This pie brings together tender fish, leeks, parsnips, peas, and creamy sauce underneath a cheddar-horseradish mashed potato topping. It’s cozy comfort food with New England roots, perfect for chilly evenings or Sunday supper.
Ingredients
1 lb white fish like cod, halibut, or salmon, cut into chunks
2 leeks, sliced (white and light green parts)
2 parsnips, peeled and chopped
2/3 cup frozen peas
3 large russet potatoes
6 tbsp butter
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
2 tsp prepared horseradish
2 cups whole milk
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 bay leaf
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
1. Cook root vegetables In a pot of salted boiling water, cook chopped potatoes and parsnips until tender. Drain and mash them with butter, buttermilk, cheddar, horseradish, salt, and pepper. Set aside.
2. Make creamy fish filling In a saucepan over medium heat, melt remaining butter. Whisk in flour and slowly add milk. Cook until slightly thickened. Add bay leaf, leeks, and parsnips; simmer until soft. Stir in peas and fish chunks, season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Assemble the pie Spoon fish mixture into a baking dish. Top with mashed potato mixture, spreading evenly or piping for a decorative top.
4. Bake and serve Bake in a preheated oven at 375°F (190°C) until the topping is golden and filling is bubbling, about 25–30 minutes. Remove and let rest for a few minutes before serving.
By JIM VERTUNO, NADIA LATHAN and JOHN SEEWER Associated Press
KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — The death toll from catastrophic flooding in Texas over the July Fourth weekend surpassed 100 on Monday as search-and-rescue teams continued to wade into swollen rivers and use heavy equipment to untangle trees as part of the massive search for missing people.
Authorities overseeing the search for flood victims said they will wait to address questions about weather warnings and why some summer camps did not evacuate ahead of the flooding that killed at least 104.
Flash floods swamped a road crossing the Llano River in Kingsland, Texas in a matter of minutes on Friday, blocking access to pedestrians and vehicles alike. (AP Video)
The officials spoke only hours after the operators of Camp Mystic, a century-old all-girls Christian summer camp in the Texas Hill Country, announced that they lost 27 campers and counselors to the floodwaters. Kerr County officials said Monday 10 campers and one counselor have still not been found.
Searchers have found the bodies of 84 people, including 28 children, in the county home to Camp Mystic and several other summer camps, officials said.
With additional rain on the way, more flooding still threatened saturated parts of central Texas. Authorities said the death toll was sure to rise.
The raging flash floods — among the nation’s worst in decades — slammed into camps and homes along the edge of the Guadalupe River before daybreak Friday, pulling sleeping people out of their cabins, tents and trailers and dragging them for miles past floating tree trunks and cars. Some survivors were found clinging to trees.
Piles of twisted trees sprinkled with mattresses, refrigerators and coolers littered the riverbanks Monday. The debris included reminders of what drew so many to the campgrounds and cabins in the Hill Country — a volleyball, canoes and a family portrait.
Nineteen deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, local officials said.
Among those confirmed dead were 8-year-old sisters from Dallas who were at Camp Mystic and a former soccer coach and his wife who were staying at a riverfront home. Their daughters were still missing.
Calls for finding why warnings weren’t heard
Authorities vowed that one of the next steps would be investigating whether enough warnings were issued and why some camps did not evacuate or move to higher ground in a place long vulnerable to flooding that some local residents refer to as “flash flood alley.”
That will include a review of how weather warnings were sent out and received. One of the challenges is that many camps and cabins are in places with poor cellphone service, Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said.
“We definitely want to dive in and look at all those things,” he said. “We’re looking forward to doing that once we can get the search and rescue complete.”
Some camps were aware of the dangers and monitoring the weather. At least one moved several hundred campers to higher ground before the floods.
Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said recent government spending cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service did not delay any warnings.
“There’s a time to have political fights, there’s a time to disagree. This is not that time,” Cruz said. “There will be a time to find out what could been done differently. My hope is in time we learn some lessons to implement the next time there is a flood.”
The weather service first advised of potential flooding on Thursday and then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies — a rare step that alerts the public to imminent danger.
Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months of rain. Some residents said they never received any warnings.
President Donald Trump, who signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County, said he plans to visit the state on Friday. He had said Sunday that he does not plan to rehire any of the federal meteorologists who were fired this year.
“This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it,” the president said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said local and federal weather services provided sufficient warnings.
Crews search for dozens of people
More than three dozen people were unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing, Gov. Greg Abbott said Sunday.
Search-and-rescue crews at one staging area said Monday that more than 1,000 volunteers had been directed to Kerr County.
Kerrville city officials urged people to stop flying drones over the area after they said a private drone operating illegally Monday afternoon collided with a helicopter involved in emergency operations. The helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing and is out of service until further notice.
Little time to escape floods
Reagan Brown said his parents, in their 80s, managed to escape uphill as water inundated their home in the town of Hunt. When the couple learned that their 92-year-old neighbor was trapped in her attic, they went back and rescued her.
“Then they were able to reach their tool shed up higher ground, and neighbors throughout the early morning began to show up at their tool shed, and they all rode it out together,” Brown said.
Elizabeth Lester, a mother of children who were at Camp Mystic and nearby Camp La Junta during the flood, said her young son had to swim out his cabin window to escape. Her daughter fled up the hillside as floodwaters whipped against her legs.
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Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker and Brian Slodysko in Washington; Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City and Sophia Tareen in Chicago.
By TARA COPP and CHRISTOPHER WEBER Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dozens of federal officers in tactical gear and about 90 members of the California National Guard were deployed for about an hour Monday to a mostly empty park in a Los Angeles neighborhood with a large immigrant population. It wasn’t immediately known if any arrests were made.
Defense officials had said the troops and over a dozen military vehicles would help protect immigration officers as they carried out a raid in MacArthur Park.
“What I saw in the park today looked like a city under siege, under armed occupation,” said Mayor Karen Bass, who called it a “political stunt.”
She said there were children attending a day camp in the park who were quickly ushered inside to avoid seeing the troops. Still, Bass said an 8-year-old boy told her that “he was fearful of ICE.”
Bass showed video of officers on horseback sweeping across an empty soccer field.
Federal officers descend on MacArthur Park
The operation occurred at a park in a neighborhood with large Mexican, Central American and other immigrant populations and is lined by businesses with signs in Spanish and other languages that has been dubbed by local officials as the “Ellis Island of the West Coast.”
Among those who spoke with Bass were health care outreach workers who were working with homeless residents Monday when troops pointed guns at them and told them to get out of the park.
Sprawling MacArthur Park has a murky lake ringed by palm trees, an amphitheater that hosts summer concerts and sports fields where immigrant families line up to play soccer in the evenings and on weekends. A thoroughfare on the east side is often crammed with unlicensed food stands selling tacos and other delicacies, along with vendors speaking multiple languages and hawking cheap T-shirts, toys, knickknacks and household items.
“The world needs to see the troop formation on horses walking through the park, in search of what? In search of what? They’re walking through the area where the children play,” Bass said.
Eunisses Hernandez, a council member whose district includes MacArthur Park said “it was chosen as this administration’s latest target precisely because of who lives there and what it represents.”
Operation escalates Trump’s immigration crackdown
The operation in the large park about 2 miles (3.2 km) west of downtown LA included 17 Humvees, four tactical vehicles, two ambulances and the armed soldiers, defense officials said. It came after President Donald Trump deployed thousands of Guard members and active duty Marines to the city last month following protests over previous immigration raids.
Trump has stepped up efforts to realize his campaign pledge of deporting millions of immigrants in the United States illegally and shown a willingness to use the nation’s military might in ways other U.S. presidents have typically avoided.
In response to questions about the operation in MacArthur Park, the Department of Homeland Security said in an email that the agency would not comment on “ongoing enforcement operations.”
More than 4,000 California National Guard and hundreds of U.S. Marines have been deployed in Los Angeles since June — against the wishes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Last week, the military announced about 200 of those troops would be returned to their units to fight wildfires.
Gov. Gavin Newsom called the events at the park “a spectacle.”
“This is not about going after dangerous criminals,” Newsom said of Trump’s mass deportation agenda. “This is about destroying the fabric of this state.”
LA raid ends abruptly
The defense officials told reporters that it was not a military operation but acknowledged that the size and scope of the Guard’s participation could make it look like one to the public. That is why the officials spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details about the raid that were not announced publicly.
“It’s just going to be more overt and larger than we usually participate in,” one of the officials said before the raid ended abruptly with no explanation.
The primary role of the service members would be to protect the immigration enforcement officers in case a hostile crowd gathered, that official said. They are not participating in any law enforcement activities such as arrests, but service members can temporarily detain citizens if necessary before handing them over to law enforcement, the official said.
Local officials say feds are sowing fear
“This morning looked like a staging for a TikTok video,” said Marqueece Harris-Dawson, president of the Los Angeles City Council, adding if Border Patrol wants to film in LA, “you should apply for a film permit like everybody else. And stop trying to scare the bejesus out of everybody who lives in this great city and disrupt our economy every day.”
Chris Newman, legal director for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said he received a credible tip about the operation Monday.
“It was a demonstration of escalation,” Newman said. “This was a reality TV spectacle much more so than an actual enforcement operation.”
Since federal agents have been making arrests at Home Depot parking lots and elsewhere in Los Angeles, Newman said fewer people have been going to the park and immigrant neighborhoods near the city’s downtown.
“The ghost town-ification of LA is haunting, to say the very least,” he said.
Betsy Bolte, who lives nearby, came to the park after seeing a military-style helicopter circling overhead.
She said it was “gut-wrenching” to witness what appeared to be a federal show of force on the streets of a U.S. city. “It’s terror and, you know, it’s ripping the heart and soul out of Los Angeles,” she said. “I am still in shock, disbelief, and so angry and terrified and heartbroken.”
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Copp reported from Washington. Associated Press journalists Damian Dovarganes and Eugene Garcia in Los Angeles; Julie Watson in San Diego; Sophie Austin in Sacramento, California; and Amy Taxin in Orange County, California, contributed to this report.
Stocks on Wall Street closed broadly lower Monday as the White House stepped up pressure on major trading partners to make deals before punishing tariffs imposed by the U.S. take effect.
The S&P 500 fell 0.8% for its biggest loss since mid-June. The benchmark index remains near its all-time high set last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gave back 0.9%. The Nasdaq composite also finished 0.9% lower, not too far from its own record high.
The losses were widespread. Decliners outnumbered gainers by nearly 4-to-1 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Tesla tumbled 6.8% for the biggest drop among S&P 500 stocks as the feud between CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump reignited over the weekend. Musk, once a top donor and ally of Trump, said he would form a third political party in protest over the Republican spending bill that passed last week.
The selling accelerated after the Trump administration released letters informing Japan and South Korea that their goods will be taxed at 25% starting on Aug. 1, citing persistent trade imbalances with the two crucial U.S. allies in Asia.
“If for any reason you decide to raise your Tariffs, then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added onto the 25% that we charge,” Trump wrote in the letters to Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung.
Trump also announced new tariff rates on Malaysia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Laos and Myanmar.
Just before hefty U.S. tariffs on goods imported from nearly every country around the globe were to take effect in April, Trump postponed the levies for 90 days in hopes that foreign governments would be more willing to strike new trade deals. That 90-day negotiating period was set to expire before Wednesday.
On Sunday, Trump said he would impose an additional 10% in tariffs against the BRICS bloc of developing nations, which had condemned tariffs increases at its summit in Brazil. In addition to Brazil, the BRICS countries also include Russia, India, China and South Africa.
This latest phase in the trade war heightens the threat of potentially more severe tariffs that’s been hanging over the global economy. Higher taxes on imported goods could hinder economic growth, if not increase recession risks.
“Just bringing back that meaty topic back into focus, after a strong week last week, has given a little bit of a pause in the market,” said Bill Northey, senior investment director at U.S. Bank Asset Management.
The near-term outlook will likely hinge on several key factors like the extent to which trading partners are included in Trump letters, the rate of tariffs, and the effective date of such tariffs, according to analysts at Nomura.
Last week, the Trump administration announced that it reached a deal with Vietnam that would allow U.S. goods to enter the country duty-free, while Vietnamese exports to the U.S. would face a 20% levy. That was a decline from the 46% tax on Vietnamese imports he proposed in April.
“The type of deal struck with Vietnam may be a blueprint for similar countries in the region with economies heavily reliant on large trade deficits with the U.S.,” said Jason Pride, chief of investment strategy and research at Glenmede.
Monday’s market sell-off came on the first day of trading in the U.S. after a holiday-shortened week.
Nearly all of the sectors in the S&P 500 index closed in the red, with technology, financial and consumer-related stocks among the biggest weights on the market.
Apple fell 1.7%, JPMorgan Chase dropped 1.4% and Home Depot slid 1.1%.
Molina Healthcare fell 2.9% after the insurer lowered its profit guidance due to rapidly accelerating costs. UnitedHealth Group also recently reported a spike in costs that forced it to cut its forecast, sending its stock tumbling in April.
In deal news, software company CoreWeave agreed to acquire cryptocurrency mining company Core Scientific in an all-stock transaction valued at about $9 billion. Shares in Core Scientific sank 17.6%, while CoreWeave fell 3.3%.
Bond yields mostly rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.39% from 4.34% late Thursday.
The downbeat start to the week follows a strong run for stocks, which pushed further into record heights last week after a better-than-expected U.S. jobs report.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 49.37 points to 6,229.98. The Dow lost 422.17 points to 44,406.36, and the Nasdaq slid 188.59 points to 20,412.52.
Stock indexes in Europe ended mostly higher. Asian markets closed mostly lower.
Oil prices fluctuated after OPEC+ agreed on Saturday to raise production in August by 548,000 barrels per day.
U.S. benchmark crude settled 1.4% higher at $67.93 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international standard, rose 1.9% to settle at $69.58 per barrel.
This week will be relatively light on economic data. On Wednesday the Federal Reserve will release minutes from its policymaking committee’s meeting last month.
The Fed’s chair, Jerome Powell, has been insisting that the central bank wants to wait and see how Trump’s tariffs affect the economy and inflation before making its next move on interest rates. While lower rates give a boost to the economy by making it easier to borrow money, they can also give inflation more fuel. That could be dangerous if the Trump administration’s tariffs send inflation higher.
RALEIGH, N.C. (WPTF) – Trusted headlines, twisted reach? A new study in Nature finds that even reputable news stories can help fuel misinformation—especially when they’re passed around by users who also share fake news. Jon Green, Duke University Assistant Professor of Political Science, says the purpose of the study is to point fingers not just at the media but the people who share without taking proper care.
“One of the bigger points we’re trying to make in the article is that it’s easy to [categorize] information as either true or false or sources as either reliable or unreliable but information value depends a lot on how it’s used,” said Green.
Experts say some social media users are purposely posting reliable news to make their false claims look more credible and spread faster. People may think they are strategically repurposing information that is strictly speaking true but stitching it together in a way that serves to mislead an audience. However, it’s harder for mainstream outlets because people can find their own preferred versions of the truth very easily through other mediums.
“The Washington Post, during the pandemic, had a story about how after a certain critical mass of people had gotten vaccinated the base rates were such that the majority of people who were contracting COVID were also vaccinated,” said Green.
Green says you can imagine the people who were excited to share this article around — the ones who wanted to argue that the vaccine was ineffective and harmful. Sometimes the information and statistics are true, but the upshot depends on how people interpret it.
“The availability of that information is useful for promoting that narrative. The information is out there, it’s very easy to find and you can pick and choose how you want to use that information out in the world,” said Green.
It’s important to note that this is a very general phenomenon and not just prominent during events like the pandemic. The research suggests users are using trusted sources to make their own misleading narratives seem more convincing. Green says this is something we do frequently in a variety of contexts.
“I think it happens a lot when there are instances of, you know, contested interpretation of empirical reality ‘how dangerous is COVID and what should we do in response,’ is a very highly charged and contested kind of issue that lends itself to people trying to do a lot of their own research to support their own conclusions,” said Green.
RALEIGH, N.C. (WPTF) – It’s already been nine months since Hurricane Helene carved its path through the Southeast—leaving behind memories many are still rebuilding from. State Assistant Climatologist Corey Davis says we’ve been through portions of all four seasons which has given them a pretty good idea of what these storms impacts are.
“Of course at the time Helene was most notable for the heavy rainfall, the record flooding that it produced in parts of Western North and South Carolina, the number of casualties that we had and the long term impacts that the flooding and flood damage is having. Those are all just among the worst we’ve seen,” said Davis.
Since those floods have receded they have started to see the impacts from the debris and wind damage. It’s important to keep in mind just 12 hours before Helene made it into the Carolinas it was a category 4 storm on Florida’s coastline.
“It was still packing some extreme winds (over 100mph winds) in parts of the mountains in North Carolina when it got here, and as we started getting the updates and the pictures from that part of the state we were seeing in some cases entire mountainsides that had been blown down, all the leaves had been blown off [and] all those trees had been toppled over,” said Davis.
Davis says Researcher Dr. Steve Norman is using satellite imagery to try and map where some of the worst damage has happened and the factors of said damage.
“What he’s found is that Helene was very different from the…hurricane that might hit, say the Eastern part of North and South Carolina where it might just topple every tree in the forest. In this case, damage was very localized but locally intense in some spots,” said Davis.
The results showed that certain trees fell in certain areas due to elevation, where the heaviest rain had fallen and places with the strongest winds. When Helene was first coming in, it was mainly considered a rain event until they were able to get good reports and now it’s also classified as a wind event.
“This conversation I had back at the time with Trisha Palmer, she’s a meteorologist with the weather service in Greenville Spartanburg, and it was clear to her and her office just how bad the wind damage was at the time. She mentioned it was basically like the collapsing remnant eyewall of a category four hurricane had hit the region,” said Davis.
Palmer told Davis this is like nothing any living person in this part of the country has ever seen before. You can listen to the whole Corey Davis interview at www.sfntoday.com
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Heavy rain and flooding from the remnants of Tropical Storm Chantal forced dozens of people to flee their homes in central North Carolina, officials said Monday.
The Chapel Hill Fire Department and neighboring agencies completed more than 50 water rescues, many of them in areas where floodwaters entered or threatened to enter apartments, officials said. More than 60 people were displaced Sunday and Monday.
There were also water rescues at shopping centers, where water flooded businesses and parking lots, officials said. There were no reports of injuries as of Monday morning. Officials warned residents to take care as they ventured out Monday morning since crews were still assessing damage.
In Orange County, the possibility of the failure of the Lake Michael Dam prompted officials to issue a voluntary evacuation for areas downstream overnight.
In Chatham County, Sheriff Mike Roberson warned residents in a social media post that water may have subsided in some areas, but it was still dangerous to travel. Officials were searching for some missing people Monday morning, he said.
All lanes of Interstate 85/Interstate 40 were closed both directions Monday near Durham and were expected to reopen in 24 to 48 hours, according to the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
The Eno River crested early Monday at Durham at 25.63 feet (7.81 meters), surpassing the previous record of 23.6 feet (7.19 meters), according the National Water Prediction Service’s website.
The Haw River crested early Monday at 32.5 feet (9.91 meters), the second highest river stage ever recorded at the Town of Haw River. That level was only eclipsed by Hurricane Fran in 1996 when the stage reached 32.83 feet (10.01 meters), according to a post from the National Weather Service’s Raleigh office.
More than 34,000 customers were without power on Monday morning, according to poweroutage.us.
Chantal was expected to continue northeast through mid-Atlantic states Monday as a tropical depression before brushing the southern New England coast Monday night into Tuesday morning, according to the Weather Prediction Center.
Rainfall amounts of up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) have already been reported in portions of the interior mid-Atlantic and the possibility of 3 to 6 inches (8 to 15 centimeters) more was expected to raise flash flooding concerns, particularly to the northwest of Chantal’s path through Monday night.
Tropical Storm Chantal was downgraded to a depression Sunday after making landfall near Litchfield Beach, South Carolina, early Sunday, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
Forecasters warned of dangerous surf and rip currents at beaches from northeastern Florida to the mid-Atlantic states for the next couple of days.
This dish is rich, salty, and savory with just the right amount of bite from the cheese and pepper. It’s the kind of pasta that feels special without being complicated.
Ingredients
8 oz guanciale, sliced into thick strips
1 lb rigatoni
1¾ cups grated Romano (plus extra for garnish)
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
1. Cook the guanciale Place the guanciale in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook until crispy and the fat has rendered, about 10 to 12 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove half of the guanciale and set it aside for serving.
2. Boil the pasta Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the rigatoni and cook until just before al dente. Save 1 cup of the pasta water, then drain the pasta.
3. Combine and toss Add the drained pasta to the skillet with the guanciale fat. Stir in black pepper and a splash of pasta water. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly.
4. Add the cheese Remove the pan from the heat. Slowly sprinkle in the grated Romano while stirring, adding more pasta water a little at a time to create a smooth, creamy sauce.
5. Serve it up Taste and adjust the seasoning. Spoon the pasta into bowls and top with the reserved crispy guanciale, a bit more cheese, and a final crack of black pepper.
KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Families sifted through waterlogged debris Sunday and stepped inside empty cabins at Camp Mystic, an all-girls summer camp ripped apart by flash floods that washed homes off their foundations and killed at least 82 people in central Texas.
Rescuers maneuvering through challenging terrain, high waters and snakes including water moccasins continued their desperate search for the missing, including 10 girls and a counselor from the camp. For the first time since the storms began pounding Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott said there were 41 people confirmed to be unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing.
Families sifted through waterlogged debris Sunday and stepped inside empty cabins at Camp Mystic, an all-girls summer camp ripped apart by flash floods that washed homes off their foundations and killed at least 70 people in central Texas. (AP Video)
In Kerr County, home to Camp Mystic and other youth camps in the Texas Hill Country, searchers have found the bodies of 68 people, including 28 children, Sheriff Larry Leitha said in the afternoon.
He pledged to keep searching until “everybody is found” from Friday’s flash floods. Ten other deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, according to local officials. The death toll is certain to rise over the next few days, said Col. Freeman Martin of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The governor warned that additional rounds of heavy rains lasting into Tuesday could produce more life-threatening flooding, especially in places already saturated. As he spoke at a news conference in Austin, emergency alerts lit up mobile phones in Kerr County that warned of “High confidence of river flooding” and a loudspeaker near Camp Mystic urged people to leave. Minutes later, however, authorities on the scene said there was no risk.
Families were allowed to look around the camp beginning Sunday morning. One girl walked out of a building carrying a large bell. A man, who said his daughter was rescued from a cabin on the highest point in the camp, walked a riverbank, looking in clumps of trees and under big rocks.
A woman and a teenage girl, both wearing rubber waders, briefly went inside one of the cabins, which stood next to a pile of soaked mattresses, a storage trunk and clothes. At one point, the pair doubled over, sobbing before they embraced.
One family left with a blue footlocker. A teenage girl had tears running down her face looking out the open window, gazing at the wreckage as they slowly drove away.
Searching the disaster zone
While the families saw the devastation for the first time, nearby crews operating heavy equipment pulled tree trunks and tangled branches from the water as they searched the river.
With each passing hour, the outlook of finding more survivors became even more bleak. Volunteers and some families of the missing who drove to the disaster zone searched the riverbanks despite being asked not to do so.
Authorities faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in an area long vulnerable to flooding and whether enough preparations were made.
President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration Sunday for Kerr County, activating the Federal Emergency Management Agency to Texas.
The president said he would likely visit Friday. “I would have done it today, but we’d just be in their way,” he told reporters before boarding Air Force One back to Washington after spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. “It’s a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible.”
The destructive, fast-moving waters rose 26 feet (8 meters) on the river in only 45 minutes before daybreak Friday, washing away homes and vehicles. The danger was not over as flash flood watches remained in effect and more rain fell in central Texas on Sunday.
Searchers used helicopters, boats and drones to look for victims and to rescue people stranded in trees and from camps isolated by washed-out roads. Officials said more than 850 people were rescued in the first 36 hours.
Prayers in Texas — and from the Vatican
Gov. Greg Abbott vowed that authorities will work around the clock and said new areas were being searched as the water receded. He declared Sunday a day of prayer for the state.
“I urge every Texan to join me in prayer this Sunday — for the lives lost, for those still missing, for the recovery of our communities, and for the safety of those on the front lines,” he said in a statement.
In Rome, Pope Leo XIV offered special prayers for those touched by the disaster. History’s first American pope spoke in English at the end of his Sunday noon blessing, “I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were in summer camp, in the disaster caused by the flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas in the United States. We pray for them.”
The hills along the Guadalupe River are dotted with century-old youth camps and campgrounds where generations of families have come to swim and enjoy the outdoors. The area is especially popular around the Independence Day holiday, making it more difficult to know how many are missing.
Harrowing escapes from floodwaters
Survivors shared terrifying stories of being swept away and clinging to trees as rampaging floodwaters carried trees and cars past them. Others fled to attics inside their homes, praying the water wouldn’t reach them.
At Camp Mystic, a cabin full of girls held onto a rope strung by rescuers as they walked across a bridge with water whipping around their legs.
Among those confirmed dead were an 8-year-old girl from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who was at Camp Mystic, and the director of another camp up the road.
Two school-age sisters from Dallas were missing after their cabin was swept away. Their parents were staying in a different cabin and were safe, but the girls’ grandparents were unaccounted for.
Locals know the Hill Country as “ flash flood alley” but the flooding in the middle of the night caught many campers and residents by surprise even though there were warnings.
Warnings came before the disaster
The National Weather Service on Thursday advised of potential flooding and then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies — a rare alert notifying of imminent danger.
At the Mo-Ranch Camp in the community of Hunt, officials had been monitoring the weather and opted to move several hundred campers and attendees at a church youth conference to higher ground. At nearby Camps Rio Vista and Sierra Vista, organizers also had mentioned on social media that they were watching the weather the day before ending their second summer session Thursday.
Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months’ worth of rain for the area.
Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said authorities are committed to a full review of the emergency response, including how the public was alerted to the storm threat.
Trump, asked whether he was still planning to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said that was something “we can talk about later, but right now we are busy working.” He has previously said he wants to overhaul if not completely eliminate FEMA and has been sharply critical of its performance.
Trump also was asked whether he planned to rehire any of the federal meteorologists who were fired this year as part of widespread government spending reductions.
“I would think not. This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it. Nobody saw it. Very talented people there, and they didn’t see it,” the president said.
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Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee; Cedar Attanasio in New York; Sophia Tareen in Chicago; Michelle Price in Morristown, N.J.; and Nicole Winfield in Rome.
LONDON (AP) — Hard-rock royalty and some 40,000 fans gathered for an ear-splitting tribute to Ozzy Osbourne at what the heavy metal icon says was his last-ever live performance.
The original lineup of Osbourne’s band Black Sabbath performed at Villa Park soccer stadium in their home city of Birmingham, central England, on Saturday.
The 76-year-old singer, who has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, sang from a black throne that rose up from under the stage.
“Let the madness begin!” he urged as he took the stage, and later paid tribute to fans.
“I don’t know what to say, man, I’ve been laid up for like six years. You have no idea how I feel — thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Osbourne said. “You’re all … special. Let’s go crazy, come on.”
Osbourne performed several songs solo before being joined onstage, for the first time in 20 years, by Black Sabbath bandmates Tony Iommi, Terence “Geezer” Butler and Bill Ward. The band ended a short set with “Paranoid,” one of its most famous songs.
It capped a day-long metal festival that included performances from the likes of Anthrax, Metallica and Guns N’Roses. Artists who sent plaudits and well-wishes included Jack Black, Dolly Parton and Elton John.
“You are one of the most remarkable singers of our time,” John said. “You are the king, you are the legend.”
Osbourne formed Black Sabbath in 1968 in Birmingham, a city then known for its heavy industry that became the crucible of the British metal scene. Black Sabbath’s devil imagery and thunderous sound made them one of the era’s most influential — and parent-scaring — metal acts. Both the band and Osbourne as a solo artist have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Osbourne’s fame expanded into the mainstream in the early 2000s, when he joined his wife Sharon Osbourne, and two of their children in the MTV reality TV show “The Osbournes.”
He has struggled with health issues since 2003 following a near-fatal quad bike crash. He revealed his Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2020 and paused touring in 2023 after spinal surgery.
