partners, they're very involved. So we've, of course, we're a lot more productive during the day, but we search at night and -- and we're seeing some really good results, which is good. But the bad news is you will see the death toll rise today and tomorrow.
KIDD: One other thing to add to that is the U.S. Coast Guard, part of the federal government, was here working long before the declaration was granted based on our partnership and relationships. So we still have Coast Guard assets here and they will operate at night as well.
Thank you for the question.
ABBOTT: Go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you talk a little bit more about the warnings that locals, local officials got the way that the state and the federal government communicated with local officials, and whether you believe that these deaths were preventable?
ABBOTT: So there were multiple steps taken by the state that I'll let Chief Kidd talk about. But the state began setting up operations in preparation for what could happen in Kerr County. It happened in the early morning hours of the Fourth, and, which is Friday, and the state had pre-positioned assets and resources in and around that area beginning on Wednesday before the storm on Friday.
As we learn more on Thursday, more assets were provided in various regions. We knew based upon predicted weather certain regions where the rain may fall. There was an inability to know precisely where that rain was going to fall and how much was going to fall where -- where it did fall.
And as far as what the locals may have done, Chief Kidd may -- may know, may know more than I, but I would leave it up to them to let you know.
KIDD: And listen, thank you for the question. We need to spend a lot of time trying to answer this question because from a technical perspective, there are multiple warning systems that are out there, and all of us can choose to sign up for warning systems in certain areas, depending on the local government that we're in and the way that their system works. There's a lot of talk about a program called WEA, the Wireless Emergency Alert, and IPAWS, the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, and how they work or sometimes don't work.
And then you have areas where there is no cell phone coverage. And if there's no cell phone coverage, it doesn't matter how many alert systems you sign up for, you're not going to get that. And then there's the NOAA Weather Radios from the National Weather Service.
I'll ask you, how many of you have a NOAA weather radio by your bed at home? And so there can be all kinds of alert systems that are sent. And we know that some were sent, some general messaging was sent early, some urgent warnings were sent at various times, but just sending the message is not the same as receiving the message. Having a plan to do something when you receive the message, and then the ability to implement that plan. And so I really would love to have a separate conversation with all of
you about how we can continue to get the message to the public about what they need to do when they get a message, what they should do when that message is received, and how they communicate that back to their loved ones and family members.
ABBOTT: Let me add this also. I don't know if you guys saw this, but the city manager for Kerrville explained that on the morning of the Fourth, he was out jogging at about 3:30 in the morning, and it just then began to rain a little bit. He got home and saw that rain a little bit more, and he saw it after that. The torrent of water that was coming down the river and the point that he made was that by the moment in time when they knew the magnitude of the water, it's a difficult decision whether or not to begin evacuating people or not, because if you have a warning telling everybody to evacuate, you could actually lead them to their death.
We know that some deaths in Kerrville were people who died, who got swept away, who were trying to evacuate. And so local officials know the best about the terrain, about the danger spots and things like that, about who might be able to be able to evacuate those. That would just be getting into a more dangerous situation. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You talked what you just said, kind of about expertise and about just knowing the area. And that extends also to the National Weather Service folks who are in those offices and have years and years of experience.
[16:20:02]
There are currently six vacancies in the local National Weather Service office that cover Kerr County. How -- what is your perspective on how that could have impacted the warnings that you all were able to get, and how accurate the information you were able to get?
ABBOTT: So I know nothing about the staffing. What I do know is what they put out, and it's my understanding that what they put out was kind of the information that the state was operating off of, and that is, there were alerts or warnings about heavy rain, potential for flash flooding in certain areas. A problem with that is that to most people in the area, flash flooding would mean one thing, not what it turned out to be because they deal with flash floods all the time.
Just like I put people on notice in these regions of Texas right now. There's the potential for flash flooding, but there's no expectation of a water wall of almost 30 feet high.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Governor Abbott, on that topic, we know that these alerts can be lifesaving at times, and a lot of times forecasters get their information from the National Weather Service. Are you communicating with your federal partners on how critical funding is for the National Weather Service in order to issue alerts like this and this disaster?
ABBOTT: It's one of the things that we spoke about when Secretary Noem was in, and this is part of ongoing conversations. And I'll add this, as you all probably know, we have a special session coming up and the way to respond to like what happened in Kerrville is going to be a topic for the special session to address.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have time for two more questions.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Is part of what you want to address? Because there was a bill that was going to create a council to kind of talk about what warning systems. And it was not successful. Is it a concern that there's all these camps along this area? This is an area that deals with flash flooding, but there were no sirens that were in this area. Can you talk about that and why that hasn't been funded to this point?
ABBOTT: Well, it's going to be something that will be looked at. As you kind of pointed out, these camps go back almost 100 years, and they are familiar with the water in the area, probably better than anybody else. They have their own ways in which they deal with warnings that would involve children, sometimes as young as 8 or 9 years old.
And we need to evaluate what they know, how they respond, what they need, and that's why it's going to be good to have a session with all members working together that will bring different perspectives because the reality also is this, and that is what's needed in that river basin at that location could be far different than what's needed in some other river basin across the state.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One more, folks.
ABBOTT: Go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you know if anyone tried to get warning to people at the camps outside of the automated systems?
ABBOTT: I missed the first part of the question.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Did anyone try to get warning to the people at the camps outside of the automated system?
KIDD: So I'm not sure that I understand the question. I mean, did somebody to go door to door and knock on the doors or --
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Yes, we're just wondering if there were any official outreach in the area.
KIDD: You know, we talked to the county emergency manager when we were there the first day. And the county does have a plan for that county in the 18 or so camps that are in that county. Probably be really good to ask them that question and let them give you that answer. It's a good question. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, everyone.
ABBOTT: Thank you all.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello, again, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Atlanta.
We continue to watch the press conference there coming out of Austin, Texas. And we heard a variety of things. You heard from the Department of Public Safety there, saying they have ongoing concerns about high water, unconfirmed wall of water that still might be contributing to some of the -- a variety of tributaries there. It is continuing to rain there. But, again, unconfirmed wall of water. And so they're asking people to still stay away from certain areas.
And you heard from the Texas governor there, Greg Abbott, who says they continue to search for anyone involved in the storm. The governor went to Camp Mystic. He says it was nothing short of horrific. That is an area where they are continuing to look for a number of campers. 11 still missing from that camp. And you heard the governor there confirming 59 deceased from Kerr County alone. And another 10 confirmed deceased from other areas and 41 overall known missing.
We've got a team reporters there in Texas, including our Isabel Rosales, who is there from Center Point, Texas. I understand Ed Lavandera is also in Ingram, Texas. We'll get to him momentarily.
To you, Isabel, what are you hearing from that area there? What are the largest concerns? Are people also concerned, whether it be from persons who are missing or even this unconfirmed wall of water in tributaries nearby?
[16:25:09]
ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, it's exactly that is the biggest concern right now. That's top of mind. It's this wall of water. We were just by a tributary of the Guadalupe River over here at Center Point, in front of the, the fire department, where we've been all day with hundreds of volunteers from all over central Texas, just combing through all of that rugged terrain, looking for either any signs of life or any victims of this flooding event when suddenly we saw one of these cruisers from Kerr County, a sheriff's deputy, get on the radio telling everyone to leave, get out.
And then we started people -- started seeing people rushing toward their cars and packing up. And that's when we heard from volunteers that water was apparently building up north. And there were major concerns that it was coming this way. We also then shortly after that got this text message, an emergency alert. Severe. It says right here high confidence of river flooding at north fork of river. Move to higher ground.
So it's not that people were in a panic, but they packed up hundreds of volunteers and then moved to higher ground. And that's where we're at right now, where you can see a deputy kind of directing traffic. From what I've heard, he's only allowing people near the river, people who actually live there. But we saw a line of cars leaving from that area.
I spoke with a firefighter shortly before our crew evacuated, and he says, hey, we're just not taking any chances. We don't think that this is what -- what's going to happen now is what happened, what we saw over Friday overnight into the weekend. But still we learned our lesson. We're not taking any chances. We're taking this super seriously.
Other volunteers from other towns, including comfort and nearby here in central Texas said they got the same call. So all of these volunteers have gotten out -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right, Isabel, we're going to check back with you.
CNN's senior national correspondent, Ed Lavandera, also with us now from Ingram.
And so, Ed, what's the story there?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, the line of cars you see behind me, this is Highway 39, which leads from Ingram to Hunt. And that is where the north fork of the Guadalupe River connects with the main Guadalupe River. And we were there just about 30 minutes or so ago when authorities started frantically urging everyone to evacuate the area immediately.
They were telling everybody just to scramble out of there as quickly as they could. Of course, there's a great deal of concern because there's so many volunteers, people making their way back to this area to begin the cleanup process, and that sort of thing. But this line of cars is a massive traffic jam. We just emerged out of this, and it is a line of cars about six or seven miles all the way back toward Hunt, Texas, where everybody is trying to make their way out of this.
This is where the roads kind of open up and you can go in a few different directions to get to safety, but it is what they described to us in the moment there is that there's a wall of water coming. They were urging everybody to get out of there. It wasn't clear. We didn't see any immediate change to the river, the different parts of the river there, in that area that they were the most concerned about at the moment when we started evacuating that area as well.
But right now, what is unfolding is this long line of cars, and this line will go basically all the way back to -- to Hunt, Texas, where those authorities and that -- that branch of that river will connect with the Guadalupe River. So we will keep our eyes on what continues to unfold here. But right now there are hundreds, if not thousands of people trying to escape this potentially dangerous situation.
WHITFIELD: Continued heightened concerns there about these floodwaters.
Ed Lavandera, Isabel Rosales, thank you so much. We'll check back with you.
We're going to continue our coverage. That also includes the ongoing search for the many victims of the flooding in central Texas. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:33:31]
WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. We're following the breaking news out of Central Texas, where emergency officials are urging people to now evacuate parts of Kerr County, Texas, because of the potential of more flooding.
Here's new video. Just take a look at this, just in to CNN, of a home. Yes, that is a home right there in the water, floating near Center Point, Texas. And you can see the speed of which this entire structure is moving. And then it stops there at the bridge, only because of the bridge.
But you can see all the other debris that is collected there as a result of that moving water. Overall, the floodwaters in Kerr County caused the Guadalupe River to surge by more than 20 feet in less than two hours.
The death toll from the disaster has just risen now to at least 71 people. Rescue crews are still searching for the missing, including 11 girls and one counselor from Camp Mystic, one of the many summer camps that line the river. More rain has prompted some more evacuations along the Guadalupe River.
Let's bring in now Meteorologist Chris Warren. So, we heard from the Department of Public Safety there. He talked about a wall of water, and he also used the word unconfirmed, but underscored there continues to be concern about rising or potential flash flooding as a result of rain that's continuing right now?
[16:35:02]
CHRIS WARREN, METEOROLOGIST: The National Weather Service has seen enough on radar to issue a flash flood warning. Now, our reporters, Isabel and Ed, are here near Kerrville. Isabel is over here roughly, and Ed's over here a bit.
And this is important because this is the storm that is firing right now, getting one to two inches of rain already. Could see a couple more, so expecting a rise in that. Again, the ground is saturated, and as we've been hearing from officials, it's not going to take a lot more water for it to overflow, right?
So, to get more flooding, you think of a glass that's filled almost all the way up, doesn't take a lot more for it to overflow. So, here it is, and a lot of this is draining into the Guadalupe River, the tributaries to it near Ingram.
So, as we look at a little bit broader here, this is one of many storms. Again, this does have a flash flood warning on it, and here it is. This is that flash flood warning, and it's just where Ed is. He's just right on the edge of that Ingram there, and that is the flash flood warning within the green, which is the flash flood watch.
Now, watches mean conditions are favorable. I like to think of it as let's watch out for warnings because if we get a warning, we have to act. We have to do something. It's time to go. It's time for higher ground. That's the warning aspect of this.
So, within the watch, there is that flash flood warning right now, and the future radar, what the radar could look like through time, does show more storms moving through.
Should be short-lived, but as the storms are firing, they are hanging out and not moving, and that's a problem. If you have a storm that pops up and just hangs out, all that water is going into one drainage basin, and so all that water is going to go into the same river. If it moves on, it can move into a different drainage basin and kind of share the moisture that it has.
Eventually, by tomorrow, still some showers and storms are going to hang in there, still that possibility. But overall, with a chance for showers, Fredricka, in the next couple of days, it will be more of a drying trend here in the coming days.
WHITFIELD: Oh my goodness. Well, let's reflect, too, because it is still so hard to believe this kind of accumulation in such a short amount of time, and we're listening to the stories of people who have lived through it and horrific detail coming from folks who, too, are feeling like it's hard to understand what happened.
We did build a graphic here at CNN, a variety of images to help people perhaps better understand. You've done an amazing job describing all that's transpired since Friday, but maybe you can help walk us through this as well.
WARREN: Well, this just shows the reference. So, you have what went from less than a foot on parts of the Guadalupe River to 23 feet. So, what does that mean? When you say 23 feet, well, that's two stories, just about two stories. Or you can think about, like, three average dudes, you know, standing on each other's shoulders.
WHITFIELD: Yeah.
WARREN: Right? And how quickly. So, that -- that kind of rise right there, happening in an hour or two, happening at night, happening while people are sleeping.
WHITFIELD: And that explains why. In the recent video we saw, we saw an entire house that was lifted from its foundation, you know, floating down a river, a tributary there, before it rested there right at the bridge now that water has receded. There it is right there. Still hard to believe, but these are images that we received. And in some cases, homes, vehicles were toppled, destroyed, broken apart. In this case, you see what appears to be an entire structure, you know, intact, floating down the river.
WARREN: And this is not something -- well, think about it, if this is something that you expected, they wouldn't have built there in the first place, right? So, that's just not really in the frame of reference. And flash flooding can be anything from a couple of feet to unimaginable, catastrophic flooding like this. So, it is really tough --
(CROSSTALK)
WHITFIELD: You can see taking down trees, rapid, with incredible force.
All right, Chris Warren, thank you so much. We're going to check back with you. Appreciate it. And we continue to receive images, and we're sharing all of it to you as soon as we get it.
The death toll now climbing to at least 71 people across central Texas, at least 41 people still missing, as emergency officials warn of the potential for more flooding. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:43:29]
WHITFIELD: All right, we're following breaking news out of Central Texas. The death toll from the severe flash flooding there has just risen to at least 71 people. Emergency officials are urging people to evacuate now parts of Kerr County due to the potential of more flooding.
The Guadalupe River surged by more than 20 feet in less than two hours just a couple days ago. Governor Greg Abbott spoke earlier today, just in the last hour, urging people to stay off the roads. And he also tried to explain where they can expect more flood danger.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREG ABBOTT, (R) TEXAS GOVERNOR: There is more heavy rainfall that's expected that will lead to potential flash flooding broadly in these regions. The big country, Concho Valley, Central Texas, and once again Kerrville. 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 you can drive through it only to find out when you're in there that it's too late.
(End VT)
WHITFIELD: Rescue crews are still searching for the missing, including 11 girls and one counselor from Camp Mystic, one of the many summer camps that dot that river.
Joining us right now is Keli Rabon and her nine-year-old son, Braeden Davis. Braeden and his seven-year-old brother, Brock, survived floodwaters while at Camp La Junta.
[16:45:06]
I'm so glad to see all of you. So, Keli, you know, you first walk me through all that you know your kids experienced.
KELI RABON, SONS MADE IT SAFELY OUT OF CAMP LA JUNTA: Yeah, so it started that morning. We got a text from the camp saying that there had been high waters overnight. And at that point, you don't think all that much about it. But I started looking at the weather. And then once I realized how serious it was, I was extremely nervous, scared and concerned. But they'd already lost power and Wi-Fi and water at that point. And that was all that we knew.
And I live about four hours from the camp. And so you just feel so hopeless and helpless as a parent, not knowing. Because you can't communicate with your child at that point in any way. But they also don't have electronics there. So, you have no idea what's really going on.
WHITFIELD: So, that was pretty agonizing for you because you said you received a text. But did that also mean that you couldn't reach out to the camp? You couldn't call anyone there to find out in more detail what was going on. You didn't really know how worried to be, it sounds like.
RABON: Exactly, exactly. At first, you just hope that, OK, maybe the power's gone out and, you know, they had a lot of water. But we had no idea how bad it really was. And there was no way to contact the camp.
I guess they must have had some way to get a little bit of information out. But it was extremely sporadic. So, once -- I just decided to go ahead and get in the car and go. You know, mama instinct kicks in. And I got to go find my babies.
WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. So, Braeden, I mean, you are one lucky dude. But tell me, tell me what it was like. Tell me everything that you can remember that you want to share.
BRAEDEN DAVIS, SURVIVED FLOODING AT CAMP LA JUNTA: So, I can't wake up in the morning around 4 a.m. maybe. And I just hear screaming coming out from outside. And then eventually later on, I found I find out that someone's cabin had flooded and they all went outside. And eventually hours passed. People came into our cabin because their cabin flooded. These are the same people I was talking about that were screaming outside.
And I just remember. So, behind our cabin, there was a back road. There was like a little road behind there. And I saw like at least 60 people walking on it. And it was just crazy. And then day passed. And next day, well, that night around 7 a.m. I mean, 7 p.m. There is an evacuation. We go to a church. And where is it, mom?
RABON: Able to be reunited. But what he didn't know at that point was that he was separated from his younger brother.
WHITFIELD: Right.
RABON: And his -- and his younger brother was in one of the cabins that completely flooded that took on so much water. Brock had just graduated kindergarten. And so imagine being a new seven-year-old. He turned seven two weeks ago and ended up having to climb top bunk and then onto the rafters to try to get away from the water.
Thankfully, the counselors were, you know, helping them along the way. But I just can't imagine --
WHITFIELD: Can't either.
RABON: How do you know how to react in that moment?
WHITFIELD: Right. And know what to do. And my goodness, the quick thinking of the counselor who was able to help your son, seven-year- old Brock, and so many others. I mean, amazing. Absolutely heroic.
And so, you know, Braeden, I mean, you described 4 o'clock in the morning. It's dark. So, you know, you're seeing that there are people outside. They're, you know, trying to, I guess, get to higher ground. I mean, tell me what you were able to see or how much more difficult it made it for you because it was hard to see and it was dark.
DAVIS: To be honest, all I heard was the screaming. I saw and heard rain. I heard extremely loud thunder. A lot of lightning. There's -- I was like, seriously, like what the heck is going on outside? And I didn't know what was happening the whole day until I met my parents that night. And they told me how many people had passed away from the storm and how many people were missing.
RABON: And ultimately, they -- the boys, from what I understand, I mean, they had to receive drops of food and water from the National Guard. But they didn't really understand or comprehend what was going on. They were isolated within their cabins.
[16:50:13]
And for Brock, I mean, he was super traumatized once we reunited with him. He was just shell shocked. \
WHITFIELD: How is he doing right now?
RABON: It's still -- he's doing well. He's just tired. You know, it's been a lot to process. And little details have started to come out as he's feeling more comfortable and safe. But, you know, it was -- it was quite tragic. And of those three cabins that we know that were total losses, it's unlikely that we'll get any of their stuff back. And of course, it's just stuff. It's nothing compared to the loss of life. But it just really hits home as a mom to think, my gosh, my baby was that close.
WHITFIELD: Yeah. Yeah, that's very frightening. Braeden, I'm sorry, I didn't even ask you. How are you feeling? You did such a great job explaining what you experienced. But how are you feeling right now?
DAVIS: Right now I'm feeling like really sad for all the people out there that are still in this storm and the flood. And hopefully a lot of people get out of this alive.
WHITFIELD: Yeah. I think we're all hoping the same thing. I'm really glad that you're -- you're able to explain what happened and you're here with us. And you were so brave. And Keli Rabon, thank you so much for sharing. And we're glad that Brock is hanging in there, too. RABON: Thank you so much. Thank you for your interest in the story and the compassion of -- of everyone who has become so invested in this absolute tragedy.
WHITFIELD: Yeah. Thanks so much. And we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:56:22]
WHITFIELD: All right, we just got a new update as a result of the Texas flooding. The death toll now has risen to 80. Ten campers remain missing, as well as one counselor. The White House response to the flooding. President Trump has signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County. That happened earlier today.
CNN Senior Reporter Betsy Klein is now with us. So, Betsy, you're traveling with the President, who's been spending the weekend in New Jersey. What else are you hearing?
BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER AND WRITER: Well, Fredricka, the scope and scale of this devastation that we are seeing from our teams on the ground make clear that this is going to be a very challenging response and recovery process that's going to require state, local, and federal governments to work very closely together.
So, we are starting to get a sense of what that federal response is going to look like. President Trump saying that he has signed that major disaster declaration. He said in a post to social media, quote, "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.
Now, according to the Department of Homeland Security, this means that FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has been activated. They are going to help with the recovery efforts as they try to rebuild in this community. FEMA is going to pay about 75 percent of the cost of those recovery efforts, as well as the U.S. Coast Guard, which has been on scene for search and rescue efforts over the last several days.
There are two U.S. Coast Guard helicopters along with three fixed-wing aircraft with infrared imaging. That, of course, is such important technology as they look to track any kind of movement among all of this debris. But state and local leaders in Central Texas have said that so far they are getting what they need from the Trump administration.
Of course, we continue to track that. But as we track the federal response to this flooding and its third day of recovery efforts, there are a couple of important questions to follow here. Number one is the National Weather Service. This is the agency that is responsible for the country's weather forecasting. They issued a series of alerts on Friday in those very early hours saying there is going to be life- threatening flooding.
Now, it's unclear how many people they were able to reach with those warnings. We heard in that news conference that there are some people that didn't even have cell service where they were who were impacted. It's also the middle of the night. What's also unclear is whether cuts to this agency impacted how those warnings were disseminated.
But President Trump here in New Jersey, he's expected to leave in the coming moments. We'll be tracking whether he weighs in any further, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Betsy Klein, thank you so much for that. And, of course, everybody wants to help in whatever way they can. So, for more information about how you might be able to help the Texas flood victims, go to cnn.com/impact or text FLOOD to 707070.
All right. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
The CNN NEWSROOM continues with Erica Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is horrible. So bad. We've never seen it this bad before. We've had flooding not to this extent. It's a catastrophe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was going up to -- we had bunk beds in our cabins, and it was going up to the top bunk. And we had one choice, and we had to swim out of our cabins.
