Flooding is common in Texas Hill Country. This was different

Summary

Consider This from NPR: Flooding is Common in Texas Hill Country. This Was Different

Released on July 7, 2025

In this compelling episode of NPR's Consider This, the hosts delve into the unprecedented flooding that recently devastated Texas Hill Country, exploring personal stories of survival, community resilience, and the underlying impacts of climate change.

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Rapid Onset of Devastating Floodwaters

Ari Shapiro sets the stage by describing the sudden and extreme rise of the Guadalupe River:

"Imagine standing in water shallow enough to just barely hit the soles of your feet. And then it rises so fast that in just about 10 minutes, it's up to your neck." ([00:00])

Sergio Martinez Beltran narrates his experiences in Kerrville, where the floodwaters surged 26 feet in less than an hour, leaving residents scrambling for safety.

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Personal Stories of Survival

Ryan Dale, a local resident, shares his harrowing account of the flood:

"Get out there. It's flooding. And we thought, well, hell, I've seen it flood before. I never even thought of getting that damn high." ([01:06])

Despite his prior experience with floods, Dale found himself unprepared for the extraordinary rise, resulting in significant property loss and homelessness:

"We had friends that were camped up the road here, and they didn't make it. So this has been very devastating." ([01:39])

Melvin Harris and his wife also recount the rapid escalation of the flood, leading to the loss of their home and vehicles:

"By the time they got out, the water was waist deep." ([01:20])

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Community Response and Ongoing Rescue Efforts

Sergio provides a vivid depiction of the aftermath in Kerr County, where search and rescue operations are still underway:

"There are these loud helicopters flying really low and overhead that were clearly continuing this really desperate search for survivors or any signs of life." ([05:47])

Virginia Mann, a long-time resident, reflects on the transformation of the once tranquil Guadalupe River:

"It's nothing like this. When these rivers rage, when they converge together, it just causes a dramatic... wall of water was just unbelievable." ([05:47])

Volunteers like Matt Tristle demonstrate the community's unwavering spirit, working tirelessly to clear debris and search for missing individuals:

"Just clearing debris, clearing trees, getting the piles open so, you know, people can see down in there." ([07:07])

Tristle emphasizes the collective effort and hope within the community:

"Texans take care of Texans. You know, Americans take care of Americans... we still hope there's some kids that are still alive." ([07:40])

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The Role of Climate Change in Extreme Weather Events

The episode shifts focus to the broader implications of climate change on such extreme weather events. Juana Summers discusses preliminary findings with Rebecca Hersher from NPR's Climate Desk:

"A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture. So that moisture, it falls as heavy rain." ([09:45])

They highlight that heaviest storms in Texas are dropping about 20% more rain today than in the late 1950s:

"In Texas, the heaviest storms are dropping about 20% more rain today than they were in the late 1950s when the climate was significantly cooler." ([10:08])

The conversation underscores the increasing frequency and intensity of such floods, attributing a significant portion of the damage to human-induced climate change:

"In the last 30 years or so, about one third of the damage caused by inland flooding would not have happened without human caused climate change." ([10:22])

Juana Summers emphasizes the need for updated infrastructure and better forecasting systems to mitigate future disasters:

"Flood warning systems, you know, sirens that can help alert people. They cost money. Most places don't have them." ([11:28])

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Conclusion

The episode concludes by highlighting the intersection of personal tragedy and global climate trends, urging listeners to recognize the profound impacts of climate change on local communities. The stories from Texas Hill Country serve as a stark reminder of the urgent need for comprehensive climate action and improved disaster preparedness.

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Produced by: Tyler Bartlem, Erica Ryan, Connor Donovan, and Mark Rivers
Executive Producer: Sammy Yenigun

Transcript

[Ari Shapiro]

Imagine standing in water shallow enough to just barely hit the soles of your feet. And then it rises so fast that in just about 10 minutes, it's up to your neck. That's how fast the Guadalupe river in Texas rose last week, according to state officials, 26ft in less than an hour. NPR's Sergio Martinez Beltran has been out around Kerrville where some of the worst flooding hit, talking to folks who survived. Hi, my name is Sergio. I'm a reporter. And you can hear how sudden this all was in the stories they tell. It was terrifying. Dude, it looked straight out of a horror movie. Ryan Dale was in his apartment near the Guadalupe river with his three kids overnight Thursday into Friday, watching the rain come down. Feeling nervous, he went outside around 6am and the water was about 100 yards from his house.

[Juana Summers]

And then it came out 15 minutes.

[Ari Shapiro]

Later and it was smacking the side of the apartment. Getting up over the fence. Dale and his kids literally ran to safety. Another person Sergio talked to is Melvin Harris. He and his wife woke up to a neighbor pounding on the door of their rv.

[Ryan Dale]

Get out. Get out there. It's flooding. And we thought, well, hell, I've seen it flood before. I never even thought of getting that damn high.

[Ari Shapiro]

But he says by the time they got out, the water was waist deep.

[Ryan Dale]

Of course, it washed the motor home away, washed both of our cars away, and we got out with our dogs and the clothes on our back, and that's it.

[Ari Shapiro]

Harris and his wife are now homeless. They moved here two years ago after Harris retired. This is all they had, and now all of it is gone.

[Ryan Dale]

We had friends that were camped up the road here, and they didn't make it. So this has been very devastating. I don't know that this place will ever recover from what happened. We'll just have to see. But I'm not ever gonna live this close to water ever again. Not ever.

[Ari Shapiro]

Consider this. In the Texas Hill country, climate change and geography conspired to create one of the worst floods in generations. From npr, I'm Ari Shapiro.

[Sergio Martinez Beltran]

The House of Representatives has approved a White House request to claw back two years of previously approved funding for public media. The rescissions package now moves on to the Senate. This move poses a serious threat to local stations and public media as we know it. Please take a stand for public media [e-mail] thank you.

[Ari Shapiro]

You know those things you shout at the radio or maybe even at this very NPR podcast on NPR's. Wait, wait, don't tell me we actually say those things. On the radio and on the podcast, we're rude across all media. We think the news can take it. Listen to NPR's Wait, Wait, don't tell me. Wherever you get your podcasts at Planet Money, we know that economic jargon can sometimes feel like speaking another language.

[Sergio Martinez Beltran]

Yeah, like arbitrage, alpha, otarchy.

[Ari Shapiro]

That's just what's in the news these days. There's also economic absolute advantage, aggregate demand, aggregate supply.

[Sergio Martinez Beltran]

And this is just the A's.

[Ari Shapiro]

Oh, animal spirits.

[Sergio Martinez Beltran]

That's a pretty good one. Planet Money from npr. We help you translate the economy so you can understand the world. Wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ari Shapiro]

It'S consider this from npr. We're going to start in Kerr County, Texas, where search and rescue crews are still hoping they may find survivors. But my co host, Juana Summers is.

[Sergio Martinez Beltran]

There just to give you a sense of the scope of this. We're a few days out from this event and the river is still so incredibly high. Just in front of me, there are these trees that are completely destroyed. They're bent over at a right angle. Tons of debris floating through the water just across the river from us on the other side, which we haven't been able to reach because the roads are washed out. There's this mangled truck on the edge of the river.

[Ari Shapiro]

And Juana is with us. Now. Can you give us a sense, Juana, of what things are like there in Kerr County? Since you and the team arrived in the middle of the night, what have you seen today?

[Sergio Martinez Beltran]

Yeah, hi, Ari. I mean, there are immediately just signs of how much this community is reeling and grieving. Right when you get into Kerrville, as we were driving down one of the main highways, there were signs on local hotels saying Kerrville Strong. Another local business that we drove past had a sign up that said thank you to first responders, which I'll just note we've seen everywhere. Even if the hotel we're staying at and all of that is even before you really get to some of the areas that were hard hit by this devastating flooding.

[Ari Shapiro]

Were you able to get to those hardest hit areas?

[Sergio Martinez Beltran]

Yeah. So this morning we were able to get to the banks of the Guadalupe river and Centerpoint, Texas, which is not far from Kerrville. And as we started to get closer, there was this sort of steady stream of cars and trucks and emergency vehicles. They were all driving, parking along the bridge. People were getting out. And then when we got out of our car and sort of looked out over the river, I just have to say there were so many uprooted Trees there, a ton of debris lining the river banks. There were these deflated flotation devices. At one point, I even saw a neon green kayak that was tangled in this tree. There were these loud helicopters flying really low and overhead that were clearly continuing this really desperate search for survivors or any signs of life. Search and rescue crews and bands of volunteers fanned out around a stretch of the Guadalupe river in Centerpoint, Texas. That's where we meet Virginia Mann, who lives in nearby Harper, Texas. She used to live in this area and remembers going fishing at the river's edge.

[Virginia Mann]

Sometimes you could even walk across it over here, and it was just a quiet place to get away from, you know, sit down by yourself and enjoy fishing. But it's nothing like this. When these rivers rage, when they converge together, it just causes a dramatic. Well, you know, they say, how did it get 34ft? Well, that's what happens. It all converges together and just. It's hard, hard to believe. And that wall of water was just unbelievable. I mean, nothing could survive that.

[Sergio Martinez Beltran]

Man is among those looking for news, hoping that a friend survived the flooding.

[Virginia Mann]

Thought I'd come over. I have a friend I haven't found yet here in Centerpoint, and so I came over here to see if he was okay because he's not answering his phone, so. But they tell me he lives on the other side of the river, so I'm hoping that's where I'm headed right now, see if he's okay. But it's amazing how people have pulled together and are helping out everywhere.

[Sergio Martinez Beltran]

She said Kerrville and the surrounding area is close knit, full of families that stay for generations. It's the type of place where everyone knows each other. As we walk through the debris, the hum of chainsaws is persistent. Volunteers cut away at fallen trees and drag the severed tree limbs into big piles. Matt Tristle drove in from Austin about 100 miles away.

[Matt Tristle]

Just clearing debris, clearing trees, getting the piles open so, you know, people can see down in there.

[Sergio Martinez Beltran]

He knew a number of people who had children at Camp mystic, the nearly 100-year-old girls camp that sits on the river. The camp said in a statement earlier Monday that it was grieving the loss of 27 campers and counselors.

[Matt Tristle]

My heart just breaks for the parents that are missing kids, and hopefully, you know, we can maybe help find them and have some closure for them.

[Sergio Martinez Beltran]

What do you think people from outside of the area, from Texas, who maybe haven't been here before, should know about this community and what's happening here right.

[Matt Tristle]

Now, you know, Texans take care of Texans. You know, Americans take care of Americans. I think you're going to see that more and more as the days go on. But, you know, it's this is a place for the country that believes in God. And we still hope there's some kids that are still alive and hopefully we can try to help find them.

[Sergio Martinez Beltran]

I asked Matt Tressel how long his group planned to keep at it, and he told me the answer is as long as they're needed.

[Ari Shapiro]

Juana will be bringing us more reporting from Texas this week. One question she's dug how much might climate change have played a role in Friday's storms? Heavy rain and flash flooding are familiar in the Texas hill country, but even for this part of the country, what happened on Friday was extreme. She talked through it with Rebecca Hersher from NPR's Climate Desk.

[Sergio Martinez Beltran]

So, Becky, I'm here in Kerr county, which has a history of flooding, but even by local standards, this storm was extraordinary. Do we know if climate change played a role?

[Juana Summers]

We don't have a really clear answer yet. A preliminary analysis by a group of climate scientists in Europe estimates that the storm may have dropped slightly more rain than it would have without human caused warming. And scientists will be able to do a more accurate analysis as more detailed data from Texas become available in the coming days and weeks. But it was an unusual storm. As you say, even for an area that gets a lot of flooding, a foot of rain in just a few hours is too much for the ground to soak it up. You know, it pools on the surface. It runs downhill. That area is hill country. So it's like a funnel. All that water quickly gathers speed, and that's how the Guadalupe river rose so incredibly quickly with extraordinarily deadly results. These floods are among the most deadly in modern history. So in that way, this disaster is exceptional in terms of how much rain fell, how high the river got. It's, it's not record breaking, but it is on par with the worst flooding ever recorded in that area. And I think it's really notable that these types of extreme rain events, record breaking or not, are getting more common.

[Sergio Martinez Beltran]

Help me understand that. Why would climate change cause more common extreme rain events?

[Juana Summers]

So a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture. So that moisture, it falls as heavy rain. And, you know, obviously humans have released a lot of planet warming pollution into the atmosphere, so things have gotten a lot warmer. I talked to a climate scientist named Christina Dahl about this. She works for the nonprofit group Climate Central, which makes information about climate change available to the public, and here's what she said.

[Sergio Martinez Beltran]

Basically, the entire US has seen an increase in the amount of rain falling in the heaviest events. And this latest flood in Texas is one example of what the consequences of that are.

[Juana Summers]

So the heaviest rainstorms are dropping more rain than they used to, which is a problem because our homes and roads and bridges and emergency plans are all based on the past. Even people who know an area really well can be surprised by the weather these days.

[Sergio Martinez Beltran]

Becky, do we know how much more rain is falling because of climate change?

[Juana Summers]

Yeah, we actually have a rough sense. So in Texas, the heaviest storms are dropping about 20% more rain today than they were in the late 1950s when the climate was significantly cooler. That's according to the National Climate Assessment. And as a side note, information like that from the National Climate Assessment, it's really hard to access right now because the Trump administration took down the website for that assessment last week. I actually have a copy downloaded on my computer. That's how I found it. Another thing we know from that assessment is that as the planet heats up, floods like this are causing more damage. So in the last 30 years or so, about one third of the damage caused by inland flooding would not have happened without human caused climate change. That's more than $80 billion of extra damage, and that's just damage to property. You know, you can't put a price on hundreds of lives lost.

[Sergio Martinez Beltran]

What can be done to save lives?

[Juana Summers]

One thing that would be really helpful is updated information about how much rain to expect, you know, taking climate change into account. A lot of the rainfall records in the US Are decades old, so that's a problem. As storms get rainier, the federal government is in the middle of updating those records, which could help local governments make better decisions. There are also flood warning systems, you know, sirens that can help alert people. They cost money. Most places don't have them. And forecasts could be better, but that requires investments in research to understand rainstorms more deeply.

[Ari Shapiro]

That was NPR's Rebecca Hersher speaking with my co host Juana Summers. This episode was produced by Tyler Bartlem, Erica Ryan, Connor Donovan and Mark Rivers, with audio engineering by Ted Mebane. It was edited by Courtney Dorning, Rachel Waldholtz and Alfredo Carbajal. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigun.

[Juana Summers]

Foreign.

[Ari Shapiro]

It'S consider this from npr. I'm Ari Shapiro.

[Sergio Martinez Beltran]

Recycling can feel like a lost cause. But one college student started a grassroots efforts to turn beer bottles into sand for eroding beaches. We have some music bump in and like some people are sorting. There's one person crushing and the rest of us are like hand sifting the material. How you can come up with creative ideas by taking a second look. Double takes. That's on the TED Radio Hour podcast from npr.

[Juana Summers]

Here on the Indicator from Planet Money, we fanned out across the country to ask how you are feeling about the 2025 economy. Anxious, uncertain, Unfair, Turbulent, Crazy. We don't just recite the headlines, we show you how the economy is affecting your life. In 10 minutes or less each weekday, listen to the Indicator from Planet Money. Wherever you get your podcasts.

[Sergio Martinez Beltran]

Want to hear this podcast without sponsor breaks? Amazon prime members can listen to Consider this sponsor free through Amazon Music. Or you can also support NPR's vital journalism and get consider this [e-mail] that's plus.NPR.org.