Texas ‘All Hands on Deck’: Rescuers Search Through Trauma and Debris for Texas Flood Victims — Including Children
Texas “You smell it. You hear the dogs mark. Then everything just stops,” said Joe Rigelsky, co-founder of the nonprofit Upstream International, one of the many faith-based and volunteer groups painstakingly combing through floodwrecked landscapes for signs of the missing. “It all moves fast, and then in a moment, it doesn’t.”
Texas Nearly a week after torrential rains triggered the deadliest inland flooding the state has seen in over a century, the toll continues to mount with more than 100 lives lost, including 36 children in Kerr County alone. Search crews, both professional and volunteer, are working around the clock, braving the searing heat, unstable terrain, and emotional weight of their mission: to find the missing and bring them home.
Texas Sniffing for the Lost Among the Rubble
Guided by cadaver dogs, rescuers fan out along the miles of twisted wreckage lining the Guadalupe River, which exploded from about 3 feet to a devastating 30 feet in less than an hour on Independence Day. The surge swallowed homes, RVs, and entire campsites. Eighteen youth camps filled with thousands of children every summer were among the places hit hardest.
At one point Tuesday evening, a search dog alerted near a buried truck. Teams excavated the area carefully, but no body was found. “That kind of discouragement hits you hard,” Rigelsky said. “But we come back the next day, and that’s when we found the infant. It’s moments like that that keep us going — not because of the find, but because it’s closure for a family.”
Power saws buzzed in the background as Rigelsky spoke. The stench of decay hung in the air — not only from human victims but from animals too, caught and killed in the rampage of water and debris.
A Community Transformed Into a Graveyard
The flooding transformed serene neighborhoods into wreckage zones. Camp cabins were crushed, vehicles overturned, and entire homes carried downstream. More than 150 people are still unaccounted for in Kerr County, where the Guadalupe River begins its winding, now deadly, journey.
The destruction spans into neighboring Kendall County, where searchers have found additional victims. “We’re talking about 60 miles of river,” said Capt. Max McQuarrie of the Virginia Beach Water Rescue Team. “And it’s not just debris — it’s layers of tragedy. This is going to take days, even weeks.”
Teams are fighting against more than just distance. Downed trees, unstable debris piles, and temperatures reaching triple digits make progress slow and dangerous. “It’s a methodical process,” McQuarrie said. “There’s no rushing this.”
Caution and Compassion on the Front Lines
Local officials have issued urgent warnings to residents attempting to clean up their properties: do not disturb debris piles. “There could still be victims inside,” Sgt. Jonathan Lamb of the Kerrville Police Department warned. Authorities also cautioned against burning debris, a reminder of the lingering, horrifying possibility that human remains might still be hidden within the rubble.
As questions grow over the government’s preparedness and early warning systems, first responders continue to focus on the work at hand. “But it could have been even worse. Many lives were saved that day.”
Emotional Strain on Searchers
The cost of the rescue effort is more than physical. Amanda Nixon, a trauma specialist on site, said the psychological toll on responders is immense. “They push themselves past exhaustion. They’re driven to find people’s loved ones. But it’s emotionally taxing in a way most can’t imagine.”
Chaplains and mental health professionals are walking alongside these teams, helping them process each heartbreaking discovery.
“You pull back a piece of debris, and there lies a child,” he said quietly. “You can’t unsee that. But they keep doing it — because that family deserves to have their child brought home.”
Still Holding Onto Hope
Despite the odds, many continue to hope that not every recovery will be grim. “We still pray every morning that we’ll find survivors,” said Josh Gill, incident coordinator with the United Cajun Navy. “There are families missing. Children unaccounted for. That’s what keeps us out there — hitting every tree, every pile of rubble.”
Volunteers have come from across the country — and from Mexico — to help. Helicopters, drones, boats, mules, and even hand-drawn maps are all being used in the search. Mission Mules, another Christian nonprofit, is helping provide transportation into remote, hard-to-reach areas. “Our guys aren’t leaving until everyone’s accounted for,” said Mike Toberer, the group’s CEO.
A Community United in Grief and Purpose
Back in Kerr County, Rigelsky and his wife Sami continue leading search operations with the belief that every missing person deserves to be found. Every day there’s a missing person — it’s all hands on deck.”
The people scouring the riverbanks, lifting beams, and wading through waterlogged remains are not only rescuers — they are bearers of compassion in the face of devastation.
And in each heartbreaking moment — like the quiet pause when the body of an infant is recovered — they remind the world that even in tragedy, humanity endures.