Heavy rain turned parts of the Texas Hill Country into a rescue zone on July 16, leaving two people dead and forcing crews to pull more than 40 people from submerged vehicles and flooded homes. Among the victims was John Mark Steward, 65, whose family said he died in Kerrville after his RV home was swept away overnight.
The deaths came as floodwaters surged through Kerr County and Uvalde County, with another victim identified as a 74-year-old man from Uvalde County. The National Weather Service kept a flood warning in effect for Kerr County until 6 p.m. Friday, July 17, and officials said water still posed a danger even after many rescues had been completed.
The scale of the flooding was tied to more than 28 inches of rain falling across the affected area, a burst heavy enough to overwhelm rivers and creeks and push warnings across Central Texas. Fredericksburg Fire/EMS said it had completed more than 30 rescues by July 16, most of them between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m., as floodwaters rose along the Pedernales River and emergency notices spread through Gillespie County and beyond.
That river feeds directly into Lake Travis in Austin, where the LCRA expected water levels to rise 5 to 7 feet overnight because of the rain and controlled releases. Travis County officials urged people to stay out of the water, while the National Weather Service also let a flood advisory for Gillespie County expire at 1 a.m. Friday, a sign that the immediate danger was easing in one place even as the broader event was still unfolding in another.
The sharpest contradiction in the disaster is that the rescues were largely done, but the flooding was not. With water still rising in parts of the region and warnings remaining in place, the death toll and the search for anyone else who may be missing are now the questions hanging over Central Texas as the storm aftermath continues to spread.
