Overview

• About 100 people remain unaccounted for two weeks after the July 4 flood surge on the Guadalupe River, with the confirmed death toll at 135 including at least 37 children.
• More than 1,000 responders and several thousand volunteers are methodically hand-sifting, diving and deploying sonar-AI technology across 60 miles of riverbank to locate bodies beneath thick mud and debris piles.
• Officials are evaluating plans to drain Nimitz Lake—currently overtopping a dam—to improve visibility and access to underwater debris fields extending toward Canyon Lake where recent rains have shifted remains downstream.
• Governor Greg Abbott has pledged to sustain recovery operations until every missing person is found, mobilizing state and federal resources including divers, canine teams and advanced scanning devices.
• Crews confront massive “suck pile” sediment formations up to eight feet deep, fluctuating missing-person counts due to identification challenges, and rotating storms that continue to hamper search efforts.