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The Situation Room

Officials Give Update On Catastrophic Texas Flooding. Aired 11- 11:30a ET

Aired July 07, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:48]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news. Any moment, officials here in Texas will give an update on the devastating flooding. We're, of course, we'll bring that to you live.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Pamela Brown is in Kerrville, Texas. And you're in The Situation Room.

And we begin this hour with the catastrophic flooding in Texas. And the big question hanging over this tragedy, did officials do enough to warn people? This morning, the desperate search for survivors continues. This video from the El Paso Fire Department shows crews rescuing two people who escaped the fast-moving floodwaters and were clinging to a tree. At least 82 people are not confirmed dead and dozens more are missing. One man said he and his brother are searching for their parents after a wall of water swept them away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT BLAKE, SEARCHING FOR MISSING PARENTS: My big brother was about 40 yards away. He went up to help them at 4:53 and all the -- 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And Camp Mystic is releasing for the first time a number of those that they're grieving, 27 campers and counselors. And a person close to Camp Mystic tells me that that number includes the 10 missing campers and the one counselor that we have been reporting.

And this statement it released, it says, our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy -- tragedy. We are praying for them constantly. We have been in communication with local and state authorities who are tirelessly deploying extensive resources to search for our missing girls.

Our Isabel Rosales is in Center Point, Texas. And Isabel, as I wait here for officials to start this press conference here in Hill Country, tell us about where you are. It's one of the devastated areas and how the community is coming together right now in this moment.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Pam, we've seen over the past couple of days so many strangers, volunteers from all over Central Texas and beyond coming together, lending their time, their hands to go and sit through all of this wooded area by the rivers, the tributaries that span out kind of like a spider web to find these missing people. Right here we're seeing professionals at work. Right behind that tree is the Texas A&M Task Force.

I did see them walk up with a, and I confirmed, a human remains of a dog.

BROWN: Hey, Isabel I'm going to (inaudible) because officials are now starting this press conference here where I am now, Isabel, so let's listen in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And nine children are pending identification. At present, there are 10 campers from Camp Mystic unaccounted for and one counselor. We continue to offer our condolences to those affected. Reuniting the families remain our top priority here on this operation.

Please note that Highway 39 of -- of Old Ingram Loop remains closed to the public. Other than those who live in that area would not be allowed out there. I will now turn it over to Senator Cruz. Oh, sorry, City Manager, sorry, City Manager Dalton Rice.

DALTON RICE, KERRVILLE CITY MANAGER: Good morning, Dalton Rice, the City Manager for the City of Kerrville. As everybody knows, we are working in conjunction with the city under a unified command response and work -- and again, a lot of devastation. Our hearts go out to the families and the victims. We want to continue to work together as a community.

We love the media support on this to be able to communicate that message, communicate family, communicate togetherness, and we really appreciate all the support in helping us be able to do that.

Search and rescue operation -- as the Sheriff said, search and rescue operations will continue today from Hunt in North Kerr County all the way to Canyon Lake in Como County. Now, we're only focused on the Kerr County side, but we wanted to talk about that because a linear -- from Hunt all the way to Como County in a straight line distance is over 100 kilometers. This is a massive field that is happening and again, this is unprecedented -- unprecedented flood events.

[11:05:05]

So we are still currently in the -- in -- in the primary search phase, which is a massive field that is happening and again, this is unprecedented flood events. So we are still currently in the primary search phase, which is the -- the rapid one. They are running -- you know, we have different segments that are gridded out.

Each one of those segments are taking anywhere between an hour to three hours, up to two kilometers for each segment. So what that means is they're running into a lot of technical challenges with terrain, with water, even potentially, you know, with weather, you know, in -- in the rising fields. We've talked about this before.

Volunteers stay out of the way because if -- if we start getting weather reports and -- and all -- you know, and all the -- the other complications that are out there, we then have to pull off of those search and rescue missions to be able to communicate to those volunteers to get off -- to make sure that they don't become victims themselves.

Those operations involve 19 different local and state agencies in addition to conducting primary and secondary searches. They will be conducting welfare checks on areas in North -- North Kerr County impacted by power outages. And when we say search and rescue operations, that is boat, walking on the ground, dogs, drones. Again, keep -- keep personal drones out of the air, helicopters.

We do have other assets that are -- are continuing the search as well. As of present, KPUB, which is the Kerrville Public Utility Board, is reporting continued power outages between Hunt and Ingram along the South Fork of the Guadalupe River in Hunt. In the South Fork area, there are approximately 40 downed power lines and significant infrastructure damage.

KPUB has brought in additional utility personnel to help with restoration, but it's not possible at this time when the power is going to be restored. There are some -- some substations along with those power lines that we are still trying to get access to just from debris buildup or them being completely wiped out. So we do not -- again, we do not have an estimated time on when those are going to be fixed.

We continue to have substantial number of requests for volunteers, as I said before, and donation opportunities. We are asking those who want to volunteer to contact the Salvation Army in Kerrville by phone at 830-465-4797 or in person at 855 Hays Street in Kerrville. Monetary donations can be made on the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country's website at www.communityfoundation.net. They have a Kerr County Relief Fund set up on that site. And I will now turn it over to the Mayor, Joe Herring.

At 855 Hays Street in Kerrville. Monetary donations can be made on the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country's website at www.communityfoundation.net. They have a Kerr County Relief Fund set up.

MAYOR JOE HERRING JR., KERRVILLE, TEXAS: We remain hopeful, every foot, every mile, every bend of the river. Our work continues. You need to know that we have been blessed with help from the community, from the state, and the nation. We have trained experts who are helping in this effort.

If you want to volunteer, it is important that you contact Kerrville Salvation Army and register. Dalton gave that number, but I'm going to give it again, 830-465-4797. We need focused and coordinated volunteers, not random people just showing up and doing what they do. We need to work together. As Dalton said, donations have been flowing in from around the world to the Community Foundation. Again, that website is www.communityfoundation.net. Please follow the Kerrville -- City of Kerrville's Facebook page for updates. They're accurate. We take a lot of time to make sure we send out information that will be helpful, not only to residents, but to those who are visiting.

I've said this 100 times, and I will say it again. We need your prayers. We need your prayers. Thank you. And now, Senator Ted Cruz.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Texas is grieving right now. The pain, the shock of what has transpired these last few days has broken the heart of our state. As of yesterday, the confirmed death -- death toll was 82, and those numbers are continuing to go up. The children and little girls who were lost at Camp Mystic, that's every parent's nightmare.

[11:10:07]

Last week we were picking up our daughter from camp here in Hunt. Our girls have gone to camp here for a decade. The Hill Country is an incredible part of Texas, part of the country.

The natural beauty here is incredible. The camps that have raised generations of little girls and little boys and instilled character and love and faith are extraordinary institutions. And I'll tell you, the pain in our state, and it's every part of the state, you've got Texans from all over the state who were here celebrating the Fourth of July.

A week ago, this was a time of great celebration. You're dropping your little girl off at camp, your little boy off at camp. You're celebrating Independence Day. You know that your child is going to be swimming and canoes and horseback riding and doing archery and making lifetime friends.

And then suddenly it turns to tragedy. Over the last several days, I've spoken to multiple parents, scared out of their mind, what -- do -- do you know anything? Where is my daughter? There's still 10 girls and one counselor from Camp Mystic that are not accounted for. And the pain and agony of not knowing your child's whereabouts, it's the worst thing imaginable.

But I want to say in the face of all of this, it is simultaneously inspiring. Every time there's a tragedy, every time there's a natural disaster in Texas, Texans come together. Texas is a big state. We've got 31 million people, and we have hurricanes, we have tornadoes, we have wildfires.

Tragedies hit this state, natural disasters hit this state, and without fail, 100 out of 100 times when that happens, we see Texans coming together, helping each other, engaging in acts of heroism. There have been over 850 high-water rescues since this flooding began, 850.

You look at extraordinary stories, stories of Eagle Scouts pulling campers out of harm's way. I was just hearing a story of one counselor whose head was right at the water, holding up two mattresses with campers on those mattresses, that kind of courage, that kind of selflessness.

And then there are the first responders, the local first responders. I want to thank every one of the first responders at the local level, at the city level, at the county level, at the state level, at the -- at the federal level. In the first few hours of this flood, I was on the phone with Governor Abbott, I was on the phone with Governor -- Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, I was on the phone with Nim Kidd, the head of the Texas Department of Emergency Management, and then I called President Trump.

I called President Trump. He was having dinner at the time. It was still early in what was transpiring. And I wanted him to know, I said, Mr. President, everything we're hearing right now, this appears to be bad, really bad. There may be a very significant loss of life unfolding right now in Texas. And I will tell you, the President said, Ted, anything Texas needs, the answer is yes.

Whatever assets you need, whatever resources you need, yes, let us know, and we will provide everything. Within hours, we had helicopters, over a dozen helicopters in the air, National Guard, DPS, game wardens, Coast Guard, doing search and rescue, reaching down. We've all seen the videos of little girls being pulled up, hoisted out of harm's way. Incredible courage and heroism.

Search and rescue is the first stage, but the process of coming together and rebuilding is going to take longer. And I will say to all the grieving families, to all of those who have gotten the worst news imaginable, that your little girl, she's gone.

I will say, for many of us, those are friends and neighbors who've lost children. I've got multiple kids who go to school with my girls. The mayor asked for prayers. And I want to say thank you to the millions of Texans, to the millions of Americans, to the millions of people all over the world right now who are praying, praying for Texas and praying for those parents.

[11:15:00]

Going through this grief, it is going to take love. It is going to take friends and family embracing and hugging. And -- and -- and holding them while they weep. And it's going to take the church.

With every disaster, one of the things we see here in Texas is the church steps up and the church helps and the church feeds and clothes and comforts. This morning, I met with a group of chaplains who've been going through the incredibly difficult process of talking to mom and dad after mom and dad who just lost the most precious person they ever knew. And those chaplains are just trying to love them and show God's love.

So I want to say we will come through this. To those in the midst of grief right now, that might seem hard to fathom. But Texas will come through this. And I just want to say thank you. I want to say thank you to these gentlemen here who are working. They are not sleeping. They are working every day. Thank you to the families. Thank you to the Salvation Army. Thank you to everyone who is just reaching out and saying, how can I help?

We will come through this, and we'll come through this together. Thank you. And now we'll take questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator, you talked about how you know kids here, how you're taking your own kids to camp. Was it ever communicated to you that there was a need, that it was a priority to have a warning system so people had a chance to escape something like this?

CRUZ: Well, listen, I think any time you're dealing with major rivers, there's a risk of flooding, and there's always been a risk of flooding, particularly on the Guadalupe River. I will say, in -- in the wake of every tragedy, there are things that are predictable.

One of the things that's predictable is that you see some -- some people engaging in, I think, partisan games and trying to blame their political opponents for a natural disaster. And you see that with a hurricane, with a tornado, with a wildfire, with this flooding, where -- where people immediately say, well, the hurricane is Donald Trump's fault.

You know, look, I think most normal Americans know that's ridiculous, and -- and I think this is not a time for partisan finger-pointing and attacks. Now, after we come through search and rescue, after we come through the process of rebuilding, there will naturally be a period of retrospection where you look back and say, OK, what exactly transpired? What was the timeline? And what could have been done differently to prevent this loss of life?

And that's a natural process. I think it should not happen in -- in -- in a bitter and partisan sense, but it should happen in a reasonable sense of saying, what lessons can we learn? And -- and I will give an example. You know, Houston's my hometown. If you live on the Gulf Coast, we get hurricanes. That's part of living on the Gulf Coast is hurricanes hit.

And I do think Texas as a whole has learned over time how to deal more effectively with hurricanes. And so you look here, we know the National Weather Service put out an emergency warning just after 1:00 a.m. and a second emergency warning just after 4:00 a.m. Now, obviously, most people at 1:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. are asleep.

And so I think we will have a reasonable conversation about, A, are there any ways to have earlier detection? And some of that, the limits of a flash flood, they're very difficult because they can arise so quickly. But everyone would agree, in hindsight, if we could go back and do it again, we would evacuate particularly those in the most vulnerable areas, the young -- the young children in the cabins closest to the water.

We would remove them and get them to higher ground if we could go back and do it again. Obviously, everyone would -- the -- the people in RVs by the river's edge, we know in disasters like this, RVs and mobile homes are particularly susceptible, whether a flood or a hurricane or a tornado, they're particularly susceptible to that.

And so my hope is, in time, we -- we will learn some lessons to implement to -- to next time. And there will be another flood. There will be another disaster. But next time there's a flood, I hope we have in place processes to remove especially the most vulnerable from harm's way. But I think that's going to be a process that will take a careful examination of what happened and how can we -- how can we implement processes better in the future to prevent this same loss of life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator, there were claims that the National Weather Service sent that first flash flood warning that should have alerted phones at 1.14 in the morning. Well, we have a federal public database maintained by PBS, PBS warned, that says the first emergency alert wirelessly here in this area to Kerr County was not until after 9:00 a.m. That was more than four hours after the severe flooding had come to this area. Did you know that? Have you seen that? And what's your response knowing the state had cuts to the NWS in recent months by this administration?

[11:20:20]

CRUZ: So, I -- I don't know the source for what you're saying. All of the public reporting I've seen is that there were -- there were two alerts that went out, one just after 1:00 a.m., one after 4:00 a.m. You know, I can tell you I talked about the partisan finger-pointing. I think there have been some eager to -- to point at the National Weather Service and say cuts there led to -- to a lack of warning. I think that's contradicted by the facts.

And -- and if you look at the facts in particular, number one, that these warnings went out hours before the flood became a true emergency level. But number two, the National Weather Service here, New Brunsvilles is where -- where they were headquartered. They had additional manpower.

In fact, they had three additional people working that night anticipating that it was going to be a very dangerous weather situation. I also think it's worth noting that the National Weather Service Union, which has been very critical of the DOGE cuts, has publicly said that they don't believe that -- that -- that the reduction in staffing had any impact whatsoever on their ability to warn of this event.

And -- and so, look, I think it is reasonable over time to engage in a retrospective and say at every level what could have been done better, because all of us would want to prevent this horrific loss of life. But I think just immediately trying to use it for either side to attack their political opponents, I -- I think that -- I think that's cynical and not the right approach, particularly at a time when we're dealing with a crisis and we're dealing with grief.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But does this make you question whether there should be cuts at the National Weather Service? And FEMA, I know you've been supportive of FEMA. CRUZ: Look, I -- I am very supportive of FEMA. I'm very supportive of the National Weather Service. They both perform essential roles. And -- and I think it is critical at every federal agency, particularly when you're dealing with public safety, that -- that we make sure that critical roles are -- are maintained. That -- that's a longer and broader discussion. But as I said, everything from the public evidence indicates that that was not a contributing factor to what occurred here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is it possible to get Dalton in just to talk about that and those National Weather Service alerts? Because there were escalating forecasts throughout the day from the National Weather Service. What did the emergency managers of the county and other local officials do with that information starting at 1:15 and onward where you had the dire river forecast at 6:30? Were emergency managers doing anything to put any processes in place to warn people on the river?

RICE: So overall, we were preparing for the July 4th, you know, weekend. So we had National EMR on site. We basically stood up kind of an incident command post, if you will, to prepare for that event. So most everybody was kind of up looking at weather. We looked at the weather before. When you looked at the National Weather Service, excuse me, flood map, it spanned all the way from the west side of Texas with Kerr County kind of being in that upper northeast corner of it.

And so everybody, including the National Weather Service, was looking at where's the rain going to hit. We know it's somewhere in here, but with rain, especially when you're dealing with terrain, you've got to figure out. Sometimes you don't know until it -- until it falls.

So once it starts falling, then you've got to figure out, OK, how's the watershed going to do this? How's the science going to work? And when you had that north and south fork that we had talked about before, it all converged into one. We do know that a lot of the camps were looking at this just as much as, you know, as everybody was.

With, you know, with the rainfall percentages, even the National Weather Service had looked at, and don't quote me on the numbers, but it was anywhere between, you know, one to seven inches. We got significantly over that. And, again, when it goes into very congregated areas and how that watershed shifts into -- into the -- to the -- to the rivers, that impacts things.

And so the camps, obviously we -- we've heard stories where campers were getting up. They were up at, you know, 3:30 in the morning. They were trying to move to higher ground. That's the -- that's the -- and -- and the other interesting part of the terrain, and we've talked to UGRA folks as well, this is the headwaters of the Guadalupe.

This is the beginning. This is where everything forms when, you know, when it comes into the north and south fork. And so -- so as those things develop, it develops very rapidly, very quickly, and this rose very quickly in a very short amount of time. And so those campers that were able to do that, it worked. You know, there's been the other question, and I'll just give this one out, evacuations. Well, why don't we evacuate? Well, evacuation is a delicate balance because if you evacuate too late, you then risk putting buses, you know, or cars or vehicles or campers on roads into low-water areas trying to get them out, which then can make it even more challenging because these flash floods happen very quickly as well.

[11:25:01]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And, so you recall that in 1987, what was the real discussion of evacuation earlier, but when it wasn't too late? Was there any discussion about that among the officials?

RICE: Sorry, repeat your question.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was there any discussion to evacuate or activate any emergency plans before it was too late where it would be very dangerous like that?

RICE: Well, so again, just like disasters in Texas everywhere, you know, it's very tough to make those calls because what we also don't want to do is cry wolf. You know, we don't want to -- we don't want to make sure that we -- we activate it at the right time. It's -- it is very difficult, very challenging, especially with this.

We're looking at 100 kilometers, right? And that's a -- that's a big straight line distance. That's not even along the river. These areas take a lot of time to get out to. So even when first responders were on the ground at 3:30 in the morning and we had reports, we had first responders that were getting swept away actually responding to the first areas of rainfall. That's how quick it happened.

First responders who have experience who are swift water qualified we're driving to the -- once as soon as the rain started falling, were driving to these areas. And one of them got swept off the road.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One more question everybody. One more question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- between 1:00 and 4:00 a.m. from local law enforcement to the camp saying I know you can't get buses in there. Was there anyone telling the camp between 1:00 and 4:00 a.m., you need to get the girls to higher ground at the very least you need to walk up there. The rain is (inaudible). Was there any communication from local law enforcement to anyone at that camp between 1:00 and 4:00 a.m.?

RICE: That I don't know off the top of my head. What I do know though is, you know, there's 55,000 people in Kerr County. Kerr County is a massive, massive area from here to those camps, is -- is 45 minutes on a good day. And so, you know, obviously one of the big challenges that we have even when you have cell service a lot of those areas don't even have cell service.

Radio communications towers, you know, radio towers within the Hill Country, it becomes very challenging. So there's a lot of areas especially when weather comes in where cellular towers are down or you already have bad service. So there's a lot of -- a lot of factors that play and a lot of variables in there on -- on communication that again, I think as -- as we work through this process, we know everybody has a lot of questions regarding what are the next steps and what's next.

And I think all of these things, these are all great questions. And as we continue search and rescue and as we continue to move to the next step, we definitely want to dive in and look at all those things from cell service tower to, you know, to radio communications, you know, we're emergency alerting. Any of those things I think we all really need to take a look, you know, a look at and review and we're looking forward to doing that once we can get the search and rescue and stuff complete.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In regards to the total number before I say anything else. I just want to say thank you to you, all the first responders to everyone involved, we've been praying.

RICE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've been praying, the media's been praying. Thank you guys for doing that. I've got two questions one. Can you try to get an accurate count on number of missing? I know you can't -- I know we don't know the -- no -- we don't know what we don't know.

RICE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But do we know a rough idea on total estimates that we're still missing overall throughout the county. And then one other follow-up, this may be for Senator Cruz. A lot of speculations being made about this being somehow man-involved with the weather modification with some of the rain vapor technology working with farmland. Do you think any of that? Is there going to be any investigations into that or can you communicate anything on that?

RICE: Let me answer your first question. I'm definitely turning that second one over to him. So on the first question, you know, with missing persons, so obviously we have the knowns, the cantonistic kids which is the numbers coming down as the sheriff has stated and then we have the unknowns, but we don't know what we don't know.

We are taking, we actually have a five hotline line, it fluctuates between three and five, but we're -- we're working on it. We -- we get calls 24 hours, seven days a week. We haven't hit the weeks yet, but we're still, you know, taking in calls. We are collecting all that information.

So we don't have a -- a solid number that we're willing to talk about right now. We do know that it -- it is a lot because we also are getting a lot of fake calls You know, you're looking -- this is -- this is a worldwide discussion and we're -- we're dealing with scammers, victims' families are -- are being reached out to you saying that they have their kids pay me money. It's heartbreaking. It's absolutely heartbreaking. We're dealing with, you know, with mental health issues where people are calling, saying they have visions. You know, all of these things we're dealing with on a day to day basis and we're having to vet this information and it -- and it becomes very taxing on our people. Again, this is an extremely heartbreaking. This is if not the worst, you know, one of the worst, you know, disasters in this region in a very long time, even beyond 1987.

And so -- so but we're --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Best asking like dozens or hundreds or just -- just to give people an idea.

RICE: A lot, so.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The follow-up -- the follow-up, yes.

CRUZ: Yes, there -- there --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not to get into the weeds on, you know, people are asking lots of questions and where should we start the investigation?

[11:29:49]

CRUZ: To the best of my knowledge, there is zero evidence of anything related to anything like weather modification. And -- and look, the Internet can be a strange place. People can come up with all sorts of crazy theories. What I know is a reality is that -- that a whole lot of Texans are -- are grieving right now. I will tell you, I was visiting --