The search for those missing in Texas floods resumes after pause for rain

A man surveys debris and flood damage along the Guadalupe River, Sunday, July 13, 2025, in Kerrville, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — For a second straight day, rain forecasts hampered the search Monday for people still missing after deadly floods pummeled Texas this month, as officials made plans to drain reservoirs in the search for victims.
While some crews resumed the search along the Guadalupe River on Monday, others held off, wary of the forecast. Officials also asked for patience, saying some have been threatened for their perceived lack of action that could have prevented the deaths at least 132 people in the July 4 storm.
The first pause in search efforts due to the weather came Sunday in Texas Hill Country, where the soil is still primed for enhanced water runoff.
More than 160 people are unaccounted for in Kerr County alone, and 10 more in neighboring areas.
‘Trailer after trailer after trailer’ swept away
Texas Hill Country is a popular destination for tourists where campers seek out spots along the river amid the rolling hills. Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said during a commissioners’ meeting Monday that it’s been difficult to determine exactly how many tourists were in the area when the flooding occurred.
“We’ve heard accounts of trailer after trailer after trailer being swept into the river with families in the them. Can’t find the trailers,” Kelly said. “It’s what we don’t know. We don’t know how many of them there are.”
Kelly said he’d been told of one trailer that was found “completely covered in gravel” 27 feet (8.2 meters) below the surface of the river. He said sonar crews have been searching the river and local lakes and more are expected to arrive.
Commissioner Don Harris said officials plan to drain two reservoir lakes on the river.
“Who knows how many out there are completely covered,” Harris said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Urban Search and Rescue teams fully resumed operations on Monday, said Obed Frometa, FEMA Blue Incident Support Team information officer.
Levi Bizzell, a spokesperson for the Ingram Volunteer Fire Department, which has been organizing about 200 searchers, said the department suspended operations for the day on Monday because several inches of rain were expected to fall on Kerr County by late afternoon.
“Everybody here wants to be out there working,” Bizzell said. “They literally come in in the morning whether they are tired or not, and they just want to get out there and work because they want to find closure for these families.”
Kerr County meanwhile advised all volunteers to leave the river area and move to higher ground, saying only those teams working under the direction of Kerr County Emergency Operations Center Unified Command were permitted in the response zone.
More rain expected
Areas that were hit by the July Fourth floods were forecast to get more rain on Monday afternoon, including 1 to 2 inches in Kerr County, said Bob Fogarty, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s Austin/San Antonio office.
“It is not going to be good for them,” Fogarty said.
A line of thunderstorms that earlier dumped 3 to 5 inches in counties to the west was forecast to hit Kerr County, which remained under a flood watch advisory through 9 p.m. Monday.
The Guadalupe River remained below flood stage but that could as the storm rolls in, Fogarty said.
Yet more thunderstorms could hit the area Monday night and early Tuesday.
“We’re hopeful that it will not be in the Kerr County area, that maybe it’ll be a little further west, that they would not get as much rain,” Fogarty said. “But we think that there’s going to be some more heavy rain overnight tonight and then hopefully it’ll dry out by mid-week.”
Bad weather forces a halt to search efforts
Gov. Greg Abbott said Sunday on X that the state had rescued dozens of people in San Saba, Lampasas and Schleicher counties, and that people evacuated their homes in a handful of others.
The latest flooding damaged about 100 homes and knocked down untold lengths of cattle fencing, said Ashley Johnson, CEO of the Hill Country Community Action Association, a San Saba-based nonprofit.
“Anything you can imagine in a rural community was damaged,” she said. “Our blessing is it was daylight and we knew it was coming.”