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Camp Mystic: 27 Campers and Counselors Killed in Texas Flooding; Desperate Search for Survivors After at Least 82 Killed in Texas Floods; Flood Watches and Warning Remain in Place in Central Texas. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 07, 2025 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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REP. RANDY FINE (R-FL): But what I would say is this, FEMA is there for after-the-fact support. In Florida, we've shown what we can do at the state level, and I think we're going to have plenty of time to figure out how things can go better in the future. Right now, we need to be focused on supporting the families.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: But just, I've got to let you go, but you want FEMA there for after disaster strike?

FINE: I think that there's a role for the federal government in providing resources. Whether we need the bureaucracy or not is another question, because look, FEMA oftentimes, and this goes back decades, takes a lot of time to actually get the money into the states. We've seen that in Florida.

In Florida, the state is in charge of responding to disasters, not FEMA.

BERMAN: Congressman Randy Fine from Florida, thank you for your time this morning.

A brand new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And right now, an urgent search and rescue operation still in full swing, hundreds on the ground in Texas to try and find more survivors of that tragic flash flooding there. And we're hearing more from the girls camp, just devastated in the floods. Twenty-seven campers and counselors, we've now learned, have died.

The Israeli prime minister is headed to the White House today. As President Trump says, there's a good chance Israel and Hamas will reach a hostage and ceasefire deal this week.

And Elon Musk, as we just heard from JB, is back and not backing down, now saying he's forming a new political party that he had threatened was coming.

President Trump responding, calling Musk a train wreck. Where is this thing going?

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BERMAN: And we do have breaking news this morning. This brand new statement that came in just a short time ago from Camp Mystic, the all-girls summer camp devastated by the floods in Central Texas, seemed to confirm that 27 campers and counselors are among the at least 82 people killed in the catastrophic weather.

That statement released just a moment ago said they're grieving the loss of 27 campers and counselors.

As of this morning, the search continues throughout that county. The flood threat not over yet. Flood watches and warnings are in place. Authorities in Kerr County say that more than 400 first responders are taking part in the search. At least 41 people are still missing.

That it does include campers at Camp Mystic after the Guadalupe River burst its banks. The images from there, you can see just heartbreaking. One Coast Guard swimmer is being hailed as a hero for saving 165 people. He shared his story with ABC.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT RUSKAN, COAST GUARD RESUE SWIMMER: I kind of encountered some pretty serious weather, some of the worst flying we've ever dealt with personally. It took us, you know, what should have been an hour flight, probably took us about seven or eight just to get into the landing zone.

And I was kind of the main guy as far as like grabbing people, usually like 15 to 10 kids at a time, maybe one adult with them and bringing them over to those 60s and getting them to a different LZ that was kind of safe and had more first responders than just myself.

So yes, this is my first experience, but I really just kind of relied on the training we get. Coast Guard rescue swimmers get some of the highest level training in the world. So really just kind of relied on that and that, you know, just knowing that any of the rescue swimmers in the Coast Guard would have done the exact same, if not better than me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right let's get right to Hunt, Texas, where Camp Mystic is located in Kerr County. CNN's Pamela Brown is there. And Pamela, we just got this, this really just heartbreaking new statement from the camp.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's the first accounting from the camp of how many campers and counselors died. And in this statement, John Camp Mystic says it is grieving the loss of 27, 27 campers and counselors following the catastrophic flooding on the Guadalupe River. The statement goes on to say our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy. We are praying for them constantly. And it talks about the communication that's ongoing with local and state authorities. Now, we don't know how many of those 27 are campers versus counselors, but presumably a majority are those young campers, those eight and nine year olds who were washed away overnight when the rapid floods came in and, and rose in 45 minutes, going 26 feet.

And this community, I've been out here talking to them. There's so much heartbreak out here, John, but there's so much -- so many stories of heroism as well. 27 have lost their lives at Camp Mystic, and we should know, we don't know if that includes some of the 10 missing and the one counselor outstanding.

But I've been hearing stories of the night watchman jumping into action, going to one of the cabins and saving the girls, keeping them afloat on mattresses.

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Those young camp counselors, teenagers, jumping into action and rescuing the girls, getting them out a small window at the back of the cabin and trading them off one by one to get on the hill when the water is chest deep. Those counselors risking their own lives to save those young campers.

And there are still so many questions, John, of whether any of this could have been prevented and whether any lives could have been saved. Those are such hard questions.

Now, as parents were going to the local funeral home just a week after dropping off their kids at the camp to potentially identify their child. And we have reporting about the talks here in the county about potentially putting in a siren system over the years. Nine years ago, there was discussion about putting in a warning system for flooding.

This is one of the most flood prone areas in the country that the people here are no stranger to floods and to alerts. There's the question here of whether there was any alert fatigue, whether enough was done, whether evacuation should have come earlier. And we're going to be pressing for those answers to those questions.

There's a press conference coming up later this morning, 11 a.m. Eastern time with Texas officials. And we hope to learn more about that and about those who are still missing and what those search and recovery efforts look like right now -- John.

BERMAN: And Pam, am I right? You were once a camper at Camp Mystic, and now you're back there now. I mean, how recognizable is it after the devastation there?

BROWN: You know, it's eerie being back here, John. Thirty years later, I left this camp with a heart full of joy and the best memories of my life. This place left an indelible mark.

And going back, you see the signs of the devastation from this flooding. You see all the debris of the girls, their loveys and their blankets in pink and their trunks. And that was me as a little girl. I decorated my trunk. I was so excited to come to camp. I decorated my bunk bed.

And just seeing those remnants, it's just heartbreaking for me. And you know, those cabins in front of the river, I mean, I spent so much time as a camper in that river, John. I mean, that's where we spent a bulk of our time playing and, you know, going around and looking for dinosaur fossils in the shallow parts and playing games in that river.

And that river is the source now of so much grief and sorrow in this community -- John.

BERMAN: So much joy there, shattered, at least for the moment. Pamela Brown for us in Hunt, Texas, thank you so much for being there. We'll check back in with you in a little bit.

And for more information about how you can help Texas flood victims, go to cnn.com/impact or text flood to 70 70 70 -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, joining me now is Nick Sortor with the United Cajun Navy, a volunteer group that aids in disaster relief and emergency response. Thank you so much for being here and for being there.

Can you describe what you and your volunteers are seeing where the Cajun Navy is searching?

NICK SORTOR, UNITED CAJUN NAVY: And I'm telling you, it's absolutely heartbreaking out here to -- to see this disaster is obviously particularly difficult to deal with, given the number of missing kids. That's something that we just haven't seen in quite a long time.

I mean, it's almost unprecedented and, you know, we're still in rescue mode out here. Haven't given up yet, but it's been days. So as the days go by, it gets more and more difficult.

Luckily today, the weather is finally cooperating. It's -- the sun is rising right now. It's pretty clear up in the skies. Should be a little bit more helpful, especially when it comes to aerial searching today, which is good news.

No rain in the forecast anytime soon. And we hope that it stays that way. You know, morale is is is quite difficult. I mean, seeing these these children who weren't able to make it and their parents and I can't even begin to describe to you how that feels. It is it's -- it's hard for even office people to battle back tears.

SIDNER: Yes, and I know you guys have been on so many of these search and rescue missions. We're looking at some video now of Kerr County and just someone down in the river kind of pulling up debris.

How dangerous has it been to try and search for those who are missing? What tools are you all having to use? Just looking at the sheer amount of devastation and just how high these floodwaters got moving huge trees as part of the debris, even homes. SORTOR: Yes, and that's part of the issue as well, is that when these waters are rushing and they continue -- the water level continues to fluctuate. And so it exposes new debris, brings new debris into the water and creates hazards for for air boats.

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And, you know, you're showing this video right now and you notice they have to keep taking the boat out of the water and put it back in the water because there's so many obstacles. There were a lot of days, a lot of hours spent chain sawing in order just to be able to traverse, you know, 50 feet down the river. And, you know, as the water moves, the debris also, you know, sometimes it falls into the water.

You've got to you have to worry about these these snapped trees falling on top of rescuers. There have been a couple of instances of that happening. And so, you know, it is a -- it's a really dangerous mission, especially when you're trying to do helicopter work as well over the past several days with the weather and that low cloud cover that made it incredibly dangerous.

And luckily, luckily, nobody was -- no first responders in those instances were injured or were killed. But I'm telling you, these guys are absolute heroes. All these agencies from all over the United States, all these rescue groups from all over the United States.

It's very inspiring. It makes you proud to be an American, that we can come together like this. And, you know, I'm hoping that -- I'm hoping that these guys are, you know, they feel the love that they're getting from around the world.

SIDNER: Yes, I'm just curious, you know, as we're looking at the water sort of rushing in, this is a video from Center Point, Texas, where you see nothing. And then all of a sudden you see this raging river coming at you and lifting and lifting and lifting. Have you ever seen anything this sort of devastation like this before?

Because I know you all have been in many, many floods in Texas in particular. Have you ever seen anything like this?

SORTOR: So Western North Carolina, which just happened last year, had a lot of similar hallmarks to this. The problem, the biggest problem with with this this particular flood is a lot of this happened around four o'clock in the morning, if you remember. So it -- a lot of people were asleep, especially people camping on the riverbanks.

And, you know, you've been able to see some of the videos where, you know, the water level has gone up and down, right? And during the daytime, when it's come up and down, you've seen how fast it -- I mean, you can get it on video and it's not a time lapse or anything. It's just a regular video. You can see the wall of water moving down and it's terrifying how quickly it happens.

You know, flash flood warnings are nothing to shake a stick at. I mean, they are -- people don't take them too seriously. I'm hoping that what we've seen now in the amount of coverage this has gotten and the amount of videos showing how quickly it arrives, I'm hoping people will take this stuff seriously in the future and will give way. I mean, this is not a joke.

I mean, luckily yesterday -- I don't know if you heard about this -- but there was the reports of another wall of water moving down the river because of the rainfall. Luckily, people heeded those warnings out of the way, ended up being no issue. And so, you know, in the future, I hope that, you know, people continue to do that.

SIDNER: Yes, it's a really good point. And we should just again mention that we've just heard from Camp Mystic and they have said that 27 campers and counselors are now dead. That is what they were reporting this morning. It is a tragedy of enormous proportions here.

And Nick, what you said is really important, that these warnings now will really for a lot of people and certainly in that area trigger, unfortunately, fear, but maybe also very fast movement.

But as you said, it happened overnight. These campers were simply sleeping in their -- in their particular campgrounds. And and then suddenly this tragedy happens. It is unfathomable what these parents and the community is going through.

Nick, thank you for being there. Thanks to the Cajun Navy for for always sort of showing up and trying to help in these awful situations. Really appreciate your time this morning -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: And we are going to be staying on top of this breaking news this morning is a search and rescue mission continues in Texas. More rain is expected and the threat of flooding still very real.

And then there's also Elon Musk. He says that he's starting a new political party as he continues to clash with President Trump. This is round -- I don't know, you decide. Trump's now calling the idea of this third new party ridiculous. But what impact could it have?

And also new this morning, the verdict is in for a woman accused of killing her family by lacing their food with poisonous mushrooms.

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BOLDUAN: A flood watch has now been extended through tonight for nearly five million people in Central Texas, the very same area still that was just hit by that deadly flash flooding this weekend. Before the deluge that came, people there had been dealing with drought conditions. That extreme shift from drought to flood, experts call weather whiplash.

CNN's meteorologist Derek Van Dam has much more on this. Does this help to explain why the water rose so fast?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, so does the climate angle of this as well, Kate, right? So there's so many reasons why this disaster unfolded, but we know climate change is making heavy rain events more frequent and more intense, and it all boils down to the water vapor.

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So let's imagine that this balloon is the Earth's atmosphere. So, as it warms, it expands, allowing it to hold more water vapor, just like this bigger balloon can hold more air. Now, it's not about the balloon expanding like our atmosphere, that's not what I'm representing here.

It's about the capacity of the atmosphere to hold more water vapor, and we certainly had a lot of it in the atmosphere for this particular last round of heavy rainfall across Texas. Look at this. Just absolutely incredible to see the amount of moisture that swirled over the same locations throughout central Texas.

This is actually the remnants of a tropical system that made landfall late last week, and it moved into Texas with very little steering winds to help drive this out of here. So, what Kate was mentioning, this weather whiplash, that heavy rain fell on top of some of the worst drought conditions in all of America, and it was a confluence of events, where the north and south fork of the Guadalupe River, located right about here, all that rain fell within that location, and within this basin, it funneled into the Guadalupe River, and then caused the catastrophic flooding.

So, where do we stand now? That system has not fully moved out of the area. We still have a supercharged atmosphere with tropical moisture in place. That means flood watches, which have been extended through this evening, and we're already noticing on the latest radar this bubbling effect. So, the atmosphere is taking advantage of this very moist, rich, abundant moisture in the atmosphere, but also the daytime heating from the sun.

So, what does that do? It allows these thunderstorms to bubble up. Where the heavy rain access actually forms today, that's the critical key question, and the difficulty that meteorologists have in predicting where the flash flooding will exist.

We do have this large area for excessive rain that could lead to flash flooding, but where this two to four inches, perhaps locally higher amount, set up the exact locations? Is it at the confluence of a major tributary, like the Guadalupe River? Those are the big questions.

One thing's for sure, we don't want to see that rainfall in some of those hardest hit areas. It is this weather whiplash that makes this so incredibly dangerous, falling on dry, dry soils that just cannot absorb that amount of rain in such a short time -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Derek, thank you so much for that -- John.

BERMAN: We're with us now from Texas, Axios reporter Madeline Mendoza, who has been covering the unfolding tragedy there. Thank you so much for being with us and thank you for being there.

You've done such great reporting on the tick-tock of the warnings and the questions about how all this unfolded. As we sit here Monday morning, what are the biggest questions now? MADALYN MENDOZA, REPORTER, AXIOS: Thank you so much for having me. Yes, I think one of the biggest questions that residents here have and media has is, were the alerts sent out in time, and were they received?

It's one thing for the alerts to be sent out, and I went back and checked the National Weather Service messaging, and about 24 hours before flooding enters the conversation for Kerr County and the counties surrounding it, but around 1:14 on July 4th is the first flash flood warning that's issued.

But like we've said over and over again, this was a confluence of events where people were sleeping. I know just from personal experience that cell service isn't always the greatest out in those areas. So yes, the messaging was out there but were people receiving it in time is the big question.

And what we're hearing from officials is that those questions will be answered in time, but right now the biggest concern is finding these missing individuals.

BERMAN: Yes, and of course we have the devastating news from Camp Mystic this morning. They say they're grieving the loss of 27 now campers and counselors. The question of if the messages are received is such an important one, and one that is dealt with in rural communities across the country, because how do you get that message?

What are some of the ways that message can be received if there's limited cell service?

MENDOZA: I think that there is a conversation happening about whether or not there could have been a siren system or door knocking, but those are all things that are yet to be seen. I know the situation is very fluid. And so I know here in Bexar County, which is about an hour south of Kerr County, we do get alert systems, but there is a question of whether that is something that Kerr County residents have, that kind of widespread alert system.

So this is all kind of unfolding as people are still searching and getting out there to clear away the debris. So plenty of questions still circulating.

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BERMAN: Yes, CNN reporting that, you know, as recently as 2016 and 2017, there were discussions in Kerr County about maybe putting a siren system in place. And for people who are familiar with it, this is sort of like tornado warning systems that exist in certain parts of the country. Because you need to get that information very quickly, even if your phone's not on.

I mean, I do think the nature of this conversation will probably change and evolve going forward.

MENDOZA: Right, and I think what's also important to note is that this area of Texas is known, as you said, it's similar to tornados. It's known as Flash Flood Alley.

So I know even when it rains here where I'm at, we get these alerts on our phones that say there's a warning or flash flood watch. But I don't think anybody could have expected something to go from, you know, six inches of rain to over, you know, close to 30 feet in such a small amount of time. This is pretty unprecedented for modern times.

So I think a lot of times, even when we are awake, when we are active, when we get these warnings, people may, you know, blow them off as something that's not as serious. But again, it's just also taking into consideration that these people were sleeping, these children were sleeping, and there were a lot of people who were also new to the area, campers that were in town for the holiday weekend. So as we just keep saying, there's just so many working parts of this story and so many risks that people may or may not have been aware of in the middle of the night.

BERMAN: Well, thank you for being there. Thank you for asking some of these questions. I know we will learn more as the days progress -- Sara.

SIDNER: OK, ahead, happening today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to visit the White House as President Donald Trump pushes for a ceasefire deal in the Israel-Hamas war.

And final farewells, a soccer star remembered, tributes pouring in for Diogo Jota and his brother after their deadly car crash.

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