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- Texas flood deaths rise to 120; search for missing enters seventh day: Live updates</p>
<p>Jeanine Santucci, Karissa Waddick and Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY July 10, 2025 at 7:11 PM</p>
<p>The community of Kerrville, Texas, ravaged by the catastrophic flooding of the Guadalupe River one week ago, was mourning its losses Thursday as rescue teams continue the grueling task of recovering the remains of missing victims.</p>
<p>At least 120 people have been found dead since heavy rainfall overwhelmed the river and flowed through homes and youth camps in the early morning hours of July 4. Ninety-six of those killed were in the hardest-hit county in central Texas, Kerr County, where the toll includes at least 36 children.</p>
<p>More than 160 people are still missing in the county, officials said in a Thursday update, and hopes of finding any survivors have diminished with each passing day. County authorities say they haven't made a "live rescue" since the day of the flood.</p>
<p>Among the missing are five campers and a counselor from the Christian girls camp, Camp Mystic, which counted at least 27 children and staff among the death toll.</p>
<p>Kerr County authorities and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott have pledged that search crews will continue working until every missing person is found. They've also faced tough questions about who is to blame for the little warning about the catastrophic floods.</p>
<p>On Wednesday evening, crowds gathered at a Kerrville high school for a vigil to pray for the victims and missing.</p>
<p>"The kingdom of God looks like thousands of volunteers walking along the riverbanks clearing a path," Kerrville resident Josh Smithson, director of the Christian youth outreach organization Young Life, said at the vigil. "The kingdom of God looks like Kerr County rising together in a time of need."</p>
<p>Developments:</p>
<p>∎ Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said two more natives of Mexico who lived in the U.S. have been reported among the missing in the flooding, and he added that Mexico has sent another brigade to help with relief efforts.</p>
<p>∎ A couple from Mobile, Alabama, and their 5-year-old granddaughter are among the missing after the cabin where they were staying was swept away from a campground in Kerrville, Texas, the Montgomery Advertiser, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported. The newspaper also said the couple's son survived but his wife was found dead.</p>
<p>A dozen states send crews to help with Texas recovery</p>
<p>More than 2,100 responders are on the ground in Kerr County from local, state and federal forces, Kerrville police community services officer Jonathan Lamb said Thursday.</p>
<p>Ten states, from Massachusetts to California, have so far sent specially trained teams – including swift-water rescue crews and trained FEMA workers – to help with the ongoing recovery efforts, and two others have crews on their way to Texas' Hill Country.</p>
<p>Much of the aid comes at the request of Texas' emergency management officials, who employed a decades-old disaster relief compact that allows states to transfer resources during times of crisis.</p>
<p>Gov. Abbott says flood relief, warning systems on legislative agenda</p>
<p>Abbott released his agenda for a special session of Texas lawmakers set to begin July 21, and said topics would include pressing questions raised by the deadly July 4 floods.</p>
<p>"There is more work to be done, particularly in the aftermath of the devastating floods in the Texas Hill Country. We must ensure better preparation for such events in the future." Abbott said.</p>
<p>Asked earlier in the week about who is responsible for the heavy death toll in an area known to be prone for flooding, Abbott took umbrage with the use of the word "blame."</p>
<p>"That's the word choice of losers," Abbott said on Tuesday before launching into an analogy about the state's most beloved sport, football, and how different teams respond to hardships. "The losing teams are the ones that try to point out who's to blame,'' he said. "The championship teams are the ones that say, 'Don't worry about it, man, we've got this. We're going to make sure that we go score again and we're going to win this game.'"</p>
<p>In his agenda, Abbott included four items related to the flooding under the headings of "flood warning systems,'' "flood emergency communications,'' "relief funding for Hill Country floods'' and "natural disaster preparation and recovery.''</p>
<p>Search and recovery crews remove debris from the banks of the Guadalupe River on July 9, 2025, in Center Point, Texas.Drier weather finally arrives in Hill Country</p>
<p>Long-awaited dry conditions are expected across areas of Texas ravaged by floods through the rest of the week, the National Weather Service office serving Austin and San Antonio said Thursday.</p>
<p>The break in rainy, stormy conditions comes after flash flooding continued to threaten recovery efforts through Wednesday night.</p>
<p>The drier conditions are expected to last through Friday before more rain is in the weekend forecast. There could still be isolated, pop-up storms through the end of the week, AccuWeather reported. Concerns for search crews will shift to the heat, which could make temperatures feel like they're into the triple digits, the outlet said.</p>
<p>Camp Mystic counselors protected young girls from Texas floods</p>
<p>Two 19-year-old Camp Mystic counselors from Mexico are being recognized for their heroism shielding young girls from the unfolding tragedy.</p>
<p>Silvana Garza and María Paula Zárate were watching girls in the camp's newer site up in the hills – and away from the original campsite down by the Guadalupe River – when the crisis began in the early hours of July 4. Heavy rainfall knocked out the camp's power. The storm sounded like a scary movie, Garza said later.</p>
<p>For hours, the counselors sang songs and played games with the girls in their care, unaware the campsite near the river, where they had slept just the week before, had been destroyed.</p>
<p>Around 6 p.m., they learned more flooding was on the way. They instructed the girls to pack their belongings and prepare to evacuate. Then, a grim task: They wrote the girls' names on their bodies, Zárate said. That way authorities could identify them if they were swept away and found unresponsive. Their families would have them back, dead or alive.</p>
<p>As they passed through the campsite by the river and on to safety, Garza told Univision 41, they saw mattresses and clothes hanging in the trees. Their campers made it out alive, and Sheinbaum recognized Garza and Zárate for their efforts. "They make us proud," she said. Read more here.</p>
<p>− Eduardo Cuevas</p>
<p>Where did the Texas flooding deaths happen?</p>
<p>The hardest-hit area from flooding was Kerr County, particularly Kerrville, a city of just over 25,000 residents about 60 miles outside San Antonio. Here's a breakdown of where the flooding deaths happened by county:</p>
<p>Kerr County: 96</p>
<p>Travis County: 7</p>
<p>Kendall County: 8</p>
<p>Burnet County: 5</p>
<p>Williamson County: 3</p>
<p>Tom Green County: 1</p>
<p>This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Texas flood deaths at 120; search continues for missing; live updates</p>
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