One year after a catastrophic flash flood event along the Guadalupe River in South Texas killed more than 130 people, the same region is once again grappling with life-threatening surging floodwaters triggered by days of unrelenting torrential rainfall.
The National Weather Service (NWS) office in San Antonio issued an urgent warning Thursday, alerting residents that large, destructive flood waves were advancing down the Guadalupe River — the same waterway that spawned last summer’s deadly disaster. By early Thursday, local emergency management officials had already begun urging at-risk residents across multiple Hill Country counties to evacuate their homes immediately to avoid rising waters.
In an urgent social media post on X published at 9:39 a.m. EST, the NWS San Antonio emphasized the severity of the situation: “CATASTROPHIC flooding is occurring. Move to higher ground now! Guadalupe River is rapidly rising and will continue!”
According to local reporting from the Texas Tribune, the Guadalupe River swelled an extraordinary 32 feet (9.75 meters) in just four hours as runoff from the heavy rainstorms poured into the basin. The flooding has impacted a broad swath of South Texas, spanning multiple counties including Uvalde, Kerr, and Kendall. Dramatic imagery from Comfort, Texas, shows floodwaters completely submerging the popular local venue Rodeo Los Corrales Dance Hall as waters continue to climb.
By Thursday morning, first responders had already launched multiple rescue operations, pulling dozens of residents stranded by rising floodwaters to safety, per reporting from the Associated Press.
The disaster comes as a devastating echo of last year’s Fourth of July holiday flood, which claimed 131 lives across the Hill Country. Among the victims were 25 young campers and two adult counselors at Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer camp located along the Guadalupe River near Kerrville. During the 2025 disaster, the river rose 26 feet (8 meters) in just 45 minutes, catching the camp off guard and sweeping many campers away in powerful, fast-moving currents.
In the wake of that devastating tragedy, Camp Mystic announced it would not reopen for the 2026 summer season and filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year. Local leaders and emergency management teams are now working around the clock to prevent a repeat of last year’s mass casualty event, urging all residents in flood zones to comply with evacuation orders immediately as the flood crisis continues to unfold.