Texas Flood Live Updates: 14 Children Among 32 Killed As Rescue Efforts Continue

Texas Flood : 14 Children Among 32 Killed As Rescue Efforts ContinueByAntonio Pequeño IV, Forbes Staff

Pequeño is a news reporter who covers and more

AuthorJul 05, 2025, 05:02pm EDTJul 05, 2025, 05:02pm EDTToplineTexas officials vided and rescue Saturday on a flash flood that has killed at least 32 people, including 14 children, and left some 27 others missing, a day after authorities blamed the National Weather Service forecasts for not predicting “the amount of rain that we saw” after the agency faced federal budget and staffing cuts, according to W

Nim Kidd, director of the Texas Division of Emergency Management

Flooding caused by a flash flood at the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas

Rescue teams are continuing to for a group of around 27 people who were attending an all-girls Christian summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River

Kerr County judge Rob Kelly vided a similar statement to Kidd’s on Friday, when he was asked why camps along the Guadalupe were not evacuated, telling reporters, “I can’t answer that, I don’t know,” before saying the county had “no reason to believe that this was going to be anything what’s happened here. ”The NWS issued a flash flood watch Thursday afternoon that noted Kerr County, where much of the flooding began early Friday morning, was a particularly vulnerable area

The NWS was one of several federal agencies targeted by the controversial cost-cutting efforts of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, and has recently laid off nearly 600 employees—around the same amount of staffers it lost in the 15 previous years, the Texas Tribune reported

Forbes has reached out to the NWS for

How Has The Nws Been Impacted By Federal Funding Cuts

Some NWS field offices have reported the loss of around-the-clock staffing and reductions in weather balloon launches, which are crucial in collecting data on humidity, pressure, temperature and more elements needed to duce forecasts

The NWS office overseeing Kerr County, where at least 24 people have died in the floods, is the Austin/San Antonio Weather Forecast Office

Longtime meteorologist Troy Kimmel, who leads his own meteorological services company, told CBS Austin in May that local Texas offices such as the Austin/San Antonio office experienced some staffing shortages

The Austin/San Antonio office’s website shows a total of six vacancies across its meteorological, management, observations and nician teams, though it is not how many of the vacancies are a direct result of cuts engineered by the Department of Government Efficiency

What Has Trump Said The Flooding

Trump said Friday the deaths reported in Texas were “shocking” and that the government would work with Texas Gov

Greg Abbott to vide federal aid

He added in a statement on Truth Social Saturday morning his administration is working with state and local officials in Texas, adding Secretary of land Security Kristi Noem would visit the state Saturday

Trump has insisted states should play a larger role in handling their own weather disasters, saying last month his administration intends to “wean” states off help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency ing this year’s hurricane season

In an effort to prepare them for future weather disasters

What To Watch ForThe National Weather Service issued a flood watch for San Antonio and several neighboring cities, warning of two to four inches of additional rainfall and excessive runoff that may result in flash flooding for rivers and creeks, low-lying areas and low water crossings

What Do We Know The Missing Children

The children considered missing as of Saturday were attending an all-girls Christian summer camp known as Camp Mystic

The organization told parents in an Friday morning it experienced “catastrophic level floods. ” according to The New York Times

That is how many rescuers were deployed in Texas on Saturday morning, the Associated Press reported

The river crested at 31. 5 feet and flooding resulted in the deaths of 10 teenagers and 33 injuries

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average Atlantic hurricane season, forecasting a range of 13 to 19 named storms, six to 10 of which are forecast to become hurricanes

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