Why Are More Than 100 People Still Missing in Texas, 2 Weeks After the
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19 Jul 2025 09:54:51 UTC
Why Are More Than 100 People Still Missing in Texas, 2 Weeks After the
Floods?
The number of people unaccounted for dropped this week but remains
stubbornly high as some searchers lose hope of finding them.
Listen to this article 8:32 min Learn more
Two people, left, in camouflage uniforms stand across from each other as
the person on the left salutes. Several people stand nearby.
Members of the military presented an American flag on Friday to
firefighters and relatives of Michael Phillips, the chief of the
volunteer fire department in Marble Falls, who is among those missing
from the floods. Credit... Desiree Rios for The New York Times
Orlando MayorquinPooja Salhotra
By Orlando Mayorquin and Pooja Salhotra
Orlando Mayorquin reported from Kerr County and San Antonio, Texas,
Pooja Salhotra from Burnet County and Kerr County.
July 19, 2025, 5:01 a. m. ET
In the days after the deadly July 4 floods in Central Texas, Megan
Newton spent hours sitting outside her parents home in Marble Falls,
looking overhead to spot medical choppers among the Black Hawk
helicopters searching for the missing.
I was just waiting for someone to call and say, We found him, Ms.
Newton, 41, said, that weve got him and hes good.
Since then, her hope has waned for her father, Michael Phillips, 66, the
chief of the volunteer fire department in Marble Falls, about 80 miles
north of San Antonio. Yet his name remains among more than 100 people
still missing statewide after floodwaters roared through summer camps, riverside homes, campgrounds and R. V. parks, claiming at least 135
lives.
As days have turned into weeks, the number of missing, still stubbornly
high, may be the floods biggest lingering question. The total in Kerr
County, the epicenter of the disaster, dropped this week to 97 from 173,
and then stalled, raising still more questions. At least four others are missing or unidentified from Travis County, just east of Kerr. And one
person Mr. Phillips is missing from Burnet County, and still others
across the region might be out there.
Even though we are reporting 97 people missing, in Kerr County, Gov.
Greg Abbott of Texas told reporters on Monday, theres no certainty that
all 97 of those people were swept away by the storm.
The fluctuation of the numbers has only contributed to the puzzlement,
as bodies are recovered and it becomes clear that some counts are
incorrect. Mr. Abbott has said that in the days following the floods,
local and state officials were better able to identify people from out
of town who had come to the Hill Country to stay at camps and hotels.
Image
Rescue workers are in inflated rafts in a river. Mud and trees surround
them.
Members of a Texas A&M University task force conducted a search on the Guadalupe River in Comfort, Texas. Credit... Desiree Rios for The New
York Times
Out-of-towners might have survived the deluge but have not checked in
with authorities. Others who are still listed as missing were reported
to the authorities by friends and relatives, the governor said, but
officials have no record of them logging in anywhere not at hotels,
camps or summer rentals.
Officials in Kerr County have said that search efforts could carry on
for months.
It is common for the number of missing to fluctuate after natural
disasters. In the days that followed a devastating August 2023 wildfire
in Maui, Hawaii, the number of missing reached a staggering 1,100, and
then plunged. About six months later, there were only two, with 102
confirmed deaths. Few of the missing were actually dead.
As with a fire, a flood makes recovering bodies and identifying remains challenging. And like Maui, the Hill Country of Texas is a vacation
spot, attracting visitors who complicate the tally.
Who gets counted as missing and how they might be found depends on
several factors, including the accuracy of information that officials
receive, experts said. Clerical errors, like a misspelled name, can land
people who have already been accounted for among the missing.
It is especially difficult to keep track of people who were visiting
from somewhere else, as was the case along the Guadalupe River on the
July 4 weekend, according to Ingo Bastisch, a director of the Science
and Technology Program with The International Commission on Missing
Persons, an organization in the Netherlands that partners with other
groups to find the missing.
Image
A man in a yellow shirt follows a dog through debris by the waters edge.
Aaron Tolman searched along the Guadalupe River with a cadaver dog named Valkyrie in Center Point. Credit... Desiree Rios for The New York Times
In many cases, the people who were initially reported missing simply
return home and do not check in with their loved ones, he said.
Maybe, Mr. Bastisch said, they decided to go somewhere else and just
dont tell their friends.
In Burnet County, three of the eight people initially reported as
missing had been placed on that list after authorities recovered their possessions, like drivers licenses and vehicles, and assumed their
owners were swept up in floodwaters, said Alan Trevino, chief deputy at
the Burnet County Sheriffs Office. When officials conducted a welfare
check, though, they found that those people were alive.
For families who are certain that their loved ones were taken by the
violent waters, every day that passes without their recovery can prolong
their agony.
In Leander, northwest of Austin, where a creek swelled and engulfed
residences, Sherry McCutcheon and Terry Traugott, who are sisters, said
they would not hold funerals for their mother, Betty West, 84, and their brother, Doug West, 54 killed together at the home they shared until the
fate of another brother who lived with them, Gary Traugott, 60, is
known.
I cant stand it that Gary is laying out there by himself, on the ground
or in that water, she said. He was so skinny it hurts my heart to think
about it.
There is also the grim reality of the recovery process, which can
complicate subtracting from the tally of missing and adding to the
number of dead.
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In the morass of mud, mangled trees and other debris along the Guadalupe
River in Kerr County, a search crew member pointed out the astounding
force of the flood. The same force that splintered mighty cypress trees
and tore apart fortified houses could do significant damage to a person
as well, searchers said.
Officials would need a DNA sample to confirm identities, which can
require help from family members.
And the search area is vast. Some survivors were washed 15 or 20 miles downriver before they found a tree or other anchor to hold onto until
rescuers came. Remains might be miles farther east and south.
On Thursday, Ms. McCutcheon and Ms. Traugott anxiously awaited a call
from the medical examiners office as they tended to errands, closing up
their mothers post office box and securing documents. A body had been
found on Wednesday, and their DNA might be needed to help identify it.
Theyre heartbroken when they call us, but they dont understand that
theyre giving us relief, Ms. McCutcheon said. We cant have funerals for
two when there are three.
Image
A man sits on a blue cooler beneath trees.
Jermaine Jarmon lost his longtime partner, Alissa Martin, and his 15-
year-old son, Braxton Jarmon, in the floods when their home was wiped
out. His daughter, Felicity, 16, was still missing as of Thursday.
Credit... Desiree Rios for The New York Times
In the same neighborhood of Leander, Jermaine Jarmon, 52, also provided
a DNA sample to officials. He lost his longtime partner, Alissa Martin,
54, and his son Braxton Jarmon, 15, when the floods wiped out their
home. His daughter, Felicity, 16, was still missing as of Thursday. Mr.
Jarmon said he had come to accept that she would not be found alive.
I already know theres no hope for that, he said. I watched them go.
He was confident, though, that search teams would find her remains. On
Friday, he planned to hold a memorial service on his property. Its for
all three of them, he said.
In Marble Falls, Ms. Newton joined teams to scour the river banks for
any sign of Mr. Phillips nearly two weeks after his emergency vehicle
was swept away while he responded to a call for help. Ms. Newton shook
trees, lifted debris and sifted through branches for any sign of her
father. A small part of her still believed he would pop up from the
brush and flash her a smile.
I just figured that if anybody was going to get out, it would be him,
Ms. Newton said.
But the arduous search yielded nothing.
Image
Megan Newton, left, in a striped tank top with stars, stands with
Cecilia Phillips, who is wearing a red T-shirt. They are holding hands,
with Ms. Phillips putting her arm around Ms. Newton.
Megan Newton, left, and her mother, Cecilia Phillips, in Marble Falls on Friday. Credit... Desiree Rios for The New York Times
Ms. Newton and her mother, Cecilia Phillips, decided that it was time to suspend the search. At least 200 people, on foot, in helicopters and
with drones and cadaver dogs, had been called in to try to find Mr.
Phillips. His family told the sheriffs office they could stop looking.
Mr. Phillips wouldnt have wanted so many resources expended on him
instead of in Kerr County, which was hit harder, Ms. Newton said.
Ms. Newton and her family plan to hold a memorial service July 29 in the
high school auditorium. Mr. Phillips retired about two years ago as the maintenance director of the Marble Falls Independent School District.
For now, Ms. Newton has found solace knowing that her father died while
doing something he loved helping other people and that he is at rest
around the serenity of the river, in an area so remote that there is no
cell service.
Hes in his backyard, Ms. Newton said. I feel like hes at peace.
Camp Mystics Owners: For decades, Dick and Tweety Eastland presided over
the summer camp with a kind of magisterial benevolence that alumni well
past childhood still describe with awe.
Returning to Ruins: Jacque White and her five children escaped the
rising waters of the Guadalupe River just in time. Now they have to
rebuild.
Flash Flood Disasters: Scholars and designers of early warning systems
say that there are still huge gaps in our ability to predict flash
floods and warn those at risk.
A Night of Terror: The half-mile stretch occupied by two waterfront
campgrounds appears to have been one of the deadliest spots along the
Guadalupe River in Central Texas during the flash floods.
A Century of Floods at Camp Mystic: Within six years of opening, Camp
Mystic was inundated with floodwaters. It was the first of many times.
FEMA: Two days after catastrophic floods roared through Central Texas,
the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not answer nearly two-thirds
of calls to its disaster assistance line, according to documents
reviewed by The New York Times.
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