UVALDE, Texas — Dangerous flooding in Texas has intensified after days of pounding rain, sending emergency crews scrambling to rescue people from the rising waters before sunrise Thursday and setting off urgent warnings from forecasters: “Move to higher ground now!”
The National Weather Service in San Antonio said a “large and deadly flood wave” was barreling down the same river devastated by floods a year ago when two dozen children and counselors were killed at Camp Mystic.
There was no immediate word of any deaths or injuries from the flooding. Several tornado warnings were also issued.
The storms threatened multiple counties close to the border with Mexico and in the Texas Hill Country near San Antonio. City officials in Kerrville urged people to shelter at the highest levels of their homes.
Floodwaters overran the city of Uvalde overnight into Thursday, cutting off access to surrounding areas.
“There’s no way into the city at this point in time. Rescues have been happening overnight,” Juli Alvarado, a spokesperson for Uvalde police, said Thursday morning. Multiple people trapped in vehicles were being rescued, she said.
“The good thing is they’re communicating with our emergency dispatch center and we’re getting crews to them quickly,” she said.
Uvalde officials were deploying boats for rescue operations and planned to fly helicopters after daybreak, Alvarado said.
Texas Game Wardens have participated in rescues of more than 40 people so far from the flooding, mostly in the Uvalde County area, according to a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department spokesperson.
Another test for the Texas Hill Country after the Camp Mystic disaster
The weather service said 10 to 20 inches of rain had fallen in the past two days, with 8 inches in just two hours early Thursday.
Forecasters had warned that already dangerous conditions were likely to worsen in some hard-hit communities. The deluge dumped nearly a foot of rain in some counties and put people in multiple counties under flood watches. That included parts of the Texas Hill Country where last summer’s devastating floods killed more than 100 people.
Some of the flood watches were expected to remain in effect through Friday evening.
Flooding could reach last year’s deadly high
The floodwaters were expected to reach a crest similar to the July 4, 2025, catastrophic river flood, the weather service said.
Close to Camp Mystic, the Guadalupe River near Hunt reached about 20.5 feet, according to a U.S. Geological Survey gauge, which is just under the level expected to inundate structures and roads.
While dangerous, the water was below the height of last year’s deadly floods, which was 37.5 feet. That’s about 15 feet above the level for major flooding.
One gauge less than 10 miles from Kerrville showed the river had risen 32 feet in four hours.
Downriver near Center Point, the Guadalupe River rose more than 30 feet between midnight and 4 a.m. Thursday. Gauges recorded similar increased near Comfort, where the River rose nearly 29 feet in less than two hours, according USGS data.
Families rush to get to higher ground
By Wednesday, Uvalde police had ordered mandatory evacuations for some parts, with first responders notifying people affected directly, the department said on Facebook. Others were asked to stay vigilant in case more evacuations are needed.
Some people walked out of their homes into the street to see the water growing closer every hour, their faces worried. People living along the Leona River scrambled to pack up their cars and head out, although many did not yet know where they should go. One man threw two kayaks into his truck bed, just in case.
Lightning flashed as clouds darkened the landscape, and brown water created large rapids in the typically calm river, which was pushing up against the town’s high bridge and into neighborhoods by Wednesday afternoon.
The Texas flood watches affect 6 million people
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has issued disaster declarations for dozens of counties.
As of Wednesday evening, just over six million Texas residents in 57 counties were under a National Weather Service flood watch that was scheduled to continue through early Thursday night. Watches for 34 of those counties were scheduled to expire Friday evening.
Some of the highest rainfall totals so far have been in Uvalde County, which normally gets about 23 inches of rain a year, according to the Uvalde County Extension Office.
Bedayn and Stengle write for the Associated Press. Stengle reported from Dallas. AP writers Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, N.M.; Dave Collins in Hartford, Conn.; and Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H., contributed to this report.
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