Torrential rains have submerged much of central Texas in floodwater, leaving at least one dead, forcing people from their homes and threatening several communities along the surging Guadalupe River.

City and county officials all across Texas Hill Country, particularly areas west and northwest of San Antonio, have issued flash flood warnings and evacuation notices, saying the conditions are “life threatening.”

The authorities reported one fatality in Kerr County, and Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday that emergency workers had rescued more than 80 people, adding that more than 1,300 state workers had been deployed to respond to the flooding. He also said the rain was likely to break records.

Along with the water came damaging winds. Some Texans woke up Thursday to bewildering spots of destruction — uprooted trees and mangled buildings — that came from a tornado.

Flash flood emergencies were in effect Thursday for Uvalde, Kerr and Kendall counties, according to the National Weather Service, which labeled the storm a “particularly dangerous situation” — its most dire warning — and warned residents to “move to higher ground now.”

The weather service also issued a rare high-risk forecast for excessive rain in parts of central Texas. It issues that level of alert only rarely, although it is not the first time it has done so this week. Over the past decade, some of the deadliest and most destructive floods have occurred in areas that forecasters said were at this level of risk.

Forecasters warned that in the areas just west of San Antonio, including the Hill Country, another 10-15 inches of rain were possible Thursday, on top of what already had fallen.

In Comfort, a community in Kendall County, the Guadalupe River on Thursday rose up to 35 feet, according to the weather service, rising more than 25 feet in one hour.

And in nearby Kerrville, the seat of Kerr County, residents were advised to shelter in place. Barbara Walker, 56, who owns a flower shop there but lives 20 miles away, woke up early to the sound of pounding rain. Then came a text message with bad news: A tenant of the apartment above Walker’s shop, who was evacuated before dawn, shared some alarming photos.

“My shop is underwater,” Walker said.

Last year’s floods did not do nearly as much damage, she added. “This is something that has never ever, ever happened before.”

Heavy rain and flash flooding are not uncommon in Texas in mid-July. But this week’s rain brought painful memories of the catastrophic flood about a year ago in central Texas that killed 139 people, including 25 campers from Camp Mystic, a girls’ camp on the Guadalupe River. Flash floods are now threatening the same area.

Camp Mystic is closed this summer, but other camps in the Texas Hill Country said on social media Thursday morning that they were monitoring water levels and that campers were safe, while some urged parents not to drive on dangerous roads to pick up their children.

Texas Hill Country is part of an area known as “Flash Flood Alley” that is particularly susceptible to dangerous flooding because of its steep terrain and shallow soil that does not soak up much water.

Part of the area is in a flood plain between tall hills that funnel rainfall into rivers and creeks. As the temperature of the air rises, the atmosphere can hold more moisture that intensifies the rainfall.

In and around Uvalde, about 80 miles west of San Antonio and one of the cities most affected by flooding, officials closed major highways and many city streets and ordered residents to shelter in place unless they were in immediate danger. Businesses along much of Main Street were closed as the water crept higher and higher overnight into Thursday.

Gat Mitchell, who co-owns a honey business in Uvalde, said the rising floodwaters had soaked important paperwork, like invoices, and washed away thousands of dollars’ worth of inventory. “Jars spilled out,” he said. “Glass broke.”

The flooding has not been so bad in San Antonio, where he lives, he said. But the rain was adding up there, too, and the roads were a mess. “There was just wreck on wreck on wreck,” he said.

Residents there on Thursday were still making sense of the destruction left behind by a tornado the day before. It ripped through The Rim, a commercial center on the north side of the city, uprooting trees, battering the facade of a Marshalls store and tossing air conditioners onto buildings.

Sally Palacios, a server at a nearby IHOP, said she sensed something was wrong Wednesday morning when the skies suddenly darkened and the doors began to tremble. “I felt scared,” she said. “Tornadoes are not something you see every day.”

The IHOP avoided the worst of the damage, said Adilynne De Leon, a manager there, but other businesses weren’t so lucky. “It looked like a movie,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Jacey Fortin, Pooja Salhotra and Edgar Sandoval/Christopher Lee
c. 2026 The New York Times Company