Texas flooding latest: 15 children among 43 dead while frantic search continues

Twenty-seven children are still missing from Camp Mystic, authorities said on Saturday evening, indicating no change from earlier in the day.

Authorities said they are rescuing people by the hundreds.

This week’s catastrophic flooding has killed at least 43 people in Kerr County, Texas, officials revealed at a Saturday evening press conference.

The fatalities include 15 children and 28 adults.

A woman running for Congress in Georgia is spreading conspiracy theories claiming that devastating weather events — like floods and hurricanes — are “fake.”

Her comments come amid the devastating flooding in Texas.

Kandiss Taylor wrote on X: “Fake weather. Fake hurricanes. Fake flooding. Fake. Fake. Fake.”

“Whack weather patterns creating crisis that are portrayed to be natural and real, but when weather is manipulated, it is a fake progression not natural,” she added.

It is not possible to artificially create or manipulate large-scale weather events like hurricanes.

When another X user accused Taylor of “making false claims” about the Texas floods to “get attention,” the candidate said she was praying “nonstop” for those affected.

“I wasn’t speaking about that event specifically, Taylor wrote. “However, if weather was modified there, it is murder. We better speak up.”

Representative August Pfluger shared that he and his wife were reunited with their two daughters, who were attending Camp Mystic.

“Camille, Vivian and I are now reunited with Caroline and Juliana who were evacuated from Camp Mystic,” he wrote. “The last day has brought unimaginable grief to many families and we mourn with them as well as holding out hope for survivors.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott promised a ‘relentless’ response effort after floods rampaged parts of his home state.

“We will be relentless in going after and making sure we locate every single person who has been a victim of this flooding event,” Abbott said at a Saturday afternoon press conference. “We’re not going to stop today or tomorrow. We’ll stop when the job is completed.”

Nim Kidd, Chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, echoed this sentiment. He said his team refuses to quit searching until every missing person has been found: “We will not stop until we find every one of them.”

Ground crews, air assets, and boats have been working to search for missing people, Kidd added. Recovery efforts have not yet begun.

A powerful flash flood hit Central Texas’ Hill Country late Friday into early Saturday, leaving at least 27 people dead, including children, while many more are still missing.

Most of the missing were attending Camp Mystic, a popular summer camp along the Guadalupe River.

What began as a routine flood watch quickly turned into a deadly disaster. The National Weather Service predicted between 1 and 3 inches of rain, with some isolated spots possibly getting 5 to 7 inches. Instead, parts of Kerr County were slammed with 10 to 15 inches, and in some places, over 20 inches, within a few hours.

San Antonio Express-News newsroom meteorologist Anthony Franze said the storm was fueled by warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and leftovers from Tropical Storm Barry. These combined to create a slow-moving weather system that stayed over the area and dumped heavy rain over hills and valleys.

The geography of Hill Country made things worse. The steep hills and rocky land don’t absorb water well, so rain quickly flows into creeks and rivers. This caused the Guadalupe River to rise more than 20 feet in a matter of hours.

Erin Keller has the story.

The National Weather Service warns of “life-threatening flash flooding” in parts of Texas as storms won’t relent from the already-devastated region.

In Burnet County, between 5 and 10 inches of rain have fallen, the agency said.

The service warned locals not to drive on flooded roads, noting that “most flood deaths occur in vehicles.”

At a press conference on Saturday afternoon, Noem was pressed about the delayed text alerts about the incoming flash floods: “Wasn’t that a fundamental failure of the federal government’s responsibility to keep us safe?”

The Homeland Security secretary admitted that there are times when the National Weather Service hasn’t provided up-to-date alerts. Trump is “currently upgrading the technology,” she said.

The National Weather Service and NOAA have acknowledged “we needed to renew this ancient system that has been left in place with the federal government for many, many years,” she added.