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UVALDE (AP) — More heavy rains in storm-weary Texas sent first responders rushing to people trapped in high waters Friday, widening the danger caused by floods that have killed at least two people and left hundreds more in need of rescue.

A relentless week of punishing downpours in Texas — dumping more than 2 feet (60 centimeters) in some areas — was expected to begin tapering off Friday. But another round of showers worsened already swollen rivers and flooded rural communities near the border with Mexico that had largely been spared major damage.

Near Ozona, a small town about 200 miles (322 kilometers) west of San Antonio, floodwaters spilled over Interstate 10. A section of a bridge also collapsed over the Nueces River in Uvalde County, where months worth of rain has fallen in a span of days.

Emergency personnel across a wide swath of southern and central Texas have rescued more than 200 people, including stranded drivers and people trapped in homes, Gov. Greg Abbott said. In the Texas Hill Country, residents were begin cleaning up after floodwaters again barrelled down the Guadalupe River and through communities still reeling from deadly floods a year ago.

“The water’s up to the top of the banks,” Sutton County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Jon Gann said. “If we get any more, we’re going to be into homes.”

The Texas Department of Transportation said high waters closed a 50-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 57 and that parts of the roadway were not expected to reopen until Monday.

In all, the downpours put roughly 6 million residents across Texas under a flood watch at various points this week.

Residents in hard-hit Uvalde return to flooded homes

In Uvalde, one of the hardest-hit cities from flooding, waters were receding and officials said a major highway, Route 90, had reopened after floodwaters had overrun the city and cut off most outside routes.

Sandra Gomez was assessing the damage at her Uvalde home on Friday after having left it before the flooding. She said about 6 inches (15 centimeters) of water got inside and left mud throughout the house, where she’s lived since last year. She said she was luckier than other people she knows whose homes were under 5 or 6 feet (1.5 to 1.8 meters) of water.

“Well, really it’s very, very emotional,” she said. “Material things I can replace. It may take a while, but I can replace those but I cannot replace my family. So, my family’s safe and that’s all that really matters.”

One person who died was driving on a flooded road and was swept away near Uvalde, authorities said.

Another victim, 65-year-old John Mark Steward of Kerrville, died after his mobile home was swept into Goat Creek on the Guadalupe River, his wife said. The river is the same one wrecked by flash floods last year when two dozen children and counselors died at Camp Mystic. Authorities on Thursday said summer campers were safe.
Nearly 1 trillion gallons of rainfall

Authorities in Crockett County evacuated more than 50 people Friday morning from apartments and an RV park in the southern part of the county seat of Ozona, using seven rescue boat teams,. They were taken to the local civic center for shelter.

He said the area received 6 inches of rain after midnight, on top of nearly 10 inches of rain before that.

“We have more and more accidents on the interstate,” he said. “We have more and more water pouring into the neighborhoods where we’ve been pulling people out of.”

The scenes were similar to recues that have played out in Texas counties this week.

Nearly 1 trillion gallons of water fell on the three hardest-hit counties over three days — Uvalde County alone got more rain in that period than California has seen over the last month, according to Ryan Maue, former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.

The Hill Country is especially prone to flash floods because the area’s signature limestone is covered by just a thin layer of soil. During heavy rains, water can quickly shoot downhill before filling the narrow river basins.

UVALDE (AP) — Catastrophic flash floods in Texas have killed two people and forced hundreds of rescues in areas still reeling from devastating floods a year ago, Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday.

Rescuers aboard boats and helicopters have saved more than 200 people, including stranded drivers and people trapped in homes, Abbott said.

The governor said the hardest-hit areas are expecting more rain into Friday and are not out of danger yet, with some rivers expected to reach historic levels.

After days of pounding rain, the National Weather Service said a large wave on Thursday barreled down the same river wrecked by flash floods last summer when two dozen children and counselors died at Camp Mystic.

Much like last year, the floods came in the middle of the night. But this time some residents in the Texas Hill Country said they received more warnings.

Forecasters urgently warned, “Move to higher ground now!” as rivers rose hour by hour, turning them into fast-moving seas of white water. Some spots of the Guadalupe River rose by more than 30 feet (9 meters).

The governor said more than 2,000 first responders had been deployed and some evacuations began before the worst of the flooding.

“What happened last year was a warning to people on or near rivers,” Abbott said. “No one can be complacent.”

As much as 28 inches (74 centimeters) of rain fell over the past three days in Uvalde County, which was spared from the worst flooding a year ago, the weather service said Thursday. Other areas saw roughly a foot of rain.

Victims in Texas floods were swept away

The governor said one of the victims was driving on a flooded road and was swept away near Uvalde while the other died in Kerr County.

Jennie Steward said the body of her husband, 65-year-old John Mark Steward, of Kerrville, was found Thursday.

She was visiting her parents when a neighbor called overnight, saying her husband was missing after water had risen to the door of their mobile home, which stood off the ground.

The entire home was swept off the platform and floated down Goat Creek on the Guadalupe, she said.

“It’s really hard that I wasn’t there with him,” she said. The two last spoke by phone Wednesday to celebrate their third anniversary.
Hill Country residents say they were better prepared

The unfolding crisis brought back haunting memories of last summer’s unimaginable Hill Country floods that killed more than 100 people over the July Fourth holiday.

“It’s crazy happening two times in one year,” said Josiah Rodriguez, who awoke to the sound of heavy rain around 2 a.m. Thursday in Kerrville. He navigated flooded roads to help evacuate relatives.

“Last year there was no warning of it,” he said. “It just kind of happened overnight and it took everyone by surprise. This year, a lot more alerts have gone into place, a lot more safety measures.”

Residents said they were caught off guard a year ago and didn’t receive any warning when floods overtopped the Guadalupe. Some local leaders were criticized for not acting quickly.

The storms and flooding this time threatened multiple counties close to the Mexico border and in the Hill Country near San Antonio. Roughly 6 million residents across Texas were under a flood watch this week, and many were expected to remain in effect into Friday.

Several agencies sent rescue helicopters to the flood zone, including Travis County in the state capital of Austin.

At a wild animal rescue, Katie Buck evacuated several dozen animals to higher ground in the dark Thursday as the normally dry Lazy Creek overflowed. She had to quickly grab a porcupine despite having no gloves.

She got all of the animals to safety, but flooding destroyed several enclosures at the Buck Wild Animal Rescue and Wildlife Rehab near Ingram in Kerr County.

“We were just starting to get back on our feet again,” Buck said. “To have to go through this again is just devastating.”

Residents at an RV park in Comfort moved their trailers as sirens sounded, said manager Duke Earwood.

Water rose over the hoods of vehicles parked near the river at the Comfort RV Resort. Markers showed the flooding already matched last July’s big flood.

“Too familiar for sure, and too soon,” Earwood said.
Uvalde residents isolated by floodwaters

Floodwaters also overran the city of Uvalde overnight, cutting off most outside routes. The Leona River, normally dry most of the year, filled streets with water.

“People really can’t get anywhere,” said Carmen Rodriguez, who nervously watched water engulf her neighborhood as a helicopter roared overhead. “We have a place to go, but all the streets are closed.”

Rodriguez said authorities seemed to be well prepared, ordering mandatory evacuations and notifying people directly.

Texas Game Wardens rescued close to 150 people by the afternoon, according to a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department spokesperson. Video released by the agency showed crews hoisting children from a house surrounded with water into a helicopter.

Flooding hasn’t reached last year’s deadly high
So far, the heavily swollen Guadalupe has remained below the record levels reached in 2025. Gauges showed it rose by more than 30 feet (9 meters) in some spots over just a few hours.

Close to Camp Mystic, which hasn’t reopened since last year’s tragedy, the Guadalupe near Hunt reached about 20.5 feet (6.3 meters), which is enough to cause flooding, according to U.S. Geological Survey and National Water Prediction Service data.

In Kerr County, where summer camps dot the river’s shores, the sheriff’s office said all campers were safe. Several camps said the children were staying inside, with one camp reporting normal flooding.
Towns still rebuilding are hit by new floods

While the water didn’t rise as high as a year ago in Ingram, Mayor Claud Jordan believes this round of flooding was more widespread in his city. “The rural part of Ingram, all the roads are just trashed,” he said.

“There are a bunch of businesses that haven’t reopened from last year,” Jordan said. “This doesn’t help.”

The Hill Country is especially prone to flash floods because the area’s signature limestone is covered by just a thin layer of soil. During heavy rains, water can quickly shoot downhill before filling the narrow river basins.

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal safety investigators looking into a runaway Tesla that killed a grandmother in her home say the driver had pressed the accelerator to full speed, suggesting the vehicle’s self-driving software was not to blame.

The driver had told police that he had the self-driving software turned on, but a report from the National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday concluded that he had actually overridden that feature when he pushed hard on the pedal. Moments later the Tesla Model 3 raced down a residential street in Katy, Texas, at highway speeds, slammed into a brick home and killed a 76-year-old woman standing in the front room.

The crash last month drew national attention because Tesla CEO Elon Musk is seeking to reassure the public its self-driving feature is safe as he prepares to turn hundreds of thousands of Teslas already on the road into fully automatic vehicles and begin selling two-seated Cybercabs missing steering wheels and pedals.

The crash came two months after officials at a separate federal agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, announced it was elevating a 2024 investigation of the self-driving feature to new “engineering analysis” level, raising the possibility of a recall of 3.2 million Tesla vehicles.

That NHTSA probe was triggered by crashes where the self-driving feature failed to alert drivers to take control in fog and other poor visibility conditions.

The agency opened an investigation last year into 58 incidents in which Teslas reportedly violated traffic safety laws while using self-driving technology, leading to more than a dozen crashes and fires and nearly two dozen injuries.

Separate from the National Transportation Safety Board, NHTSA is also looking into the Tesla house crash in Texas, one of 46 “special crash” investigations of Tesla’s self-driving or driver-assistance technology in the past decade, according to the agency’s records. In more than a dozen of those crashes, at least one person — a driver, passenger or pedestrian — was killed.

Tesla had originally called its driver assistance software Full Self-Driving, or FSD, but auto experts and regulators complained it was misleading because drivers must always keep their eyes on the road and be ready to take over at any time.

The company has since changed the name to Full Self-Driving (Supervised).

Video of the Katy, Texas, accident shows the Tesla traveling at more than 70 mph (112.65 kilometers per hour), jumping a curb then tearing across a lawn before crushing through a brick wall of a home. A woman standing feet away, Martha Avila, was found amid piles of crumbling plaster, split beams and bits of furniture and rushed to a hospital but died.

Sales of Tesla cars still haven’t recovered fully from boycotts last year over Musk’s far-right political stands, but the stock is rising anyway as he has successfully shifted attention away from the sales figures. He says they matter less now that the company is on the cusp of major technological advances, such as turning Teslas into hands-free vehicles and having its Optimus robots take over for humans for tasks at home and work.

Tesla stock has risen 22% in the past year and is currently trading at 170 times expected annual earnings compared to 20 for the S&P 500.

For its second-quarter financial results out next week, financial analysts surveyed by FactSet expect earnings per share will barely budge — 32 cents versus 33 cents a year earlier — continuing a sixth quarter streak of flat or falling profits.

LUFKIN – Lufkin Police detectives are asking for the public’s assistance in solving the murder of Darrence Kindle, a case that has remained unsolved for nearly nine years, according to release from the City of Lufkin. Kindle was shot and killed during the commission of an aggravated robbery at approximately 10 p.m., November 3, 2017, at the Dollar General on Kurth Drive.

The only description detectives have at this time is that the man is approximately 6-feet 1-inches tall, African American, and he was wearing a mask from the movie Scream.The shoes the man was wearing have been identified as limited-edition Nike Zoom Kobe Venomenon 4. The shoes were identified by a forensics company in Arizona.

“We will continue to investigate this murder,” said Lt. James Cowan, LPD Criminal Investigations Division. “It has never been closed, and we remain committed to seeking justice for Kindle and his family.”

Detectives believe there are members of the public who may hold information — no matter how small it may seem — that could help solve this case. Anyone with information regarding this incident is urged to come forward.

If you have any information, please contact Lieutenant James Cowan, Criminal Investigation Division, at 936-633-0325 or email jcowan@lufkinpolice.com.

PANOLA COUNTY (KETK) — A traffic stop in Panola County led to the discovery of a nearly $30,000 money laundering scheme on early Thursday morning.

According to the Panola County Sheriff’s Office, a deputy conducted a routine traffic stop on State Highway 315 in Long Branch at 3:15 a.m. for a traffic violation.

During the stop, the deputy observed several indicators of criminal activity including false statements from the driver. The deputy requested a K9 unit, which gave a positive alert for narcotics prompting a search of the vehicle.

Within the vehicle, a bag containing multiple bundles of money wrapped in rubber bands were found, totaling over $29,000.

The driver, Jose De Jesus Torres, Jr. of McAllen was arrested for money laundering $2,500 to $30,000, which is a state jail felony. The currency was held as it awaits a seizure hearing.

Additionally, there were two children in the vehicle who were released to Child Protective Services and later placed with other family members.

UVALDE (AP) — Rescuers saved dozens of stranded drivers and people trapped in homes from catastrophic flooding in Texas while many more fled to higher ground Thursday across a region still recovering from devastating floods just a year ago.

So far, at least one person has died, said Gov. Greg Abbott, who added that it appeared that many of summer camps hit hard last year were not facing any danger. “Our number one focus is saving lives,” he said.

After days of pounding rain, the National Weather Service said a “large and deadly flood wave” was barreling down the same river wrecked by flash floods last summer when two dozen children and counselors were killed at Camp Mystic.

Forecasters urgently warned “Move to higher ground now!” as rivers rose hour by hour, turning them into fast-moving seas of white water. Several tornado warnings were also issued.

The Texas Hill Country floods over the July Fourth holiday last year killed more than 100 people.

The governor said there was “one loss of life” so far but did not specify where or when. More than 1,300 personnel were responding and have rescued well over 70 people, he said Thursday.

The unfolding crisis brought back haunting memories of last summer’s unimaginable floods for many.

“It’s crazy happening two times in one year,” said Josiah Rodriguez, who woke to the sound of heavy rain around 2 a.m. Thursday in Kerrville. He navigated flooded roads to help evacuate relatives.

“Last year there was no warning of it,” he said. “It just kind of happened overnight and it took everyone by surprise. This year, a lot more alerts have gone into place, a lot more safety measures.”

Residents said they were caught off guard a year ago and didn’t receive any warning when floods overtopped the Guadalupe River. Some local leaders were criticized for not acting quickly.

The storms and flooding this time threatened multiple counties close to the border with Mexico and in the Texas Hill Country near San Antonio. City officials in Kerrville urged people to shelter at the highest levels of their homes.

Images along a creek in Kerr County showed propane tanks that had been pushed onto a bridge and a mess of tangled trees.
Uvalde residents isolated by floodwaters

Floodwaters overran the city of Uvalde overnight, cutting off outside access. The Leona River, normally dry most of the year, filled streets with water.

“People really can’t get anywhere” said Carmen Rodriguez, who was nervously watching water engulf her neighborhood Thursday morning as a helicopter roared overhead. “We have a place to go, but all the streets are closed.”

Phones buzzed with warnings throughout the night warning of flash floods in the morning. Rodriguez said it seemed that authorities were well prepared. By Wednesday, Uvalde police had ordered some mandatory evacuations, with first responders notifying people directly.

Uvalde officials sent out rescue boats and found multiple people trapped in vehicles overnight, said Juli Alvarado, a spokesperson for Uvalde police.

“There’s no way into the city at this point,” she said.

Texas Game Wardens rescued more than 40 people and evacuated about a dozen others, mostly in the Uvalde County area, according to a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department spokesperson.
Flooding could reach last year’s deadly high

The floodwaters were expected to reach a crest similar to last year’s flood, the weather service said.

Gauges in some spots along the Guadalupe River showed it rose by more than 30 feet (9 meters) in just hours overnight. One gauge outside Kerrville showed the river had risen 32 feet (9.7 meters) in four hours.

Close to Camp Mystic, which remains shut, the Guadalupe River near Hunt reached about 20.5 feet (6.3 meters), according to a U.S. Geological Survey gauge, which is just under the level expected to inundate structures and roads.

Flooding hits towns still rebuilding

Volunteer firefighters spent the night helping people evacuate their homes and answering calls about rising water in Ingram, just up river from Hunt, where summer camps dot the shores of the Guadalupe, Ingram Mayor Claud Jordan said Thursday morning.

While the water didn’t rise as high as a year ago, he believes this round of flooding was more widespread and “worse” in his city. “The rural part of Ingram, all the roads are just trashed,” he said.

“There are a bunch of businesses that haven’t reopened from last year. They’re still trying to rebuild from the July 4 floods,” Jordan said. “This doesn’t help.”
A rush to higher ground

Residents at an RV park in Comfort, Texas, near the Guadalupe River moved their trailers as local fire department sirens sounded, manager Duke Earwood said Thursday.

Water rose over the hoods of vehicles parked closest to the river.

While the water started to recede, another surge was expected, Earwood said at the Comfort RV Resort, which has about 200 residents. “People need to know to just kind of stay put for now,” he said.

Markers showed the flooding already matched the level from the big flood last July.

“Too familiar for sure, and too soon,” Earwood said.
Another test for Texas Hill Country after the Camp Mystic disaster

The Texas Hill Country is especially prone to flash floods because the area’s signature limestone is covered by just a thin layer of soil. During heavy rains, water can quickly shoot downhill before quickly filling the narrow river basins.

The weather service said 10 to 20 inches of rain (25 to 50 centimeters) had fallen in the past two days, with 8 inches (20 centimeters) in just two hours early Thursday.

The deluge dumped nearly a foot of rain in some counties and put people in multiple counties under flood watches, with some were expected to remain in effect through Friday evening.

The governor issued disaster declarations for dozens of counties. As of late Wednesday, six million residents in 57 counties were under a National Weather Service flood watch.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The U.S. government has designated two new Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

They are the Juárez Cartel, on the border with Texas, and Los Viagras, a criminal group from the western state of Michoacán. The Federal Register, the U.S. government’s gazette, published the designation on Thursday.

They joined six other Mexican criminal organizations that the U.S. considers terrorist groups, including the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Gangs in other Latin American countries, including Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador and El Salvador, also have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump began to extend the terrorist label to Latin American cartels in February 2025 to allow U.S. authorities to take more aggressive action against them or against anyone who the U.S. sees as aiding the groups.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that both criminal groups either have committed terrorist acts or pose a serious risk of committing acts that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.

The measure represents a further increase in pressure on Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration following the indictment of 10 current and former officials from the state of Sinaloa for alleged ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, as well as the controversies about U.S. operations in Mexico.
Higher pressure on the Texas border

Juarez Cartel is one of Mexico’s oldest drug trafficking organizations, which for decades has controlled a key crossing point in the central part of the Mexico-U.S. border: Ciudad Juárez, across from El Paso, Texas.

Both its founder, Amado Carrillo Fuentes — known as “El Señor de los Cielos” for smuggling massive drug shipments by light aircraft in the 1990s — and the brothers and sons who succeeded him, turned the trafficking of tons of drugs into a multimillion-dollar business. Despite the arrests of many of its leaders, the cartel and its allied gangs maintained control of a vast infrastructure for smuggling illegal shipments into the U.S..

According to Mexican analyst David Saucedo, the designation is key to enabling the United States to take more decisive action along the border, where two other groups both located at the eastern end of the border with Texas — the Gulf Cartel and the Northeast Cartel — were declared terrorist organizations in February 2025.

The US again targets Michoacan

Los Viagras is a local cartel in the western state of Michoacan, which is already home to two other criminal groups designated as terrorist organizations: Cárteles Unidos and La Nueva Familia Michoacana.

Los Viagras emerged following the 2013–2014 armed uprising led by farmers who succeeded in driving out many of the old cartels, only to see them replaced by new ones.

The cartel is led by Nicolás Sierra Santana, who faces a formal indictment in the District of Columbia for conspiracy to traffic drugs, filed in June 2025. The State Department is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.

The group has shifted its loyalties and alliances to consolidate its regional control of the territory through extortion. It also produces synthetic drugs, which sells to other cartels that traffic them into the United States.