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At Least 105 People Killed in Texas Floods, 23 Still Missing; Trump Announces New Tariffs on Several Countries; Prime Minister Netanyahu Headed to Capitol Hill for Meeting With Speaker Johnson. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired July 08, 2025 - 10:00   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, devastation and a demand for answers as the death toll here in Texas is now at least 105. Officials are now facing increasing scrutiny about whether they were prepared for this flood.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, President Trump will hold a cabinet meeting next hour as he's ratcheting up pressure on trading partners and saying he will send new weapons systems to Ukraine.

Welcome to 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 start with the breaking news out of the Texas Hill Country five days after truly historic floods ripped across the landscape, more tales of heartbreak and heroism emerged from the ruins. Emergency officials are due to hold a news conference at the top of the next hour. One of the main questions will be, could more have been done to warn people?

105 people are now confirmed dead. Among them, 21-year-old Joyce Catherine Badon. She was at a cabin with three of her friends who remain missing at this hour. In all, almost two dozen people are still missing, including ten-year-old girls and a counselor from Camp Mystic. At least 27, 27 campers and counselors died at Camp Mystic.

This morning, the tales of courage are remarkable. One woman was reunited on CNN with a stranger who saved her and her three young children. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRISSY ELIASHAR, SURVIVED FLOOD WITH HER THREE CHILDREN: The only sensible things he could say, just keep walking this way, keep walking. And my aunt slipped and fell. My daughter and nearly was washed away, and my son grabbed her and saved her by her hair. And he just kept telling us, keep walking, and grabbed us and helped us get to just enough high ground to get to the next steps. Matthew, you're our angel on this Earth and I hope soon we have a house we can invite you for dinner and reconnect. You've really saved our lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: My colleague and co-anchor, Pamela Brown, has been working long hours, long days to cover all these developments out of Central and Southern Texas. Pamela, what are you learning this morning?

BROWN: Well, thank you, Wolf. I'm here in hard hit Kerrville, Texas. This community is reeling from the catastrophic flooding. As you mentioned, the death toll now stands at 105. And here in Kerr County, 84 people at least lost their lives.

Next hour, Texas officials will hold a news conference to give an update on the storm and its aftermath. And there are still some serious questions about whether more could have been done before the storms hit to alert people of the raging floodwaters. We're learning of multiple attempts to build a flood warning system here in Kerr County in recent years, but they either faltered or were abandoned due to budget concerns due to concerns of false alarms potentially. The state's lieutenant governor told Fox News sirens could have saved lives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GOV. DAN PATRICK (R-TX): Had we had sirens along this area, up and down the same type of sirens that they have in Israel when there's an attack coming that would have blown very loudly. It's possible that that would've saved some of these lives. And so if the city can't afford it, then the state will step up. And we need to have these in place by the next summer when the next season comes, when people are floating down the river.

You know, there are 15, 18 camps along here. And it was this one camp where the worst possible storm hit in the worst possible section on the most vulnerable park, and Camp Mystic was part of that. So, we're going to get the sirens along here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And people here are asking that very question, why weren't there sirens, a system set up to detect the flooding and alert everyone here? Why wasn't there an organized evacuation effort there? And the three or so hours between the dire flood warnings from the National Weather Service and the time the river overflowed its banks at Camp Mystic. At least 27 campers and counselors were killed in the flooding. And while the National Weather Service did issue alerts and warnings, it's unclear whether people there receive them.

I spoke to the mayor who said he didn't receive any warnings on his phone.

[10:05:01] That's been a trend we're seeing. Did the camp have a flood emergency plan and weather emergency radios, were they used during the flooding? Why did some other communities like nearby Comfort, Texas, where I visited just yesterday, seemed to act on the same weather information in a different way, a more serious way? That really is a tale of two towns.

I spoke to a volunteer firefighter there in Comfort, and I want you to hear what he told me about the two sirens that rang out to alert people to evacuate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: What do you attribute to the fact that there was no loss of life here in Comfort, you know? Do you think it was because you all evacuated and the sirens went off?

BRIAN BOYTER, VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER IN COMFORT, TEXAS: Correct. That's my opinion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And search and rescue efforts are now entering day five. Almost two dozen are still missing. 20 state agencies are now responding as rescue crews desperately search for survivors.

Joining us now is one of the many volunteers helping out here. Josh Gill is an incident coordinator for the United Cajun Navy, the nonprofit group was founded after Hurricane Katrina and mobilizes volunteers to areas hit by natural disasters. Thank you so much for being here with us.

You have worked on more than a hundred disasters. How does this compare?

JOSH GILL, INCIDENT COORDINATOR, UNITED CAJUN NAVY: There's no comparison with this one, absolute catastrophic damage. This -- North Carolina was horrible. This one is -- just the magnitude is unbelievable, one of the worst that I've ever seen.

BROWN: Tell us more about what you're seeing along the miles of river. We see a little bit behind us here. You're seeing it all.

GILL: Yes, ma'am. We've got teams that are out in the field now doing search operations. And as you see behind us, there's just trees, humongous trees that are everywhere. The trees are blown through the entire area in the debris field. So, it's really contained here to a small area, but you can look further along the river and it'll go 300 or 400 yards outside of the banks. It's proving to be very difficult with dogs and other teams to get in and search all the treetops and all the destruction and rubble.

BROWN: How do you navigate all of that?

GILL: So, we work under the incident command structure of the Center Point Volunteer Fire Department, and they task us with specific areas and ask us to go clear one particular area at a time. We go back and report what we find and then we move on to the next one.

BROWN: Have you found any bodies?

GILL: We have been a part of recovering some remains.

BROWN: What are some of the challenges, you know, with that? Now we are several days in since that deadly flooding. Some of those sweet campers at Camp Mystic, they're still missing, and your heart just sinks.

GILL: The hardest part is, you know, working through the emotions. We know that there's children missing and there's families missing. We're trying to work through the emotions. You know, we want to hit every treetop, every rubble pile and find as many people as we possibly can. And we still hope every morning and we pray that we're going to find survivors.

BROWN: Yes, because now we're five days in, it is emotionally grueling. It is physically grueling. How are you and your crews coping?

GILL: We have a decompression time. We make sure that we meet after every day and we decompress and we talk about what we've seen. And we have a chaplain that's here as well helping us through the bereavement process and helping us cope through this critical incident stress.

BROWN: That's so important to do that. And just from my perch as a reporter on land here, my mind is racing at night trying to process everything and you feel the emotion and the heartbreak all around. But you're in your capacity as a first responder. They're looking for bodies. We're seeing so much more and we are just so grateful for all the work that you're doing.

GILL: Thank you.

BROWN: I know I speak on behalf of so many people when I say that.

GILL: And we'd like to just thank the community. The community opened its arms to us to be able to come in and to assist with this operation. It's very important to us. And we want -- we'll be here throughout the entire recovery as well.

BROWN: All right. Well, thank you so much, Josh Gill.

GILL: Yes ma'am. Thank you.

BROWN: And we're learning more about the lives tragically lost in Central Texas. 19-year-old Chloe Childress was a counselor at Camp Mystic. She had just graduated high school and was spending the summer mentoring the girls at camp. Her family says they are shattered by her death and the parents of twin eight-year-old girls Hannah and Rebecca Lawrence have confirmed their daughters were also killed in the flooding.

In a statement, their dad said, quote, Hanna and Rebecca brought so much joy to us to their big sister Harper and to so many others. And earlier, we mentioned 21-year-old Joyce Catherine Badon, who was staying with friends at a cabin in Hunt, Texas, her body was discovered yesterday after days of searching. Joyce Catherine's dad spoke with CNN's Ed Lavandera over the weekend when he was still clinging to hope that his daughter was still alive. Her friends are still unaccounted for. Wolf?

BLITZER: So heartbreaking indeed, Pamela, thank you very much.

We're continuing to monitor the breaking news on the Texas floods, but we're also following other major news unfolding right now as well.

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In the next hour, President Trump will hold his sixth cabinet meeting of his second term. This comes as he's ratcheting up the pressure on trading partners, sending letters to several countries with new tariff rates of up to 40 percent.

Let's go live right now to CNN Politics and Business Correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich in New York and CNN White House Reporter Alayna Treene.

Alayna, let me go to you first. What's the White House strategy right now with these new tariff rates?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. Well, Wolf, if you think about it, I mean, it was always going to be a tall order for this administration to try and strike a series of deals with virtually all of the United States' trading partners in such a short timeframe by that July 9th deadline.

First of all, of course, we're seeing that deadline now pushed to August 1st, kind of giving them a little bit of a reprieve here and more time to negotiate. And that's really what this is about, trying to allow some of these countries, particularly the United States' allies more time to negotiate some of these deals. It also comes, of course, as we know that the president has really seemed more, you know, less inclined and really less -- really bought in to making sure that all of these deals were struck in such a swift manner, him kind of saying, look, this deadline that I'm setting of August 1st, he told reporters last night out of his dinner with the Israeli Prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, he said that's not necessarily firm either, and that it depends on what these countries say.

But I do want to walk through some of the letters we know that he had sent because they vary based on the country. So, first of the first letters that he had sent were to Japan and South Korea, both of those countries are going to face a 25 percent tariff come August 1st. He had also shared similar letters to Malaysia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Myanmar, Laos, informing their leaders of new tariff rates as high as 40 percent.

So, I do think these could continue to change. We have heard from Japan and South Korea saying that they want to try and ensure they can work out a deal before that new deadline. But, again, a kind of shift, of course, from what we had seen when he initially said this deadline was for tomorrow morning at 12:01 A.M.

BLITZER: And let me go to Vanessa. Vanessa, how are the markets reacting to these new tariff rates?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, Wolf, markets opening a bit flat this morning as investors are trying to reassess and recover from what was really shocking news yesterday coming from the president, both this extension now of this 90-day pause deadline into August, and then also ratcheting up and threatening some of our key trading partners with higher tariffs. So, you saw the Dow yesterday falling about 400 points flat today, as investors are trying to parse through what happens next.

But if you look at the tariff rates that the president is proposing, they are similar to what was initially proposed on what is so-called liberation day on April 9th. Remember, a lot of these countries -- most of these countries actually, all of them, have tariff rates of 10 percent.

So, you're talking about a significant increase for many of these countries, like Japan, where we get many cars from, Hyundai, Nissan, you're talking about Malaysia, Indonesia, where a lot of apparel comes from, South Africa, where we get a significant amount of platinum from, and all of these 14 countries combined represent about $465 billion worth of imports into the United States every single year. That's about 11 percent of all imports coming into the United States.

And stocks on Wall Street really reacted yesterday. You saw key companies, like Restoration Hardware, which are manufacturers in Indonesia, you saw key car companies that manufacture in South Korea falling. And you also saw L.G., which is actually slightly up today, falling as they manufacture in Seoul, South Korea. You saw investors pulling back, dumping some of those stocks as they were concerned, Wolf, that the tariffs rates would rise and ultimately that would raise prices, Wolf, for U.S. consumers.

BLITZER: All right. Vanessa, thank you very, very much.

I want to go back to Alayna. Alayna President Trump is also announcing new weapons deliveries to Ukraine, a turnaround for the Trump administration. Tell us what you're learning.

TREENE: Yes, Wolf. I mean this is a dramatic shift in posture, not only because just the last week some of the president's Pentagon chiefs had paused some of these crucial weapons systems and shipments to Ukraine, but it also is a big change in posture for the president himself, someone who had consistently been very wary of wanting to send more aid and weapons to Ukraine, who really ran on a promise to try and pull some of the back, some of the support that the U.S. has been offering Ukraine.

I think it's important to note that this comes as, you know, just a couple days after the president had spoke with both the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin. The president actually said yesterday, he said, I'm not happy with President Putin at all, really echoing that sour readout of that call that we heard him give last week after getting off the phone with Putin, all to say a dramatic shift in posture.

[10:15:02]

And now Ukraine is going to be getting far more weapons from the United States. Those shipments resuming, including Patriot missiles, some of the biggest priority weapons for Ukraine at this time.

BLITZER: Yes, certainly. All right, Alayna Treene at the White House, thank you very, very much.

Other news happening now, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is heading to Capitol Hill. He's set to meet with the House speaker, Mike Johnson. And that follows a working dinner in Netanyahu had with President Trump last night at the White House. The president has been turning up the pressure on Israel to try to get a Gaza ceasefire deal in place as soon as this week.

Let's go live right now to CNN's Arlette Saenz. She's up on Capitol Hill. Arlette what are you expecting from this meeting between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Speaker Johnson?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making the rounds on Capitol Hill today with his first stop being that meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson. Johnson has been a long time supporter of Israel, and, in fact, was actually supposed to speak at the Israeli Knesset last month, but had to postpone that address due to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran at the time.

Now, this meeting between the two men is expected to take place next hour. We will see whether they might take questions. But it's playing out as President Trump is also pushing Netanyahu to try to come to the table to secure a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. This is something that has been a top priority for the president, and, in fact, he hosted Netanyahu last night for dinner where the prime minister revealed to Trump that he was nominating him for a Nobel Peace Prize.

This has been a top priority for the president, not just trying to achieve this ceasefire deal, but also trying to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. A ceasefire would be a key step in trying to achieve that.

So, we will see how Netanyahu's meetings play out up here on the Hill as the administration is trying to push ahead with getting a ceasefire deal secured soon.

BLITZER: All right. Arlette Saenz up on Capitol Hill watching all of this for us, thank you very, very much.

And still ahead, we're keeping a very close eye on the situation in Texas, the death toll climbing to 105 this morning.

Also coming up, stories from Camp Mystic, a look at the evacuation efforts by land and air amid this devastation.

Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

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BROWN: A song of worship echoed throughout this bus full of girls on Friday as they were being evacuated from Camp Mystic. That was a popular song there at the camp. But outside the windows, you see there, there's utter devastation. Just imagine that they're wary little voices reflecting the brutal reality of what they had just experienced of those last few hours. You can hear sadness, but also gratitude.

CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke with one of the camp counselors who says she tried to keep the girls calm while they waited to be rescued. She's understandably still in shock over what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROLINE CUTRONA, CAMP MYSTIC COUNSELOR: No one thought that that water could do. All of that damage in such a short amount of time.

If I could have been down where all that water was, I know I could have helped, and I hate that I couldn't have helped those girls on the flats.

Camp Mystic's the safest place I've ever known, and I just couldn't believe it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Multiple evacuation flights moved people at Camp Mystic to higher ground on Friday. Here's one of those flights with young campers and a counselor on board. And you can see the girls covering their ears trying to block out the loud noise from the helicopter.

Joining us now is Republican Congressman Buddy Carter of Georgia. His granddaughters were among the campers who were rescued from Camp Mystic. But, very sadly, their cousin, Janie Hunt, was swept away by the flood and she did not survive.

Congressman, our deepest condolences to you and your family for your loss. How are your granddaughters doing now? What can you tell us about their rescue?

REP. BUDDY CARTER (R-GA): Well, first of all, let me give a shout out to Scott Ruskan. He was the Coast Guard swimmer who rescued my granddaughters and actually helped to get them into the helicopter and helped them to get to safer ground.

Obviously, this is a very haunting experience a very harrowing experience for our granddaughters and our hearts are broken by Janie's death. But Janie's in heaven now, and God has wrapped his arms around her, and we know she's in a much better place. But at the same time our hearts are still broken. BROWN: Janie, I know, was in Bubble Inn. So many little girls were killed from that cabin, their counselors as well. Tell us more about Janie. We're looking at a picture of her right here. I know you've been in touch with her family and how's her family doing? I can't stop thinking about the parents of these little girls.

CARTER: Well, you know, it's every parent's worst nightmare. There's no question about that. I mean, we drop our kids off at camp and think they're going to have these great experiences, and they often do, and mostly they do. They have great experiences. My daughter-in-law went to that camp for many, many years, and this is the third year my granddaughters had been to that camp, and this was Janie's first year.

But the parents are, as you can well imagine, devastated and, Pamela, I might add, it gets worse.

[10:25:00]

The day that Janie's body was found was her mother's birthday. So, you can only imagine. It's just awful. It's just awful.

But I do want to thank President Trump. He, at my request, called the father of Janie and, and offered just the most comforting words to the father, and I really appreciate that.

BROWN: Well, that is very nice. Words of comfort mean so much right now. I mean, there's so many people I'm hearing from them all over the world that just want to do more, want to help give some comfort. What can people do right now?

CARTER: Well, obviously prayer is the answer. You know, we all -- I believe in the living God, as my family does and. And we know that Janie is with God now and that God has wrapped his arms around her. But we also need resources and certainly the financial resources and the prayers, all of those things are extremely important.

And it's not just in the immediate future. This is something that will, will haunt them for years to come. We have to remember that. And we have to be there for them. I'm convinced that God put us on this Earth for each other and, and we have to be there for each other.

BROWN: And CNN has a list of vetted nonprofits at CNN Impact Your World, for our viewers who want to know how to help.

I just want to ask you, as you think about how we got to this place and the tragedy here, you're hearing more from officials because, look, this is a flood prone area, yet so many people were caught off guard. And the lieutenant governor here in Texas said, look, there needs to be a siren system. There is one next door in Comfort. He wants one in installed by next summer. What do you think? What are the big questions you're asking now as someone who had a personal stake in all of this?

CARTER: Well, certainly, we don't want to politicize this. And, certainly, this is a tragedy. This is something that nobody could have helped. But at the same time, there will be lessons to be learned here and we -- shame on us if we don't learn those lessons. We will learn those lessons.

But let's keep in mind that that order rose 26 feet and 45 minutes, and that it happened in the middle of the night. And, yes, we wish we could have saved them, especially those precious little girls in Bubble Inn, but at the same time, the National Weather Service did their job. They did the best that they could. The rescuers, the first responders, they did such an outstanding job. The state government, the federal government, we've put all our resources into this.

So, yes, there will be lessons to be learned, but at the same time, we have to compliment those who have done such an outstanding job.

BROWN: Yes, no question. I think those, you know, are two separate things. The amazing work on the ground of the first responders, everyone who's just come together, but also the accountability questions and those lessons learned to make sure it never happens again here on the ground. I know, I'm certainly hearing that sentiment.

Congressman Buddy Carter, thank you.

CARTER: Thank you.

BROWN: All right, Wolf, so you just heard the congressman. I mean, he was fortunate in terms of his own granddaughters, other members of his family making it alive, but the cousin of his granddaughters, not Janie Hunt, precious little girl, one of 27 campers and counselors at Camp Mystic who lost their lives from that devastating flooding.

BLITZER: So, heart-breaking, indeed,

BROWN: We will be right back.

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