It’s been nearly a week since catastrophic floods hit Texas on July 4, killing at least 120 people and leaving another 160 missing.
There are 2,100 first responders on the ground desperately working to find victims, according to the Kerrville police chief, in a search area at least four times the size of Manhattan.
Bodies of the deceased are being found every day, with the last living victim found Friday on the same day as the flood.
Despite that, one firefighter who has been searching for people himself believes there is still reason to think there could be a miracle rescue of someone who survived.
‘There could still be a survivor in there,’ Razor Dobbs, a volunteer fire fighter in Center Point told DailyMail.com Thursday.
‘We’re still in rescue mode, and we’re not quitting until we find everybody.’
Dobbs, 54, who has been a first responder in Center Point, a small community outside of Kerrville for four years, has been attending the Office of Emergency management meetings daily.
He explained the search has been going on in phases — almost in layers — with rescue teams looking at the top already and coming back to areas to dig further down.
Search and recovery workers dig through debris looking for any survivors or remains of people swept up in the flash flooding at Camp Mystic on July 6, 2025 in Hunt, Texas
Razor Dobbs, 54, a fire fighter for the Center Point Fire Department, believes there could still be flood survivors
‘The easy people to find have been found,’ he added. ‘Right up the road, there’s a debris field that’s 50 feet, 60 feet high and 100 yards long, thick… full of RV parts, which we (already) found four victims towards the top.’
Makeshift roads are being built in order to allow heavy machinery a path in to the Guadalupe River, so giant trees and debris piles can be searched.
‘Now, there are multiple excavators and teams, meticulously going through, because it’s compacted. You can’t get (rescue) dogs through,’ Dobbs described.
The current stage of the rescue in Hill Country could be compared, he stated, to what we saw in the days after 9/11, when first responders dug through smoldering mountains of rubble, looking for survivors in air pockets.
‘There’s people who are buried (in the riverbed.) It takes time. You can’t just go ripping in here and start tearing stuff up. The debris field that I was telling you, that has to be cautiously pulled through. You don’t want to damage it. There could still be a survivor in there,’ Dobbs shared.
‘You have 161 confirmed missing (people.) We have a lot of work to do. It’s vital the we find these people. These families want their people home, and we want them home.’
Additionally, the Kerrville native says many people watching at home, don’t understand the scope of how far the water went.
A rain bomb over the Hunt area unleashed enough rain to cause the river to rise 26 feet in 45 minutes, state officials have said.
An American flag top and other garments that were washed away from a camp site in Kerrville, Texas during catastrophic flooding July 4 washes up on the southern bank of the Guadalupe River
Search and rescue team members look for missing people amid fallen trees by the Guadalupe River, in Hunt, Texas, U.S., July 9
‘These flood waters went way out, way out into big fields with high crops. Went all over the place, and very easily, there could be someone laying somewhere,’ Dobbs added.
‘It happens. There’s people who have car accidents who run off the roads and no body find them for days, and that’s the attitude. This is not just a recovery. It’s a search and rescue.’
In the latest press conference Thursday morning, 96 lives were lost in Kerr County, which includes Camp Mystic, officials revealed.
Of those, 60 are adults and 36 are children.
Neighboring Kendall County, which is downstream, has recovered eight bodies. Local officials have noted the dead are not from Kendall County, meaning they floated down from Kerr County before being discovered.
At least 161 people have been identified as missing, including five little girls who were at Camp Mystic and 1 camp counselor.
