Deadly flash flooding hits Central Texas, forcing urgent evacuations

Torrential rain sent flash flooding surging across Central Texas again, killing at least one person and forcing urgent evacuations as crews rescued at least 70 people from fast-rising water. Local leaders told residents in the hardest-hit areas to get to higher ground immediately as flash flood warnings stayed in effect and emergency teams moved through the region.

The latest disaster is hitting the same stretch of the Texas Hill Country that was devastated by the July 4, 2025 floods, when the Guadalupe River rose with terrifying speed near Kerrville and Kerr County. During that storm, reports said the river crested at 37.51 feet near Kerrville, the highest level there since the historic 1987 flood. The holiday flooding later became one of the deadliest disasters in Texas history, with multiple outlets reporting more than 130 deaths, including children at Camp Mystic.

The Hill Country has long carried the label “Flash Flood Alley,” a name earned through repeated deadly inundations across the region’s creeks, rivers and low-lying crossings. That history is now colliding with the newest emergency, as the same communities that were pushed into rescue mode last year are again watching water rise with little warning and little time to spare.

State authorities have remained in emergency response mode, and the Texas Division of Emergency Management has kept a July Flooding disaster page open for the event, reflecting the continuing recovery effort from the 2025 catastrophe and the new round of flooding. The renewed danger has put Kerrville, Kerr County and surrounding Central Texas communities back under the kind of scrutiny that follows every major Hill Country flood, when residents and officials are forced to confront whether enough was done after the last tragedy to reduce the next one.

The scale of the 2025 losses still hangs over the region as the death toll in that flood climbed past 130 and dozens more were listed missing in the aftermath. With the Guadalupe River again central to the emergency, the latest flooding has revived the same urgent questions about warning systems, evacuation timing and how a region with such a long flood history continues to face the same deadly outcome.