Overview
- On July 4, 2025 a sudden flash flood drove the Guadalupe River up tens of feet in under an hour and killed 119 people in Kerr County and more than 130 across the region, including 28 people who died at Camp Mystic.
- A legislative investigation found major preparedness failures at Camp Mystic and across local emergency systems, and the camp's owners filed for Chapter 11 in June 2026 while Texas Rangers and DSHS continue criminal and administrative probes.
- Texas lawmakers this year passed three measures that require written emergency plans and staff training for youth camps, restrict cabins in floodplains, mandate on-site warning systems, and direct identification and funding for outdoor sirens.
- Local officials have installed and begun testing new sirens along the Guadalupe River and the University of Texas at Arlington received a $4 million state grant to build a real-time flood-warning and modeling system to improve alerts.
- Communities held memorials and organized healing events over the anniversary weekend, relief funds have supported rebuilding and housing, business activity remains uneven, and a small number of victims remain missing as searches and civil lawsuits continue.