Thousands of people have been affected by the catastrophic flooding in Texas — including NBC News correspondent Morgan Chesky’s mother.
Chesky said live on TODAY that his mother had to evacuate her home in the early morning hours of July 4 after flood waters had risen to the height of her back patio.
“She’s hanging in there,” Chesky said of his mom, as he reported from Kerrville, Texas, on July 7. “She lives about 100 yards from where I’m standing. She evacuated around 5 a.m. on Friday after the river rose to her back patio.”
Over 80 people in Texas were killed after heavy rainfall caused the waters of the Guadalupe River to rapidly rise on July 4. At least 75 people, including 27 children, died in Kerr County, Texas, officials said during a news conference on July 7.
Chesky said his mother had told him about a flash flood in 1987, in which 10 people died when the waters of the Guadalupe River turned into a wall of water.
“The biggest flood that anyone had seen in their lifetime here was 1987. She told me about it — I was a 1-year-old — and she said that this one has rewritten the rules on that,” Chesky said. “And I think that that’s the collective feeling here.”
Chesky said that people who grow up in Texas Hill Country are used to seeing the “power of the water” and dynamic flash floods, but the flooding that occurred on July 4 was unprecedented.
“The intense amount of rain that Dylan (Dreyer) mentioned falling in such a short time on the headwaters of the Guadalupe is what really just created this explosion along the river,” Chesky said.
“Keep in mind, guys, that in Kerrville, everyone tells me they only got three, four inches of rain,” he continued. “This was a totally different situation, about an hour from where we’re standing, where those headwaters are, and unfortunately, the summer camps, they’re in between the headwaters and the town here, and they took the brunt of that power.”
In an Instagram post shared on July 6, Chesky expressed gratitude for the support he and his family have received as they “process the worst tragedy” to hit their hometown.
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“I’ve never felt grief mixed with so much grit at any other point or any other place I’ve ever been to,” he wrote in the caption.
“And yet, despite the collective pain, my family knows we are the lucky ones,” Chesky added, sending his thoughts to “those facing the deepest losses one can imagine.”
Kerr County is home to several summer camps, including Camp Mystic, where some 750 children were staying when the flash flood occurred.
The summer camp said in a statement on July 7 that 27 campers and counselors died in the floods.
“Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy,” Camp Mystic wrote on its website. “We are praying for them constantly.”
At least 10 campers were still unaccounted for as of July 6, officials said during a news conference.
Dick Eastland, the longtime director of the camp, died while attempting to save campers from the flood waters, his grandson wrote in an Instagram post on July 6.
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“If he wasn’t going to die of natural causes, this was the only other way, saving the girls that he so loved and cared for,” George Eastland wrote in the post. “That’s the man my grandfather was.”
Jenna Bush Hager’s mother, former first lady Laura Bush, was a drama counselor at the camp, and she said on TODAY on July 7 that many of her friends had sent their kids to Camp Mystic as recently as last week.
“The stories that I heard over the last couple days were beautiful and heartbreaking,” she said. “Texas has a type of resilience where they’re generous people, where people want to reach out and help.”
President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County, and emergency crews are working to search for survivors, though forecasted thunderstorms on Monday could bring more rain and the risk of flooding throughout central Texas.
