{"id":254,"date":"2025-07-06T19:32:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T19:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/?p=254"},"modified":"2025-07-06T19:33:55","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T19:33:55","slug":"at-least-70-dead-as-trump-signs-major-disaster-declaration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/?p=254","title":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udea8\u203c\ufe0fupdate: At Least 70 Dead As Trump Signs Major Disaster Declaration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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At least 70 deaths\u2014including the deaths of 21 children\u2014have now been confirmed in the central Texas flash floods, according to the latest update from officials, though several children from a summer camp remain unaccounted for as blame swirls over preparedness and whether residents were properly alerted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rescue teams are searching for a group of 11 campers who were attending Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River, as well as one counselor, Leitha said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 850 people have been rescued across Kerr County, which saw some of the worst flooding, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing bodies recovered all over, up and down,\u201d Kerrville City Manager Rice Dalton said Sunday, as search-and-rescue operations focused on finding the remaining missing campers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County on Sunday morning, while Abbott declared Sunday a \u201cday of prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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W. Nim Kidd, director of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, faulted the National Weather Service for not predicting \u201cthe amount of rain we saw,\u201d though alerts were issued beforehand and as it became clear the region was facing a flash flood emergency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NWS issued a flash flood watch Thursday afternoon that noted Kerr County, where much of the flooding began early Friday morning, was a particularly vulnerable area, along with more urgent flash flood emergency alerts in the overnight hours as the disaster unfolded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NWS was one of several federal agencies targeted by the controversial cost-cutting efforts of the Trump administration\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency, and has recently laid off\u00a0nearly 600 employees\u2014around the same amount of staffers it lost in the 15 previous years, the Texas Tribune reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the Trump administration would \u201chonor\u201d a federal disaster declaration from Abbott, who also declared Sunday a \u201cday of prayer\u201d as first responders search for the missing campers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where Were Deaths Confirmed From The Floods?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Authorities in Kerr County confirmed at least 59 people, including 21 children, were killed in the floods, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said at a press conference Sunday, with the death toll expected to rise. One woman was found dead in a submerged car in Tom Green County, the San Angelo Police Department\u00a0confirmed\u00a0on social media Saturday, while another person was found dead trapped underneath a vehicle in Williamson County, officials there\u00a0confirmed\u00a0Sunday. At least three more people were found dead in Burnet County, the Burnet County Sheriff\u2019s Office\u00a0reported\u00a0after search-and-rescue operations rescued over 50 residents, and at least four more bodies were recovered in Travis County, according to\u00a0multiple\u00a0reports, while officials in Kendall County\u00a0confirmed\u00a0in a Sunday morning update two residents died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Why Weren\u2019t Summer Camps Evacuated?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although the NWS issued warnings about the incoming weather system and the potential for massive flooding as early as Friday morning, it remains unclear why Camp Mystic and other summer camps in the area were not evacuated sooner. \u201cThat is a great question,\u201d Kerrville City Manager Rice Dalton said when pressed about this Sunday, but did not provide an answer. Instead, Dalton said the city was still focused on searching for the remaining missing children. Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, when he was asked why camps along the Guadalupe were not evacuated, told reporters Friday, \u201cI can\u2019t answer that, I don\u2019t know,\u201d before saying the county had \u201cno reason to believe that this was going to be anything like what\u2019s happened here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Weren\u2019t Summer Camps Evacuated?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although the NWS issued warnings about the incoming weather system and the potential for massive flooding as early as Friday morning, it remains unclear why Camp Mystic and other summer camps in the area were not evacuated sooner. \u201cThat is a great question,\u201d Kerrville City Manager Rice Dalton said when pressed about this Sunday, but did not provide an answer. Instead, Dalton said the city was still focused on searching for the remaining missing children. Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, when he was asked why camps along the Guadalupe were not evacuated, told reporters Friday, \u201cI can\u2019t answer that, I don\u2019t know,\u201d before saying the county had \u201cno reason to believe that this was going to be anything like what\u2019s happened here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

added the Trump administration is working to update what she called an \u201cancient system\u201d that \u201chas been left in place with the federal government for many, many years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Has The Nws Been Impacted By Federal Funding Cuts?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Some NWS field offices have reported the loss of around-the-clock staffing and reductions in weather balloon launches, which are crucial in collecting data on humidity, pressure, temperature and more elements needed to produce forecasts. Longtime meteorologist Troy Kimmel, who leads his own meteorological services company, told\u00a0CBS Austin\u00a0in May that local Texas offices such as the Austin\/San Antonio office experienced some staffing shortages. The Austin\/San Antonio office\u2019s\u00a0website\u00a0shows six vacancies across its meteorological, management, observations and technician teams, though it is not clear how many of the vacancies are a direct result of cuts engineered by the Department of Government Efficiency. Forbes has reached out to the NWS for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At least 70 deaths\u2014including the deaths of 21 children\u2014have now been confirmed in the central Texas flash floods, according to the latest update from officials, though several children from a … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=254"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":260,"href":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254\/revisions\/260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.landingliker.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}