Before dawn Friday morning, city manager Dalton Rice went for a jog a
long the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas. He finished his run around 4 a.m. as a light rain set in. An hour later, he began
receiving emergency calls: The river had flooded out of control.
Torrential rains were dumping into the Guadalupe. In just 45 minutes, the river surged about 26 feet (8 meters), sen
ding walls of water sweeping into camps and RV parks busy with Fourth of July holiday visitors.
At least 82 people have died and scores are missing, inclu
ding children, after the catastrophic flooding devastated an all-girls summer camp. With heavy rains still batte
ring Texas on Sunday, politicians are questioning whether federal, state and local officials were adequately prepared.
The area remains at risk of further inundation as thunderstorms move through west central Texas, bringing pockets
of very heavy rainfall in a short amount of time, according to the Nationa
l Weather Service. Fore
casters have extended a flood watch into Monday evening, warning that
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any additional rain “will almost immediately runoff due to the saturated grounds.”
Texas has been at the epicenter of extreme weather events in recent years. In 2024 alone, Hurricane Beryl knoc
ed out power to millions, a windstorm punched windows out of Houston skyscrapers and a massive wildfire blazed ac
ross the Panhandle. The onslaught of disasters has come as warmer oce
an waters and moister air, two results of global warming, add fuel to storms.
Climate change also makes it harder to predict the speed at which disasters can spin out of control, like in the M
aui wildfires that killed dozens in 2023 and the “rapid intensification” that accelerated Hurricane Milton in Florida last year.
In Texas, the loss of life is so astounding that on Sunday search cre
ws had to break down efforts into a grid pattern to recover bodies, Rice sai
d during a news conference. “We have increased our number of personnel that are navigating the really challenging shores along the bank line,” he said.