How a nighttime flood caught Texas off guard — and the river rose 26 feet in just 45 minutes

Dubai:  A devastating flash flood that struck in the dead of night on July 4 has left at least 80 people dead, including 28 children, across six counties in Texas — with officials admitting they were caught off guard by the scale and suddenness of the disaster.

The worst-hit was Kerr County, where 68 people lost their lives after intense rains battered the Texas Hill Country in the early hours of Friday. Among the missing are at least ten young campers and a counselor from the girls-only Camp Mystic, local officials said.

“This came at night when people were asleep in bed,” said Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring. “There was no time to respond.”

The Guadalupe River, which cuts through the county, rose a staggering 26 feet in just 45 minutes — a near-record surge that stunned even veteran officials. At 1:14am Friday, the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for Kerr County.

But within the hour, water levels had already overwhelmed homes, vehicles, and roads, turning calm neighborhoods into rivers of destruction, according to MSN.

A flash flood emergency — the most severe warning of its kind — was declared shortly afterward for southern Kerr County, including the town of Hunt, warning residents of a “particularly dangerous situation” as up to 10 inches of rain fell, with more still coming down at 4 inches per hour.

No warning

Officials said the flooding was so sudden that many residents had no warning. In Ingram, a town in Kerr County, local code enforcement officer Stuart Gross described the horror of watching the waters rise: “They came up high — never seen it come up this high in my 45 years. It was horrific,” he told ABC.

Gross said it was the town’s volunteer fire department, not official alerts, that used speakers to wake residents and get them out. “The only reason we got out is because of them. It’s tragic — the screams for help, and there’s nothing you could do.”

By Saturday, more than a month’s worth of rain had fallen in parts of central and western Texas, including Midland and Odessa, where five inches of rain was reported Thursday alone.

The rainstorms were part of a slow-moving system that had already triggered flood watches across New Mexico and West Texas.

Despite the National Weather Service alerts, local authorities admitted that the speed and intensity of the floodwaters were beyond anything they expected — and that Kerr County has no warning system in place for river surges.

Pressed at a news conference on Friday about why no evacuations were ordered, Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly defended the response, saying, “We didn’t know this flood was coming. We have floods all the time. This is the most dangerous river valley in the United States… but we had no reason to believe that this was going to be anything like what’s happened here.”

Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick added that evacuation decisions are made by local authorities, and many were uncertain where the storm would hit hardest.

By Sunday afternoon, the death toll had reached 80, with search and rescue operations still ongoing. Officials say more bodies may yet be recovered, especially around remote areas where campers and residents remain unaccounted for.

The Guadalupe River’s surge marked its second-highest crest on record, surpassing levels from a deadly 1987 flood. The disaster has renewed calls for early warning systems and better flood preparedness in flood-prone regions like the Hill Country.

Rain continued through the weekend, prompting additional flash flood emergencies for areas including Burnet, Williamson, and Travis Counties, west of Austin and San Antonio.