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Death Toll at 81, 10 Campers Missing Following Texas Floods; Desperate Search and Rescue in Third Day in Texas; Trump Signs Major Declaration to Activate Help to Texas; Trump's Megabill Kickstarts Races Key to Controlling Congress. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired July 06, 2025 - 20:00   ET

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

[20:01:57]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks for joining us this hour as we continue our special breaking news coverage of the catastrophic flooding in Texas. I'm Erica Hill in New York, alongside Pamela Brown in Kerr County, Texas.

At this hour we can confirm officials now say at least 80 people are dead, 41 remain missing across central Texas. In Kerr County, the area that saw the worst of that flash flooding, officials say 68 people lost their lives, including 28 children. Hundreds of emergency responders and volunteers are working around the clock now, searching for survivors. As you can see, there a number of the efforts.

You can also see the debris, and it just gives you a sense of how difficult this task is. They are in trees, under bridges, along the river banks, and of course, survivors have thankfully been airlifted to safety in some instances.

The damage is vast. It is catastrophic, as we said. And of course, there is still hope that those 41 missing people will be found.

Pamela Brown is, of course, on the, on the ground there in Kerr County.

And you were able to make your way around to different parts, including to Camp Mystic, Pam.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. I mean, this is a community that's just decimated. You almost have to be here and see it with your own eyes to really believe it. You know, this is a magical place. Camp Mystic in particular, where I used to be a camper. And now it is just, you know, cabins that have been ravaged by the waters with debris all over the place, trees toppled over, cars toppled over.

I mean, it's just a horrible scene out here. And this community is reeling because it seems like everyone we talked to, they have some connection to this tragedy. I just spoke to a firefighter who was so kind, he came up to thank us for our work. And I, of course, thanked him for all that he has done and the other first responders and the search and rescue. And he said he has a daughter who just was at Heart of the Hills right down the road. Their session had just ended, and he said his daughter lost a friend at Camp Mystic.

And it's all just so devastating. The director of Heart of the Hills, as we know, was killed in this. And so I think there's just a lot of processing going on here as these first responders and others in the community are rolling up their sleeves and engaging in the search and rescue efforts, they're also grieving. They're also just trying to understand what happened. I mean, they've known that that river, the Guadalupe River, was unpredictable, and it has wreaked havoc in the past, but nothing on this scale.

And what I keep hearing from folks here as we try to piece together why there wasn't more of a warning or why there wasn't an evacuation earlier, is just how quickly it all happened overnight, and how there just wasn't a lot of time to get to safety. And all those stories of heroism as well, from the counselors at Camp Mystic, from the night manager we spoke to who helped rescue the girls. Dick Eastland, the head of the camp, in his car trying to rescue the girls. I mean, everyone was coming together to try to save lives today.

Today, earlier, Erica, I visited Camp Mystic. We had to evacuate because of the impending weather and the concern of flash flooding.

[20:05:03]

But I want to play that video of when I visited the camp that I attended 30 years ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So here we are at Camp Mystic. I was about to do a live shot, and law enforcement came up and said we had to evacuate because a water wall is coming. So our crew is packing up and quickly I just wanted to show you where I am. I mean, these are the cabins where the little girls were sleeping during the flash flooding over Fourth of July.

And I can't stop thinking about the fact I was a little camper in one of those cabins 30 years ago. And this river right here, the Guadalupe River, was a source of so much joy and fun. We would use the blob where someone would jump on it, and then the person at the end would fly into the water. We would go looking for dinosaur fossils. We loved it here. And to think that this same river was the source of so much heartache and terror and devastation, I just can't wrap my head around it.

I can't stop thinking about those little girls who were in their decorated bunk beds and their trunks, waking up to horror. The family members coming out here to look for their loved ones. It's just too much to bear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And you know, Erica, I've been talking to parents. I spoke to one parent who, her three daughters were at Camp Mystic. They were rescued by the counselors, and I'm told that the other parents who just dropped their kids off last Sunday for what was supposed to be a joyous four weeks are now going to the local funeral home to identify their child's body, potentially. It is truly your worst nightmare as a parent -- Erica.

HILL: Yes, it is. It is absolutely heart-wrenching. And of course, the number of families still waiting for word on what happened to their children. We know, I believe it's 10 campers now and one counselor still, still missing, essentially from Camp Mystic. It is, it is still absolutely, as we have heard from officials, this is still a search effort. But the hours, the minutes ahead are incredibly important as we know.

BROWN: Yes, absolutely. And as I said, it's an all hands on deck effort. People aren't giving up hope.

Erica, thanks so much.

I'm going to go to Ed Lavandera now, who's also been talking to those impacted by this tragedy. Ed?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Pamela. We've moved downstream along the Guadalupe River to the city of Comfort. And we came down here because earlier in the day, this was an area we've seen large groups of volunteers combing through the area, trying to find any survivors.

We are several miles away from where you are, but we're also, you know, very cognizant of the fact that there is a situation here where as far as you go upstream toward Kerrville that it gets in a situation where victims have been maybe washed downstream. And that's why you're seeing a lot of, a lot of the people doing the volunteer efforts here. But this is the kind of thing that -- a scene that they're coming across.

Look at the denseness of the debris that has been brought downstream. All of this pushed off to the side of the Guadalupe River. But obviously the water levels rose to these levels because look how far below us the river is now. And throughout the day here in the afternoon, as you talked about the warnings and the flood warnings because of the rainstorms a little bit north of us and concern that there might be more serious flash flooding coming our way, that's when the evacuation effort or the volunteer efforts to search in these areas really kind of got brought to a halt here this afternoon.

But we've seen people fanning out all over the place along the river here, trying to reinforce and bring closure and bring answers and finding those victims that are still missing in this tragedy. And those efforts were continuing today. I presume that they will ramp back up again tomorrow. But everything kind of slowed down here this afternoon because of those concerns of potentially more severe flash flooding in this area, which is already obviously extremely raw from what has happened in the last few days -- Pamela.

BROWN: Yes, those alerts are taking on a whole new meaning now in this area for sure. We were by Camp Mystic. I just saw the clip of my video, and then there were a lot of folks there, family members who were looking for their loved ones, and they all had to evacuate because they got that alert. Everyone on edge for good reason.

Ed Lavandera, thanks so much for that.

I want to go now to Rafael Romo, who has more on some of the victims and their families.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The families of several campers have confirmed their deaths to CNN, while others are enduring an excruciating wait for news on their loved ones. At one point, officials confirmed as many as 27 children were missing from Camp Mystic, a Christian all-girls camp located by the Guadalupe River in central Texas, Kerr County.

The family of Renee Smajstrla confirmed to CNN that the 8-year-old camper at Camp Mystic went missing during the torrential flooding and has passed away.

[20:10:01]

Sean Salta, the girl's uncle, told us that it's truly devastating for the family, adding that his niece's body was recovered on Friday, the same day flooding swept the area.

The mother of missing Camp Mystic camper Janie Hunt who was 9 years old told CNN in a message Saturday morning that her daughter had passed away on Friday, the day of the tragedy. Anne Hunt had told us that the family was just praying for the return of their daughter

CNN has also confirmed that 13-year-old Blair Harbor and her 11-year- old sister, Brooke, are among the victims. This was confirmed by their father. Both girls had been missing. RJ Harbor had told us that Blair was a gifted student and had a generous, kind heart, and Brooke was like a light in any room. People gravitated to her, he said. And she made them laugh and enjoy the moment. Neither girl was attending Camp Mystic at the time of their disappearance.

Reece Zunker, the head coach for the boys' soccer team at Tivy High School in Kerrville, Texas, and his wife, Paula, are also among the dead, as confirmed to CNN by his niece. His team posted on social media that coach Reece Zunker was not just a soccer coach, he was a mentor, teacher and a role model for our Kerrville kids.

Authorities confirm flooding killed people in at least six different counties in central Texas, including Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Williamson, Tom Green and Kerr, which had the largest number of victims by far.

Rafael Romo, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: May their memories be a blessing. Our hearts, our thoughts are with their family members, their loved ones who are just trying to process the deaths. It's just so much to bear and there are still so many families here holding out hope that their loved ones will be found even as these hours dwindle, they are holding out hope.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:15:37]

HILL: As we continue to cover the breaking news out of Texas, we can tell you officials are confirming some 41 people at least are still missing, and at least 80 people have been confirmed dead. There are also warnings as thunderstorms and heavy rains pound some of the worst hit areas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIM KIDD, CHIEF, TEXAS DIVISION OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: 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.

LARRY LEITHA, SHERIFF, KERR COUNTY: On Johnson Creek there is a rise there. That rise could put one to two feet into the Guadalupe River. We will be staying on top of that as we're here, we will definitely stay on top of that.

I want to use this as a good example. We get asked constantly about volunteers. You know, we've got volunteers. We've got this. This is a perfect example where this could hinder us. We are pulling our assets out of there right now to be safe. We'll determine when it's safe again to put them back in there. But this is one time we wouldn't be able to contact all these volunteers and get them out there. So please understand that and please pass that message.

We have a ton of resources here. I can make a phone call and get a ton more here. We have all the resources, all the equipment, all the manpower, all the food we need. OK? Please help me pass that message on. We do have it under control.

JOE HERRING JUNIOR, MAYOR, CITY OF KERRVILLE: Today, I learned that another helping hand has joined the fray. HEB is setting up a mobile kitchen in Ingram. And when that kitchen is set up, it will be able to feed a lot of hungry people in the Hunt and Ingram area. If you want more information about that, just go to HEB.com, I think, slash, Newsroom. Countless other local businesses are stepping up. They are finding

needs and they are meeting them. Now how can you help? If you would like to make a financial donation, we recommend that you go to the community foundation of the Texas Hill Country. They have set up a portal to receive donations. That would be CommunityFoundation.net. People across our community, across our state, across the world, have been responding to that request.

If you would like to volunteer, the city has set up a partnership with our local Kerrville Salvation Army at the KROC Center. The number to call to register, to help, or to donate is 830-465-4797. And when I say donate, in-kind donations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So these search and rescue teams are of course now nearing the end of their third day on the ground there as more questions are being raised about preparedness and weather alerts were issued in a timely manner.

Here's a little bit more from Governor Greg Abbott earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R), TEXAS: 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 running 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.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: We focus on families here. We know that there is a National Weather Service issue on Thursday afternoon talking about these flood watches and issuing Kerr County is a high risk area overnight.

[20:20:08]

Why not preemptively evacuate? (INAUDIBLE) a good question. They needed to be answered.

DALTIN RICE, CITY MANAGER, KERRVILLE: Yes. No. Again, it is still a great question. And when you looked at the National Weather Service notification, when you look at that map, that map showed Kerr County kind of in the northeast corner and that spread all the way through San Angelo. So there's a lot of information that's a wide area that must be addressed. And so as we're, you know, preparing for it, unfortunately, the rain hit at the most inopportune time.

And right in the most inopportune areas where the north and south fork hit it converged. And so here we are. So again we want to continue to focus on those rescue operations and that we're not taking any more questions. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: And Pamela, I have noticed over the last couple of days, I'm sure you have as well, oftentimes at these press conferences, they are offering important information, but the questions are shut down pretty quickly. Still, a lot of questions, understandably, that people have in the area. I'll hand it back to you.

BROWN: Yes. And we're going to continue to press for answers. We will not stop asking those questions. The community deserves to know, the families deserve to know. And I want to bring in someone who might be able to help us answer some of the questions we have in our minds. And that is Geoff Cornish, a meteorologist with AccuWeather. He joins us now.

You know, Geoff, we've been speaking to other experts who say that this area was known as flash flood alley. But are you surprised by how quickly those waters rose overnight?

GEOFF CORNISH, ACCUWEATHER METEOROLOGIST: And the numbers are staggering that we saw a 30-foot rise of part of the Guadalupe River in one hour's time. Those are big numbers, and that is a dramatic rise. And it came at the absolute worst time in the middle of the night, the early morning hours.

You know, we're in the business at AccuWeather and across the entire weather enterprise of trying to put ourselves at everybody in the position that we're not surprised by the weather as best as we can humanly possible. We're better postured for that now than ever before in human history with the latest technology, computer modeling improvements and so forth. But still, there are incredible things that the atmosphere will continue to do.

And there are things that are sometimes surprising, but unfortunately, the timing of this happened at a time when awareness was tricky. It did get out in time. A flash flood warning was issued by the National Weather three to four hours before the massive water rise, and our Skyguard product at AccuWeather, we have clients that pay us to give them specific business or preparedness type alerts. In some cases, summer camps and there are Skyguard alerts went out from our team 30 minutes even before the National Weather Service.

But it's a -- that's a difficult time and people have to make some very unpopular decisions. The camp has 750 people to wake them up in the middle of the night and say, we got to evacuate. I realized that warning fatigue is a thing. You know, you may have 499 flash flood warnings over several decades where things don't produce this outcome. But again, somebody needs to stay up to monitor this kind of thing in the middle of the night and make that call. This is a very challenging thing. And Pam, my wife and I just picked

our kids up from a weeklong summer camp in Pennsylvania on Friday night, and this is a call to action for anybody responsible for the well-being of people at RV parks or if you have kids in your care. This is tough. This is very, very challenging. But again, no matter if you're in Connecticut or in southern California or anywhere in between, you know, people need to do what needs to happen to take action before it's too late.

BROWN: It is. It is a call to action. I know so many parents feel that way who have young campers who are sending their kids off to camp. My kids are too young, but I, you know, hope to one day. And I've heard officials say there was nothing more that could have been done. This happened so quickly. What do you think about that? Do you think that that is true given how quickly it happened?

CORNISH: I'm sure there will be an investigation and I don't want to speculate, Pam, because I know that there are stories that some of the people involved with the camp leadership did some very heroic things in the final moments. And I don't know what it looked like between midnight and 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. with the decision making there. But, you know, if anybody else is in this situation in the future, you can't just see that wireless emergency alert, say another flash flood warning and go back to sleep and hope for the best.

I looked at, you know, I've been to the Hill Country before once. It's a beautiful place, but the arid ground there and the nature of the terrain, it leads to disastrous flash flooding. We do call that area, counterintuitively, part of I-35 and points west and east by three or four counties, flash flood alley in Texas. And it's because we've had flash flood event after flash flood event.

[20:25:07]

Just a few weeks ago, over a dozen people lost their lives in San Antonio with the slightly more common vehicle related flash flood fatalities. In most of those cases, this is -- it's a dangerous place and that dry, arid soil leads to rapid water level rise. And you head west of I-35 into the Hill Country there, west of San Antonio, and the nature of the terrain channels that water similar to what we saw in Kentucky a couple of years ago, in eastern Kentucky even last year. But it's even more dramatic when you have dry, arid soil there.

BROWN: Yes, I went back and visited. I'm from Kentucky and it was horrific, and I heard many of the same stories when I went there after the flooding, that it happened so quickly and the water was just rising and people couldn't escape fast enough. And this, of course, you know, this happened overnight and I'm just trying to better understand how it works from a meteorologist's standpoint, because, you know, Texas officials and of course there's a lot of finger pointing.

And right now we just want to rescue those who might still be out there. But also we want to learn from this. They talk about the alerts and that the initial alert before was that there would be five to seven inches of rainfall. And it ended up being 13 inches. Is there a way and that the technology available now to predict that, you know, it could be that much rain and the river could rise that fast, that the storm could stall over the river and cause that kind of flooding?

I mean, are those technological capabilities there?

CORNISH: We can look at the trends. We can look at things like the flow aloft and the terrain. But even as technology continues to improve and short-term modeling, we have a model called the HER, the High Resolution Rapid Refresh. AccuWeather app users have access to our minute cast product that has the next four hours of hyper local precipitation forecast.

They're better than ever before, but, you know, there's always going to be some question as to precisely how a convective small scale thunderstorm event the size of a county or smaller for the absolute worst of this, how that's going to behave four or five hours down the road, or two or three hours down the road. So, you know, I think it's critically important that people stay connected.

And one of the best things that the Weather Enterprise and the National Weather Service has rolled this out, has done in recent years, is issue the more escalated types of warnings. Historically, the top of the food chain for tornado warnings was a tornado warning. Now there's a tornado emergency and the top chain for flash flood alerts used to be a flash flood warning. Now there is a flash flood emergency, and they're seldom issued and intentionally so, because when there is truly a dire threat to the area, whether it be an RV camp or a summer camp or, you know, thousands of people or hundreds of people in harm's way, and a bona fide confirmed, legitimate, you know, once in a decade type event is happening for any given spot, those flash flood emergencies need to be taken seriously.

All I know is, if I am somebody responsible for the well-being of others, for me, a family of four, you know. But if you have many people in your care along a creek and you get a flash flood warning, I don't know what happened and obviously we're not -- I'm not in a position to criticize in any way and I have a lot of compassion for people who are dealing with this here. But it's not the time to go back to sleep.

And that may not have been what happened. But early action is so critical. And sometimes those decisions are really unpopular. Asking people to get up in the middle of the night. And, you know, there are so many false alarms. But this is not a false alarm.

BROWN: Yes. And what I was told from one of the parents was the storm was so loud and raging that the campers actually, it woke them up. I mean, they were awake because it was so loud and it just, you know, they saw the water just rapidly rising and they were waiting for the, the owner of the camp to pick them up in a car. And then they realized, well, the water is rising too fast. We got to take action on our own.

And counselor saved some of those kids. But other kids didn't make it, which is awful. And you have to wonder moving forward, what more could be done? I mean, what I hear from you is there is no way to have certainty as it stands now, with the technology available to meteorologists to have that kind of certainty of, oh, wow, the river could rise 24 feet. You know, the rainfall is going to be, you know, 13 inches. I mean, there is no way to precisely do that.

So what do we do now in the interim, until we perhaps have better technology through A.I. or whatever it might be?

CORNISH: Yes, well, we may not know four hours in advance, but two hours in advance, we begin to get a really good idea.

[20:30:05]

So those warnings are updated. Those warnings are updated with more heightened language. And, you know, the flash flood warning that comes across your phone at midnight, there's different information on that flash flood warning that gets updated at 2:00 a.m., even though the headline, flash flood warning until X time, you know, for Kerr County, it may initially read the same.

That information is very important for people to see and to read the exact details, because, you know, we do learn as a situation like this evolves with some lead time, one to two hours is enough time, three to four hours for the initial flash flood warning. And I was playing with Google Earth and looking at the, you know, for example, the camp, it looks like an amazing place with the water right there.

BROWN: Camp Mystic.

CORNISH: And at times it's a dry wash. But Camp Mystic, yes, but there's no, there's no buffer there. The buildings are built basically right along the creek's edge. And the issue of trying to evacuate by vehicle not always an option. The road is going to follow the easiest place to build a road. And that's going to be along the creek. So if they're, you know, people need to have a better means of egress.

And that might mean easily accessible, ADA accessible trails to get up, scale up the hillsides, even if it's not, you know, a vehicle accessible route, a way to get people up. Even if you're just getting up 50 or 60 yards, that's going to get you out of the floodplain a lot of the time. So it's critically important to look at the updates to the warnings.

BROWN: Yes, we had just --

CORNISH: One to two hours into an event. Yes.

BROWN: Right. And whether, you know, there's a question of, like you said, there's alert fatigue in certain areas potentially and what needs to be done to combat that fatigue.

CORNISH: Yes, and that's --

BROWN: Of course, this had the added layer of the overnight. And actually on the screen we just showed the alert that we received today. That was pretty straightforward to evacuate because of the concern of flash flooding. But, you know, there it is on the screen there. It's saying this is a dangerous and life-threatening situation. But, you know, there's still a question, especially at that camp, whether that even came through because we don't know.

There's bad reception there and we don't know if the counselors got that. I mean, there's a lot of still outstanding questions, but thank you for helping us fill in some of the gaps here, Geoff. We do appreciate it.

And we'll be right back.

CORNISH: You're welcome. I think this also highlights just the connection between local emergency management and their responsible for the well-being of other people, too. Thank you, Pam.

BROWN: Absolutely. And we're digging into all of that. Thank you, Geoff.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:36:12]

HILL: We're continuing to update you on the breaking news out of Texas, where flash floods just devastated parts of the state's Hill Country. President Trump a short time ago talked about his continued support, vowing that support would continue for the state.

CNN's Kevin Liptak joins us now.

So, Kevin, what more do we know about the specifics of this assistance from the federal government?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and the president signed this major disaster declaration, which essentially unlocks all of these federal resources for the communities on the ground there in Texas. So, for example, FEMA has set up seven shelters that as of 1:00 p.m. today had 137 people in them. The U.S. Coast Guard is on the ground there as well, helping with some of the search and rescue efforts, including with two helicopters, three fixed wing aircraft that have thermal cameras that are able to detect movement on the ground that might not be visible to the naked eye.

President Trump said today that he would probably visit Texas on Friday. He actually said he wanted to visit today, but was worried that some of his security apparatus would get in the way of some of the rescue efforts there. The president making very clear that the federal government would continue its support for local and state governments in Texas. In a letter that he wrote to the governor, Greg Abbott, he said that the wonderful Secretary Kristi Noem was available at all times. Kristi Noem is obviously the secretary of Homeland Security.

At the same time, there are now some questions being raised about staffing levels at the National Weather Service. There are a number of vacant positions in the local offices there in Texas, including by people who had left due to this early retirement initiative that President Trump had put in place in his bid to reduce the size of the federal government. So, for example, in the Austin-San Antonio office, there's a vacant position for a warning coordination meteorologist. The person who had been in that role left because of this early retirement offer.

There are other positions as well. It's far from clear whether those positions being filled would have prevented the human tragedy on the ground there. But obviously this will be scrutinized going forward as the death toll climbs.

President Trump was asked today whether some of those funding cuts could have prevented some of this. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are you investigating whether some of the cuts to the federal government left key vacancies at the National Weather Service or in the emergency coordination?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They did not.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, no. They didn't. I'll tell you, if you look at that, what a situation that all is, and that was really the Biden set up. That was not our setup. But I wouldn't blame Biden for it either. I would just say this is a 100- year catastrophe, and it's just so horrible to watch.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: Now, the president was also asked whether he still planned to phase out FEMA. Remember, his goal is to eliminate that agency entirely, move some of the responsibility back to the states for preventing and responding to some of these disasters. The changes are set to go into effect after this year's Atlantic hurricane season. But the president didn't answer that question tonight. He said that FEMA was busy working and that it was a question for another time -- Erica.

HILL: Kevin, there are also some questions about the president's schedule tomorrow. He is, of course, scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. And he was asked specifically about where things stand in terms of a ceasefire in Gaza. What did he offer in terms of insight today?

LIPTAK: Yes, and he is sounding very confident that a ceasefire for hostage deal in Gaza could be struck this week.

[20:40:00]

And, you know, this is Prime Minister Netanyahu's third visit to Washington since President Trump came to office. And like all of the two previous meetings, the situation in Gaza is at the very center of what the two men will talk about. President Trump has been making very clear that he wants to see a deal that would end the fighting there, and it does appear as if there is now some momentum.

The negotiators from Hamas and from Israel are in Qatar this weekend having what is called proximity talks, essentially passing messages through a mediator as they work to hammer out some of the final details of this plan. As Netanyahu is heading here to Washington, he did say that this discussion with President Trump could help advance the results on these hostage talks in Gaza.

President Trump today sounding very confident that those could be fruitful this week. You know, one of the reasons that this is so critical for President Trump is that ending the war in Gaza could really prove to unlock some of the things he's trying to do in the Middle East, particularly when it comes to normalizing relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Saudi leaders, including the crown prince, have said that can't happen while the war in Gaza is underway.

The two men, I think, are also going to want to talk about what happens in Gaza once the war ends. Remember, President Trump once said that the U.S. was going to seize control of the enclave and turn it into a riviera on the Mediterranean in the Middle East. That idea has not really been discussed since he first raised it earlier this year. But it leaves open the question of what exactly is going to happen in Gaza once the war ends. That will be something that these two men discuss as well.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. Kevin Liptak at the White House tonight, appreciate it. Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:45:21]

HILL: President Trump is now embarking on a new task that is convincing voters that his policy, mega bill, will do more harm than good.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny has more now on how it could impact voters in that very important state of Iowa, which could, in fact, really be a testing ground.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The sound of the gavel.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): The motion is adopted.

(CHANTING)

ZELENY: And the stroke of the pen marked the unofficial opening of the 2026 midterm election campaign, and the race to define President Trump's landmark legislation.

TRUMP: Look forward, fellas, look forward and just say what it is because it's the most popular bill ever signed in the history of a country, whether you're military or anybody else.

ZELENY: That bold assertion will be litigated over the next year. As Republicans fight to maintain control of Congress and Democrats seize on broad public skepticism over the law and try to lead their party back to power.

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): After Project 2025 comes Project 2026.

ZELENY: The history books are filled with big presidential priorities leading to big fallout at the ballot box. From Clinton's economic plan in 1993 to Bush's Social Security Reform effort in 2005 to Obama's healthcare debate in 2009, and Trump's failed attempt to repeal it in 2017.

The president and his party often paying the price, a point not lost on Trump as he sought to defend the law's sweeping tax cuts, and immigration spending.

TRUMP: Not one Democrat voted for us, and I think we'll use it in the campaign that's coming up, the midterms, because we got to beat them.

ZELENY: The president started his victory lap in Iowa, a state that's delivered him big wins in all three of his campaigns. It will now be one of many places to measure political fallout from the law, as Democrats eye two competitive House races and target Republican Senator Joni Ernst, whose comment about Medicaid cuts in the bill.

SEN. JONI ERNST (R-IA): We all are going to die.

ZELENY: -- still reverberates. At a Democratic rally, these signs spell out the party's argument for how the law benefits the wealthy at the expense of working class Americans.

JENNIFER KONFRST (D) IOWA STATEHOUSE: Iowans are fed up. They are angry and they are ready to fight.

ZELENY: Jennifers Konfrst, the Iowa House Democratic leader, is running for one of those congressional seats now in Republican hands.

What worries you the most about this bill?

KONFRST: It's healthcare access. That's what I'm hearing everywhere I go. I'll say, what keeps you up at night? It's always, I'm scared I'm going to lose my hospital.

ZELENY: Does the road to a congressional majority for Democrats run right here through this district?

KONFRST: Without question. If you want to get to the majority in Congress, you have to come through the Third Congressional District in Iowa. This is one of the lowest hanging fruits when it comes to flipping a seat.

ZELENY (voice-over): It's an open question just how competitive races like this will ultimately become in all corners of the country, as Trump takes the leading role in selling the GOP agenda.

TRUMP: I know for a fact they're saying the last two weeks there has never been anything like it as far as winning, winning, winning.

ZELENY (on-camera): The President says he is winning, winning, winning. But Democrats see political opportunity in this big legislation as well. There is no question over the next 16 months, the details of this from Medicaid cuts to tax cuts will be fought out by both sides control of Congress hangs in the balance.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: So much more to come here in the CNN NEWSROOM. We'll get you back to Texas for the very latest as we continue to cover those breaking developments. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:52:46]

BROWN: Welcome back. I'm Pamela Brown in Hunt, Texas, just down the road from Camp Mystic, and I've been speaking to people here who are still searching for their loved ones like Robert Brake. When he realized overnight that the flash floods could threaten his parents' homes, he called his father and warned him to get out. Today, he is still looking for his father.

Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT BRAKE, SEARCHING FOR MISSING PARENTS: We have a ton of support and the response within the community has been wonderful. It's been helpful in keeping us, keeping us inspired and hopeful.

BROWN: Walk us through that early morning phone call to your parents.

BRAKE: My brother was staying at the RV park. He had called at 4:44 and said call Mom and Dad because they were staying, visiting my brother at the RV park, HTX RV Park, and I called my dad at 4:44, said, "Dad, you've got to get out of there." He was still -- he's a little older. He was still discombobulated. My brother was about 40 yards away. He went up to help them at 4:53. And all the homes they were staying in were gone. They were just leveled. They were no longer there. We haven't heard or seen of them since then.

BROWN: So you did make connection with your dad initially, right?

BRAKE: At 4:44, yes, ma'am, he answered the phone.

BROWN: At 4:44. And what did he say to you then?

BRAKE: Nothing. He just -- I told him Luke's RV was getting swept away. Lucas, my brother, needs some help. At the time, we didn't realize the magnitude of what was going on. My brother just barely escaped with his own life and his wife. And by the time my brother went up to help him, realizing what was going on, they were already gone seven minutes later.

BROWN: Oh, horrible. Tell me more about the search and the rescue. BRAKE: I tell you, you know, that's been probably the part that's got

us through the most. These folks have just been unbelievable. We have seen everything from DPS to state troopers, local sheriff's ambulances. We've seen Coast Guard, Blackhawk helicopters, you know, when you look outside and you see the support, the overwhelming support of people that are showing up not just in uniform, but with their hearts.

[20:55:04]

You know, it just -- it provides -- it provides just a little more hope, you know there's people with big hearts that are out there doing the best they can to dangerous circumstances, trying to assist us find our loved ones.

BROWN: Yes, your feeling, Robert, what so many are feeling right now. Just overwhelmed with emotion and with a sense of grief of not knowing if your loved ones are still alive. It is the most natural feeling in the world.

BRAKE: It is.

BROWN: Are you still out there? Are you still looking for your parents?

BRAKE: We are. My brother and myself are here in Kerrville. Grimes Funeral Home, where they're staging the bodies as they come in, they've been very helpful. We've checked in regularly. It's an emotional roller coaster. You go and you don't want to, you don't want to hear they're here. But when they say they're not there, you know, it's just, just one more ounce of hope. And that's all we can ask for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And we are wishing Robert Brake and his family the best. We hope he finds his parents alive and all the other families that are holding out hope to find their loved ones here.

And Erica, we just got off the phone with Daltin Rice. He's the Kerrville City manager, and he talked to us about how quickly those river waters rose. He said he was out jogging early in the morning. He said it was about 4:00 a.m. and there was light rain. He says, "I'm from the Houston area, so I'm used to flooding. There were no signs of it at that time." He started getting phone calls about 5:00 a.m. By the time he got back out there, the river had already risen 20 or 25 feet.

It rose significantly in that amount of time. We almost got stuck when we went back. And then he went on to say, "Nobody could have ever predicted this." Certainly this was Mother Nature's wrath. But there are still a lot of questions and we are pressing for answers -- Erica.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. And I know you have more for us throughout the day tomorrow on CNN. Pamela, thanks.

Thanks to all of you for joining us tonight. I'm Erica Hill in New York. Stay tuned. Anderson Cooper's "THE WHOLE STORY: THE CASE AGAINST DIDDY" is up next.

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