President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he had signed a major disaster declaration for Knerr County, Texas, where sudden and severe flash flooding around the Guadalupe River has led to dozens of deaths, with dozens more still missing.
“These families are enduring an unimaginable tragedy, with many lives lost, and many still missing,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. The administration “continues to work closely with State and Local Leaders,” he said, and noted that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is also in Texas in partnership with Governor Greg Abbott (R) as part of the relief efforts.
As of Sunday, Trump said that first responders including the Coast Guard and others at the state level had rescued over 850 people from the raging floodwaters that resulted from severe thunderstorms in the early hours of July 4th.
In Knerr County, 68 people were confirmed dead as of Monday, and 28 of those were children.
Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian camp, was particularly hard hit, with 27 campers and counselors dead and 11 more still missing.
A total of 82 people have died in Texas from the flooding, and 41 are still missing.
There was no warning siren system in place in Knerr County, and because the floodwaters rose rapidly in the overnight hours on Friday, other emergency response systems and broadcast warnings may not have been as effective as they would have been during the day.
The waters of the Guadalupe River and other nearby waterways remain swollen, and search and resuce operations continue in the hopes that some of the missing found a way to survive the flooding,
With the disaster declaration in place, federal resources will be available to supplement state and local ones.
The Guadalupe River has experienced major flooding before, most notably in 1936, 1952, 1972, 1973, 1978, 1987, 1991 and 1997.
In 1987, 10 teenagers at another summer camp, Pot O’ Gold Christian Camp near Comfort, Texas, died in another flood of the Guadalupe.
The National Weather Service (NWS) reported that Friday's flooding exceeded the 1987 levels.
Of course, the left wants to blame the flooding deaths on DOGE and budget cuts, which have led to reduced staffing levels in the area where the floods occurred.
But the warning systems that were available were used as they shoudl have been, so it isn't clear how more staffing would have changed anything about the situation.
