KERR COUNTY (Nexstar) — One year ago, the Guadalupe River became the center of one of the deadliest disasters in Texas history. In the early morning hours of July 4, floodwaters tore through Kerr County and the Hill Country with terrifying speed.
The rushing water swept away homes, RV parks, campsites – and people who had come to the area for the holiday weekend.
Across Texas, the floods killed more than 130 people. In Kerr County, the loss was especially devastating. At Camp Mystic, 25 girls, two counselors and the camp’s longtime director died as the river rose around cabins where children were sleeping.
The tragedy left families across Texas grieving and forced difficult questions about warnings, evacuations, emergency planning and what it means to keep children safe along the river.
This week, on a special edition of State of Texas, our team looks closer at what was lost, but also the recovery and what has changed one year after the flood.
Camp counselor recounts night of the flood
Thompson White never attended Camp La Junta as a camper but he had many people in his life — including a close friend and his brother — who attended the all-boys camp. After his senior year of high school, White decided he wanted to experience what Camp La Junta had been providing for boys and young men for more than 90 years.
“It’s been such an integral part in so many of these men’s lives that I’m very close with, so I wanted to join that community and experience it for the first time,” White said.
Camp La Junta is located on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, just a few miles down river from Camp Mystic. White had only been a counselor for five days when one of the worst natural disasters swept through the area. It brought a wall of water down the river that took the lives of 119 people in Kerr county, including 27 girls and young women at Camp Mystic.
Thankfully, La Junta only lost property. Every camper and counselor was accounted for after the water receded back into the river. White agreed to speak with Nexstar about how he and five other counselors worked to protect campers as rushing water quickly filled up their cabin.
In the weeks after the flood, the deaths at Camp Mystic led Texas lawmakers to pass House Bill 1, the Youth CAMPER Act. The families of the campers and counselors who lost their lives in the floods joined together to push for changes to safety requirements for Texas camps.
The bill now requires camps to install and maintain an emergency system capable of alerting all campers and occupants of an emergency — one that “includes a public address system operable without reliance on internet connection.”
The Texas Senate passed SB 1, known as the Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act, which also tackled safety requirements in youth camps. It prohibits cabins used as sleeping quarters from being located in river floodplains. The legislation also requires camps to train staff on evacuation routes and develop emergency preparedness plans. Those plans must be shared with local emergency management coordinators.
Flood siren grants may fall short of needs
“Attention,” a male voice announced during a recent test of a new flood warning siren in Kerr County. “This is a test of the outdoor warning system. This is only a test. During a real emergency, you should tune to local media for information. This is only a test.”
The new warning systems produce loud wailing and beeping tones, in addition to recorded messages, according to testing video provided to KXAN by the Upper Guadalupe River Authority. It is a direct response to last year’s flooding and fast-tracked legislation passed in the aftermath mandating them in flash flood-prone areas. Last year, the UGRA — which shared photos and videos of the recently installed sirens — faced criticism from some state lawmakers for not having any warning sirens in a vulnerable region dubbed “Flash Flood Alley.”
Eight sirens are being installed west of Ingram along the Guadalupe River within ear shot of nearby youth summer camps, according to officials.
It’s a safety step that comes with newly revealed concerns over cost.
Thirty counties identified in last July’s disaster declaration, including Kerr, will install warning sirens under Senate Bill 3. Twenty-nine of those counties have executed grant agreements in place, according to the TWDB, and are working to submit project plans “soon” for review and approval.
Project plans must be approved before funds can be accessed, according the TWDB.
Kerr County received an initial grant award on Dec. 16 for $1 million to help fund the sirens, according to public records obtained by KXAN Investigates. The UGRA is expected to ask for an additional $250,000 from the state — an amount still “anticipated to be insufficient” to install “all desired flood warning system components,” records show.
It’s unknown how much the final price tag will be, how many sirens will ultimately be installed in the region and how much the county will request in state grant reimbursements. Kerr County plans to request “additional consideration for funding” beyond the allocated $1.25 million amount.
“The total project cost will exceed $1.25 million and we are currently estimating the total anticipated cost and components,” the UGRA said in a statement. “Once an estimate is determined, it will be communicated to the Texas Water Development Board.”
If “sufficient funding is not received,” the UGRA and Kerr County wrote that it “shall not be obligated to proceed” with the full extent of the flood warning system and future watershed protection measures, according to the interlocal agreement between them. The agreement notes the potential need for “a revised scope” of the project that “can be implemented with available funding.”
After the flood, Kerr County rebuilds one day at a time
Mark Armstrong has been serving the Hill Country for decades. His Kerrville restaurant, the Lakehouse, has overlooked the Guadalupe River since 1988.
Well, it usually overlooks the Guadalupe River. But for a couple of hours on the morning of July 4, 2025, the river rose more than 20 feet into the restaurant’s floor.
“It was the worst day of my life,” Armstrong said. But seeing his community come in day after day, he considers himself one of the lucky ones.
“Everyone suffered something. Nobody came out of this totally unscathed,” Armstrong said.
In the Lakehouse’s backyard is a constant reminder of the powerful river — one which claimed the lives of 119 in Kerr County — and could easily wreak havoc again.
“Typically, I would be a firm believer in, ‘It’s a once in a lifetime [flood],” Armstrong said. “These days, the way things are — who can say?”
A little further down the river is a barge — a temporary reminder that the impact is still so raw. The raft serves as a hub for the search-and-recovery effort for the two flood victims in Kerr County whose bodies have never been recovered.
While the pair remain missing a year later, the barge has helped with debris removal and other clean-up work. It may provide a positive outcome, but it’s still a somber sight.
“You still come to work every day and there’s somebody out your window doing search and rescue,” Armstrong said.
Yet, for the most part, Kerrville has bounced back. The downtown area is lively. The “Wall of Hope” memorial is gone. Parts of town which had been taken over by volunteer and first responders’ trailers have returned to parking lots.
But recovery happens on a case-by-case basis. According to Armstrong, many aren’t fully whole yet.
“(For my customers,) it just runs the entire gamut,” Armstrong said. “‘Contractors haven’t made it to us yet,’ ‘We’re still trying to get our money.’ All the way to ‘We’re back and we’re better than ever.’”
Helping to lead the recovery charge is the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country. In the immediate aftermath of the flood, they raised $150 million. As of June 18, $82 million has gone towards the rebuilding effort in various forms.
“Our biggest accomplishment to date… the majority of flood victims in our community who had their homes affected are home again,” Austin Dickson, CEO of the Community Foundation, said. “We have granted over $30 million to repair and rebuild homes, to offer down payment assistance, to offer temporary housing assistance, to pay people’s property taxes and get people home again.”
The Community Foundation also granted funds to help repair or replace community touchpoints — like parks, little league fields and the senior center. They gave $300,000 to the Riverside Nature Center, which, along with private donations, funding from the Chamber of Commerce and grants from the Lift Fund, helped reopen the flooded nature preserve.
“It’s a big humble pit, but it’s also validation,” Becky Etzler, executive director of Riverside Nature Center, said about the community support. “The Nature Center has been here in the community, part of the community, for almost 40 years. And so sometimes it’s hard to quantify your impact.”
No matter how long it takes to repair the visibly damaged parts of the Hill Country, the invisible toll of the flood will likely last a generation.
“[Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder] in children in our community increased four times… We have now 6,000 cases of PTSD in a county of about 50,000 people,” Dickson said.
Responding to the need, the Hill Country Foundation is investing in mental health resources. Examples include:
- $770,700 to Kerrville ISD for mental health services.
- $750,000 to Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute.
- $360,000 to Kerrville’s New Hope Counseling Services.
“Mental health has long and persistent symptoms,” Dickson said. “[It’s] going to be a challenge for many years to come.”
Almost 200 flood-related calls to Travis County 911 were made on July 5; Hear the man who made the first
“911, what is the address of the emergency?”
Marion Hanson made the first flood-related call to 911 in Travis County on July 5, 2025, according to a call log KXAN obtained through a Texas Public Information Act request.
He was driving on FM 1431 in northwest Travis County around midnight when he hit a flooded low water crossing. Almost a year later, Hanson took KXAN back to the spot where he found himself stranded.
“I’d never seen rain come down like this before in my life,” Hanson said. “All the water was … coming down and just going over the road. This is so low right here that when I hit that water, I just came to a stop.”
His car wouldn’t start again, and he was stuck. That’s when he called 911.
The call log showed he was one of dozens to call 911 that day. A total of 188 calls were made tied to the flooding in Travis County alone, about a third of which were made between 3 and 4 a.m., according to that call log.
Hanson said his first indication that things were serious came from the sheriff’s deputy who got to him and let him know the road he’d just traveled had washed away.
“He told me, ‘If you have people coming, just tell them to turn around because Cow Creek…’ I said, ‘What, it got flooded over?’ He goes, ‘No, it’s no longer there,’” Hanson said.
While others lost their lives, Hanson was one of the lucky ones. His 911 call resulted in a rescue, but he knows it could have gone very differently. He now says the whole thing was “a learning experience.”
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