July 9, 2025: News on the deadly Texas floods

Teams are still looking for more than 160 missing people in Central Texas after floods last week. At least 119 people are dead, according to Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha.

Rescue crews are battling challenging conditions and high temperatures as they search through the devastation, especially along the Guadalupe River.

Meantime, Texas officials are facing heated questions from reporters and community members over how much was — or was not — done in the early hours of July 4 as the Guadalupe flooded.

Here’s what to know today:

As steady rain intensified during the early morning hours of July 4, rising water crossed into Camp La Junta, a boys camp on the South Fork Guadalupe River.

Though much of the Hunt, Texas, camp lies in an area prone to flooding, the campers and staff were able to escape the surging flooding by moving cabin-by-cabin to higher ground. As they dashed from one safe spot to another, repeated headcounts confirmed that every camper and staff member was accounted for, Camp La Junta directors and owners Scott and Katie Fineske, recounted.

Later that morning, devastating news reached Camp La Junta, “shaking our entire community.” Only ten minutes south, a group of young girls had gone missing as floodwaters thrashed through Camp Mystic. The camp later confirmed at least 27 campers and counsellors perished in the floods.

The camp said it is helping with recovery and relief efforts in the Texas Hill Country and continuing hefty cleanup at the campsite. The camp directors said they are also making plans to welcome boys back to Camp La Junta next summer.

Camp Mystic flooding victim Mary Barrett Stevens

Camp Mystic flooding victim Mary Barrett Stevens was “fearless,” “enthusiastic” and “compassionate,” her mother Stacy Stevens said in a statement shared by a family spokesperson on social media and obtained by CNN affiliate KVUE.

“You have left the most positive impact on everyone who knew you. I’m the luckiest that I got to be your mom and I will never stop loving you and trying to live life as you did. Fearless. Enthusiastic. Compassionate. And full of joy,” Stevens said. “Our world is shattered but I have peace getting your letters and knowing you were having the time of your life at camp and had a dance party with all of your friends before the Lord decided to take you from us. He has bigger plans for you.”

A verified GoFundMe account set up by family friends described Mary as a child with an infectious laugh.

“Her Heart was generous, and her presence brought joy and comfort. Mary leaves behind her loving parents, and her siblings, who are now navigating unimaginable grief,” the campaign organizer said.

In a heartbreaking social media post made on Tuesday, Mary’s mother asked the public for help locating her daughter’s favorite toy she lost during the flood.

“Looking for my daughter’s monkey that she has had her whole life and took with her to camp. We lost my daughter and would love to have it back as it was her most prized possession,” Stevens’ mother said on Facebook.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a proclamation today that identifies items, including legislation, aimed at improving early warning systems for flooding and providing relief funding for those impacted by the flooding in central Texas.

Some of the Special Session agenda items include legislation aimed at strengthening communications “and other response infrastructure” — specifically in flood-prone areas across the state — as well as “legislation to evaluate and streamline rules and regulations to speed preparedness for and recovery from natural disasters,” according to the statement.

The governor identified 18 agenda items in total. The Special Session will be held on July 21 at 12 p.m. CT.

Penny Deupree's home is seen surrounded by debris.

A family of nine, including two young children, escaped rising floodwaters in their home by breaking through the attic.

Eighty-three-year-old Penny Deupree was hosting her family at her Kerrville, Texas, home over the July 4 weekend when she woke up in the middle of the night to see floodwaters pouring in, she told CNN’s Pamela Brown.

She and her sons woke the entire family, including her 1- and 3-year-old grandchildren, to quickly come up with a plan to escape as the home rapidly filled with water. Their lives depended on it.

Keri Wilt, left, Penny Deupree, the homeowner, center, and Ryan Wilt, Keri’s daughter and Penny’s granddaughter, right.

The family climbed a ladder to the attic, grabbed lobster buoys, and banged on the back wall to create a narrow escape hatch.

They managed to squeeze through the escape hatch, get out into the fast-moving water, and make it to safety.

Keri Wilt, left, points to the loft where family members climbed to safety. CNN's Pam Brown is pictured at the top.

The family has since returned to the remnants of their house. Debris and fallen trees surround the home, but the shell remains intact, with an American flag still hanging by the side.

A CNN crew joined the family as they surveyed the damage and climbed the same ladder the family used during their escape.

The family was able to recover a wedding ring, photos and even remnants of first-edition copies of the book “The Secret Garden,” which their great-great-grandmother wrote, they told CNN.

Keri Wilt holds items recovered from the home.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a metting of the FEMA Review Council on Wednesday.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday reiterated her desire to “eliminate” the Federal Emergency Management Agency and overhaul the way it operates.

“Federal emergency management should be state and locally led, rather than how it has operated for decades,” Noem said to open a meeting of the FEMA Review Council, created by President Donald Trump earlier this year to reassess how the federal agency operates.

“It has been slow to respond at the federal level,” she said. “It’s even been slower to get the resources to Americans in crisis, and that is why this entire agency needs to be eliminated as it exists today and remade into a responsive agency.”

She later said, “In fact, some of how we’ve responded to Texas is exactly how President Trump imagined that this agency would operate: Immediately making decisions, getting them resources and dollars that they need so that they conduct the response that they need to do on the ground.”

Both Trump and Noem have criticized the current form of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, established in 1979, calling it ineffective and arguing that states should be responsible for managing their own disaster responses.

Noem described FEMA’s failures over the years as “staggering,” citing its responses to Hurricane Katrina two decades ago, Hurricane Helene last year, and the Maui fires in 2023.

“The scale of those failures is matched only by their longevity,” she said. “FEMA has been disastrous at times, incompetent at times, and not just in the last few years, but for decades.” But she also added: “There’s times FEMA has performed very well and has responded and delivered the help that people needed.”

The future of disaster management, Noem said, “has to be led by local communities and by states, with the federal government coming in in a supporting role, empowering them, not hindering them and slowing them down with paperwork, bureaucracy and lack of resources.”

Capt. Max McQuarrie, of the Virginia Beach Water Rescue Team, speaks with CNN's Boris Sanchez on Wednesday.

The captain of the Virginia Beach Water Rescue Team, whose crew is assisting with rescue efforts in Texas, said it will likely take “days, if not weeks,” to thoroughly search along the Guadalupe River.

“When we got here, we got the update that we’re looking at 60 miles of river,” Capt. Max McQuarrie said. “So we have a long, long way to go to really thoroughly search this area.”

The Guadalupe River rose more than 20 feet early Friday, and at least 150 people are reported missing in Kerr County alone, where the river begins.

McQuarrie said crews are also contending with treacherous terrain, downed trees, piles of debris, and the Texas heat — all of which are making rescue efforts challenging.

The Virginia Beach Water Rescue Team is one of several dozen teams in Virginia specializing in swift water and technical rescue operations, according to McQuarrie. They began their 30-hour drive to Texas on Sunday, he said.

McQuarrie said officials have begun to release some local firefighters and responders who have been searching for several days.

“Now we can step in, fill those big shoes, and help take care of their families and community,” he said, adding that many members of his crew are fathers with large families back home, so they understand the importance of bringing closure to the loved ones of those killed or still missing.

Virginia Wynne Naylor.

A foundation has been established to honor the life of Camp Mystic flooding victim Virginia Wynne Naylor, her father, Cole Naylor, said in a statement to CNN.

“There are no words to express our gratitude to everyone who supported Wynne and our entire family through this time,” Naylor wrote. “Wynne has a great love of the outdoors, a love of God, and love for her community. To honor Wynne’s life and ensure her legacy continues, the family has set up ‘More Like Wynne.’”

He continued: “If you remove the grief, the stress, the tears of despair and the cries of horror from the days since this tragedy began, you will find how God intends for us to live. Replace grief with hope. Replace stress with servitude. Replace tears of despair with joyful recollection. Replace cries of horror with terms of endearment. This is how our girls danced through this world. This is how they will be remembered. This is how God intends we live.”

The foundation was established in partnership with The Dallas Foundation, a nonprofit organization. Derek Klein, a spokesperson for the nonprofit, said the 8-year-old was staying at Camp Mystic’s Bubble Inn cabin when the flood hit. Her family confirmed she died on July 4.

The foundation will support the local education system, youth wildlife conservation efforts, and select Christian ministries, her father said.

Cole Naylor declined CNN’s request for an interview.

CNN's Gustavo Valdes spoke with Lorena Guillen who owns a restaurant and RV park in Kerrville, Texas. She and her husband tried to help rescue people from the floods.

Lorena Guillen, who owns a restaurant and RV park in Kerrville, Texas, described the horrifying moments floodwaters began washing away people and vehicles.

She said that when lights would flash and there was some visibility on the flooding river banks, she saw people “banging against the windows” of their campers.

People could be heard screaming as cabins nearby smashed into the trees, Guillen said. “The cabins would get destroyed and sucked in, and the screaming would stop.”

Guillen also described how she and her husband tried to save people being swept up — before he was engulfed himself.

In one instance, Guillen said her husband was yelling at someone, “‘throw me your baby, throw me your baby,’ so he can save the baby.” But before that could happen, she said, water came and hit the person and her husband.

Guillen husband was able to grab on to something and pull himself out of the floodwater before the retention wall collapsed, she explained.

At least 150 are known to still be missing in Kerr County. Yesterday, Sgt. Jonathan Lamb of the Kerrville Police Department said accounting for the people camping in RVs in the area has been a challenge.

Authorities have also struggled to confirm the number of RV’s that were camping in the area since the RV’s are not registered, one government official briefed on the ongoing search and rescue mission said.

José Olvera and Alicia Ramírez have been identified as two Mexican victims of the Texas floods.

José Olvera and Alicia Ramírez have been identified as two Mexican victims of the Texas floods.

José Olvera’s son, Macedonio Olvera, said his father and stepmother had lived in the United States for decades and worked at a property along the Guadalupe River near Hunt, Texas.

Macedonio Olvera said it was his family who found his father among the debris: “We ourselves, my family, were the ones who found my father.”

In a GoFundMe, set up to help José Olvera’s children, the organizer described him as the “the heart” of Fairweather Ranch, where he worked.