Texas floods latest: At least 104 dead as search for victims continues amid new weather warnings

Amid questions about whether emergency systems could’ve done more to warn residents of central Texas about last week’s flood, one state lawmaker says he regrets voting against an emergency preparedness bill earlier this year.

The legislation, House Bill 13, would have established a statewide plan to improve Texas’s disaster alert systems, as well as provided grants to buy new communications equipment and installing infrastructure like radio towers.

“I can tell you in hindsight, watching what it takes to deal with a disaster like this, my vote would probably be different now,” Representative Wes Virdell told Texas Tribune.

City officials in Kerrville are warning residents not to use their drones until the search and rescue operations in the area are complete, after a collision with a drone in restricted airspace temporarily grounded an emergency helicopter flight.

“The helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing, and a critical piece of response equipment is now out of service until further notice. This was entirely preventable,” the city said in a statement on Facebook.

“When you fly a drone in restricted areas, you’re not just breaking the law — you’re putting first responders, emergency crews, and the public at serious risk,” the statement continued.

A group of 11 are still missing from Camp Mystic, an all-girls summer camp hit hard by the central Texas floods last week.

That includes Katherine Ferruzzo, 19, a counselor at the camp and an incoming student at the University of Texas.

“Katherine has a fierce and loving spirit, and we have no doubt she did all she could to save the lives of the girls in her cabin,” her family told The New York Times.

Scrutiny is mounting over whether officials did enough to alert the public before deadly floods hit central Texas last week.

Joe Herring, Jr., the mayor of hard-hit Kerrville, told CNN he never got a flood notification or an individual warning from government forecasters before the disaster struck.

The first time he learned the extent of the threat was early Friday morning, when the city’s emergency manager called him to say a park had been flooded, Herring told CNN.

“It all happened upriver at the worst possible place. And I think everyone in Kerrville, everyone in Kerr County, wishes to God we had some way to warn them. To warn those people. I’ve lost two friends. We loved them and they’re gone,” he said. “You know they’re gone. Everyone here, if we could’ve warned them, we would have done so. And we didn’t even have a warning. We did not know.”

The Texas Department of Public Safety was one of numerous agencies who sent personnel to central Texas to assist with recovery efforts after devastating floods late last week killed over 100 people.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is among the world leaders who have offered prayers and condolences after the devastating floods in central Texas.

“My wife Sara and I and all of Israel are praying for the Great State of Texas,” the US ally wrote on X. “Israel knows disaster—we’ve lived through war, fire, and flood. Dear friends, we stand with you!”

Netanyahu is slated to dine with President Trump in Washington on Monday.

Bel Trew had this preview of what’s at stake in the meeting.

Rescue teams from far and wide are assisting Texas in the aftermath of deadly flooding late last week.

Crews from Florida, Pennsylvania, and even Mexico have been sent to join in the response effort.

As first responders work to rescue the living and recover the dead from last week’s flooding in central Texas, officials and experts are scrutinizing whether more could’ve been done to warn the public about the Friday floods, potentially averting some of the more than 100 deaths that followed.

A review from NBC Dallas-Fort Worth found that National Weather Service alerts went out about the coming floods in Kerr County on Thursday, about 12 hours before the floods actually hit.

“The National Weather Service office did everything they should do from everything I can tell,” Jeff Masters, a former hurricane scientist with the NOAA Hurricane Hunters, told USA Today.

Nonetheless, the county lacks weather sirens, and making matters worse, a lack of cell phone coverage and weather radios in the area may have further prevented such warnings from reaching residents.

What’s more, numerous summer camps are in the area, some of which don’t allow children to carry cell phones.

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said on Monday that flood-warning sirens could’ve saved lives in communities near the swollen Guadalupe River, and promised the state will “step up” and help pay for such infrastructure to be in place by next summer.