Update at 1 p.m. ET on July 7, 2025: The death toll rose to 90 by Monday afternoon, Texas officials said.
Updated at 11:25 a.m. ET on July 7, 2025:
At a press conference held Monday morning, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha announced that hundreds of first responders were still working on all aspects of the flooding and recovery.
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According to Leitha, officials had recovered 75 bodies, including 48 adults and 27 children, with 10 Camp Mystic campers and one counselor who remained unaccounted for.
Original report:
A Christian girls’ summer camp in Texas has confirmed that 27 campers and counselors have been killed by the recent flooding that left over 80 dead across the central part of the state.
Camp Mystic posted an announcement on its homepage Monday explaining that they were “grieving the loss of 27 campers and counselors following the catastrophic flooding on the Guadalupe River.”
“Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy. We are praying for them constantly,” stated the camp.
“We have been in communication with local and state authorities who are tirelessly deploying extensive resources to search for our missing girls. We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of support from community, first responders, and officials at every level.”
Camp Mystic staff also asked people “for your continued prayers, respect and privacy for each of our families affected. May the Lord continue to wrap His presence around all of us.”
Over the Fourth of July weekend, flash flooding struck the Texas Hill Country, killing more than 80 people across six counties and 41 still missing.
One of the places hit hard by the flooding that began in the early hours of July 4 was Camp Mystic, a Christian girls’ summer camp that was founded in 1926 and based in Hunt, Kerr County.
The camp, which was hosting approximately 750 children at the time, reported on Saturday that 27 girls had been unaccounted for since the Guadalupe River rose nearly 25 feet in 45 minutes last Friday. On Sunday, the number of those who remained missing was reduced to 12, and then 11, among them 10 girls and one camp counselor.
Camp Mystic Director Dick Eastland, was among the victims of the flooding, with him reportedly dying while trying to save the lives of some of the girls attending the camp.
George Eastland, grandson of the director, took to his Instagram to announce the death and share his condolences, noting that he was “saving the girls that he so loved and cared for.”
“That’s the man my grandfather was. A husband, father, grandfather, and mentor to thousands of young women, he no longer walks this earth, but his impact will never leave the lives he touched,” George Eastland stated.
“You loved others when they didn’t love you back, and were so quick to help out when anyone at camp had the slightest inconveniences. Although I am devastated, I can’t say I’m surprised that you sacrificed your life with the hopes of someone else’s being saved.”
Speaking at a press conference Sunday afternoon, Texas officials said more than 400 personnel from state, local and federal agencies are involved in search and rescue operations using helicopters, boats, drones, divers and search dogs.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the search and rescue effort includes 230 Department of Public Safety members, the Texas National Guard and victim support teams. Abbott warned of continued dangers due to expected rainfall and saturated ground over the next 24 to 48 hours, urging residents to stay alert to flash flood warnings and emergency alerts.
On Sunday morning, as the emergency alerts blared again in Kerr County with warnings of more flooding, families were briefly allowed to walk through Camp Mystic, once a celebrated institution in Texas for nearly a century.
Families sifted through cabins torn apart by the floodwaters that surged 25 feet above normal levels. Some peered beneath trees and rocks along the riverbank, while others quietly gathered pieces of the past.
A man, whose daughter had been rescued from a cabin on higher ground, walked alone by the river, looking for signs of anyone else.
The camp, located 80 miles northwest of San Antonio, has long served as a summer refuge for generations of young girls, including daughters and granddaughters of Texas political families such as former President Lyndon B. Johnson, former first lady Laura Bush and former Texas Gov. John Connally, NPR noted.
The camp, established in 1926, was preparing to celebrate its 100th anniversary next year. Its sprawling property along the banks of the Guadalupe River has been reduced to mud-soaked remnants — soaked mattresses, trunks and scattered clothes. A bell was recovered by one camper. Two women were seen sobbing inside a cabin before embracing.
In interviews with NPR, former campers, now adults, described the camp as foundational to their lives.
Shelby Patterson, a University of Virginia fundraiser who attended the camp for eight years, said there is “mourning for what happened,” and for the uncertainty over what remains. Lauren Garcia, a former camper living in New York, called it her “favorite place in the entire world.”
Kim Barnes, whose family attended the camp for three generations, said she and her daughter were texting memories and pictures of the camp in the hours after the flood. “It brings me to my knees,” she was quoted as saying.
Colonel Freeman Martin of the Texas Department of Public Safety said at the briefing that recovery efforts have shifted to identifying the deceased and providing closure to families. “We have some unidentified individuals at the funeral home, adults and juveniles,” he said, adding that the Texas Rangers are collecting DNA from both families and the victims to identify remains through rapid DNA testing at the University of North Texas in Denton.
The state has received a major disaster declaration from President Donald Trump, enabling expanded access to federal support and emergency resources.
General Seltzer of the Texas National Guard and Phil Wilson of the Lower Colorado River Authority also joined officials in coordinating logistics, while Chief Nim Kidd of the Texas Division of Emergency Management continued to oversee state response activities.
