Texas Land Commissioner says the camps did everything they could to avoid the flood's tragic rage

According to Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, Camp Mystic and other establishments in the devastating Texas flash floods did all they could to prepare. "I think as soon as they had any indication they were doing everything they could," she told Just The News.

On Friday, catastrophic flash flooding struck central Texas, claiming more than 100 lives and leaving dozens missing after torrential rains overwhelmed the Guadalupe River, officials said. Kerr County bore the brunt of the disaster, with 75 deaths, including 27 children, many from Camp Mystic, a century-old Christian summer camp for girls in Hunt, Texas. 

The Guadalupe River surged 26 feet in 45 minutes, sweeping away homes, vehicles, and campsites, with up to 15 inches of rain falling in hours. President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County, and search-and-rescue operations, involving helicopters, drones, and boats — with help from the famous volunteer "Cajun Navy" of Hurricane Katrina fame — continued amid ongoing rain and flood warnings.

Timeline of warnings

On Wednesday and Thursday, a series of emergency weather alerts were issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) and Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM). Despite a decades-long history of flash floods in the Texas Hill Country, and a 1987 flash flood that killed 10 teenagers at a Christian Camp in neighboring Kendall County, Kerr County didn’t have an emergency warning system in place. 

The NWS-Austin/San Antonio issued a Flood Watch Wednesday for several counties, including Kerr County and the NWS-San Angelo also issued a flood watch for several counties. The Texas Division of Emergency Management activated state emergency response resources through 10 state agencies, anticipating increased threats of flooding in West and Central Texas ahead of the holiday weekend.  

At 1:14 AM on Friday, the NWS Austin/San Antonio issued a “life threatening flash flooding” warning for Bandera and Kerr counties stating, “Some locations that will experience flash flooding include, Kerrville, Ingram, Hunt, Waltonia, Kerr Wildlife Management Area, and Lost Maples State Natural Area.” 

Region's natural vulnerability to flooding

Buckingham talked about the challenges of this particular flood area and said, "it's very hilly. It's very rocky soil, not a lot of topsoil. So it is definitely prone to flash floods. That being said, I don't think anyone has seen water of this level, 25 to 30 feet above. The normal river banks in over 100 years in this section of the river, the loss is devastating."

"East of [interstate] 35 gets almost twice the rain as they get just a few miles west of I-35," she said, "then you get out to West Texas, and you have places that only get six to 10 inches of rain a year, very desert conditions. But when it does rain in the desert, when it does rain in more arid and semi-arid areas, the water stacks up pretty quickly and does some pretty impressive things." Kerr County is about 100 miles east of I-35. 

More preparedness going forward

Criticism has erupted over inadequate flood warnings and alleged staffing shortages at the National Weather Service, though officials maintain warnings were issued hours before the disaster. Texas Governor Greg Abbott pledged limitless state resources throughout the weekend, as volunteers and first responders, including the Texas National Guard, worked to locate survivors and recover victims.

In defense of the camp leadership, who should have received the warnings and evacuation orders, Buckingham said, "normally, when you get that flash flood warning across your phone, which we get pretty frequently, you just think it's going to be a couple feet, and you're not going to drive across low water crossings. It doesn't mean that the water is going to come up 25 to 30 feet in roughly an hour. Here, in the wee hours of the morning, you also have to realize where this flooding happened. A lot of people, there's no cell service there. So even if the emergency notices had gone out, a lot of the cell phones aren't working there anyway."

Looking forward, Buckingham is supportive of exploring other means of preparedness: "I think we'll take a look. I think there's always the benefit of hindsight. Could we do something better in the future, maybe with some new technologies? But the state resources recognized early that the storm was going to be a serious matter. Texas Department of Emergency Management was moving resources into the area before the storm even hit. They were ready to go the second that it was going to be a problem."

Social media, disinformation and politicization

Politicization quickly stained the already tragic incident. Democrats in Congress wasted no time in connecting the tragedy to Trump's budget cuts. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer demanded that the administration conduct an inquiry into whether staffing shortages contributed to “the catastrophic loss of life” in Texas. “Accurate weather forecasting helps avoid fatal disasters,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said in a post on X. “There are consequences to Trump’s brainless attacks on public workers, like meteorologists.”

Contradicting that narrative, in fact, the National Weather Service office in New Braunfels, which delivers forecasts for Austin, San Antonio and the surrounding areas, had extra staff on duty during the storms, an NWS spokesperson told the Associated Press.

Part of the anti-Trump narrative was engendered on social media by misinformation created by GrokAI, according to PJ Media's Stephen Green. Reportedly, when users asked the artifical intelligence system: "Did two dozen young girls die in Texas flooding in part because Trump gutted NOAA and the National Weather Service?" the AI responded: "Yes. Trump’s 2025 cuts slashed NOAA/NWS funding by ~30% and staff by 17%, impairing forecast accuracy. Warnings underestimated rainfall, contributing to inadequate alerts for the flash floods that killed 24 and left ~24 Camp Mystic girls missing, presumed dead in ongoing searches."

The uglier side of social media made an appearance when Dr. Christina B. Propst of Blue Fish Pediatrics in Houston, posted in a now-deleted tweet: “May all visitors, children, non-MAGA voters and pets be safe and dry. Kerr County MAGA voted to gut FEMA. They deny climate change. May they get what they voted for. Bless their hearts.” 

According to local TV station KPRC, Propst's message sparked swift backlash from the community, calling it "cruel" and "heartless," especially coming from a pediatrician. 

On Sunday, Blue Fish Pediatrics publicly announced Propst was no longer employed at their practice, saying, "We strongly condemn the comments that were made in that post. That post does not reflect the values, standards, or mission of Blue Fish Pediatrics. We do not support or condone any statement that politicizes tragedy, diminishes human dignity, or fails to clearly uphold compassion for every child and family."

“There’s going to be a lot of finger-pointing, a lot of second-guessing and Monday morning quarterbacking,” Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, whose district includes Kerr County, told the Associated Press. “There’s a lot of people saying ‘why’ and ‘how,’ and I understand that.”