Today is
Thursday July 23, 2026
AUSTIN (AP) – Camp Mystic’s plan to reopen this summer — less than a year after catastrophic floods in Texas Hill Country killed 25 young campers and two teenage counselors — has angered some of the victims’ families.
Owners of the Christian all-girls camp, who hope to welcome campers back starting in May, say they have made safety improvements and that devastated areas closest to the Guadalupe River will remain closed.
Texas health regulators are reviewing whether to renew Camp Mystic’s license that would allow the camp to resume operations and mark its 100th anniversary.
Here’s a timeline of key events related to the deadly flooding:
Inspectors sign off on Camp Mystic’s emergency plan
Two days before the flood, state inspectors approve Camp Mystic’s safety plan, according to Department of State Health Services records. Their report notes the camp complied with a host of state regulations regarding “procedures to be implemented in case of a disaster.” Among them: instructing campers what to do if they need to evacuate and assigning specific duties to each staff member and counselor.
Deadly flooding devastates campsite
A storm unleashes heavy, isolated rainfall early on July 4, 2025, that sent floodwaters rushing down the Guadalupe River through the hilly region in central Texas. The fast-rising waters quickly overtake two cabins closest to the river where the youngest girls are housed, sweeping them to their deaths. Camp owner Richard Eastland also dies in the flooding.
Flanked by family members who lost their children at Camp Mystic, Gov. Greg Abbott on Sept. 5 signs several bills into law aimed at preventing similar tragedies in the future. The measures prohibit cabins in dangerous parts of flood zones and require camp operators to develop detailed emergency plans, to train workers and to install and maintain emergency warning systems. One allocates $240 million for disaster relief, along with money for warning sirens and improved weather forecasting.
Camp Mystic announces plans to reopen
The owners of Camp Mystic announce a plan to partially reopen the camp in a Sept. 23 letter to parents, prompting outrage from some of the flooding victims’ families. The camp also says it will build a memorial to those killed in the flooding. Parents say they weren’t consulted about the decision. Cici Steward, whose 8-year-old daughter Cile remains missing, writes in a scathing letter that campers will “swim in the same river that may potentially still hold my daughter’s body.” Parents call the plan ”unthinkable.”
Families file lawsuits against Camp Mystic
The families of the girls who died in the flooding file lawsuits alleging the operators of Camp Mystic failed to take necessary steps to protect the campers as life-threatening floodwaters approached. The lawsuits, filed Nov. 10 in state court in Austin, seek more than $1 million in damages but do not specify an exact amount.
Texas regulators say they’re investigating complaints
Texas health regulators tell Camp Mystic’s owners they are investigating hundreds of complaints against the camp as the state considers whether to allow it to reopen this summer. The investigations announced April 7 underscore the hurdles facing Camp Mystic as it pushes ahead with a plan to reopen over the outrage of the victims’ families.
Regulators uncover problems with the camp’s safety plans
Texas state regulators find nearly two dozen deficiencies in the emergency operations plan submitted by the owners of Camp Mystic as they prepare to reopen. An 11-page report sent April 24 by the Health Services Department notes problems with flood warning evacuation plans, use of an emergency warning and public address system, monitoring safety alerts and safety training.
Camp officials testify during 3-day hearing
The April 13-15 hearing shines new light on what happened before and during the flood. Camp director Edward Eastland acknowledges lives could have been saved if staff had acted sooner, but insists they could not have anticipated the severity of the storm. A security guard testifies he received no orders from camp officials on what to do as the floodwaters rose but was able to help a group of campers escape to safety.
Investigator says unqualified teens were put in charge
An investigator told lawmakers on Thursday that young and inexperienced counselors were not trained to help campers during floods or other emergencies, and feared making decisions on their own. Casey Garrett said a “obedience” culture paired poorly trained teenage counselors with the youngest campers and was complacent about flood warnings. A written report is expected later this year.
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AUSTIN (AP) — Young and inexperienced Camp Mystic counselors were not trained to help campers during floods or other emergencies, and feared making decisions on their own, an investigator into the 2025 flood that killed 27 counselors and campers told Texas lawmakers Monday.
Lawmakers heard an emotional and sweeping review of a camp “obedience” culture that paired poorly trained teenage counselors with the youngest campers; was complacent about flood warnings; had poor communications; and critically delayed evacuation efforts.
“There was never any real training, no drills of any kind,” for counselors or campers of what do to or where to go in a flood threat, a special legislative committee’s investigator, Casey Garrett, said. She was addressing the committee’s first hearing on the July Fourth flood that swept through the all-girls Christian camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River.
Twenty-five campers and two teenage counselors were killed. Camp owner Richard Eastland was also killed as he desperately tried to evacuate girls to higher ground.
Garrett noted that most of the victims were under age 10, some attending camp for the first time, and that the counselors in the hardest hit cabins were among the youngest and most inexperienced at the camp.
Many of the grim details had already been made public through hearings, media reports and interviews, but the state report — including interviews with about 150 people including campers, counselors, the Eastland family and victims’ families — presented them in a stark, streamlined review.
“The fate of those girls was set before any drop of rain fell.” Sen. Charles Perry said during the hearing.
He continued: “The things that were common sense and the things that should have been done, didn’t get done.”
Families of the victims pack the hearing
Dozens of victim family members filled the committee room Monday. Some sobbed or walked out when photos of the victims and the destroyed camp site were displayed, or when they heard their loved ones’ names read aloud.
The report noted some harrowing survivor accounts, including of a girl who was swept more than 6 miles downriver. She told investigators she was sucked underwater several times before she washed up on a debris pile and fell asleep. She was rescued the next morning by two women who heard her cries for help.
One girl recalled how the floodwater in her cabin rose so high that her chin touched the ceiling, Garrett said. One counselor told investigators she pushed girls underwater to get them through the door of a flooded cabin.
The committee saw video of water rushing into a building through cracks in the door. In cellphone video shot by a stranded camper, a girl can be heard yelling “Help!” in the dark, raging floodwaters.
Garrett played an interview with a counselor who said she climbed atop a two-story recreation hall with about 100 campers. She described their terror as rising floodwaters closed in on them.
Campers and counselors had no emergency training
Garrett, a Houston attorney who also helped with the Legislature’s report on the 2022 Uvalde school shooting, several times noted the lack of emergency training for the teenage counselors and child campers.
There was no detailed evacuation plan, he said, and the only instruction for the girls in low-lying areas of the camp was a one-paragraph directive that told them to “stay in their cabins unless told otherwise by the office. All cabins are constructed on high, safe locations.” State inspectors approved that plan two days before the flood.
Eventually, some counselors took matters into their own hands and pushed girls through cabin windows to scramble up a hill.
“It wasn’t a plan. It wasn’t a safe plan, It was an option taken, thank God,” Garrett said. “It was very ad hoc.”
Camp Mystic’s owners are seeking permission to reopen in late May and have said they will only use parts of the camp that didn’t flood. They expect nearly 900 girls on campus this summer. The plans to reopen have angered victims’ families, and some prominent state officials have called for state regulators to deny or delay renewal of its license, which is under review.
Last year, Texas lawmakers passed new measures to demand more detailed planning and training, and the installation of emergency warning systems. The Legislature doesn’t meet again until January 2027 and the panel does not control the review of Camp Mystic’s license.
Investigator describes the camp’s formidable owner
Some counselors told investigators they feared getting into trouble if they were to take children to higher ground or out into the storm without explicit instructions.
Garrett described the camp’s “obedience-encouraged” culture dominated by Eastland, the campus patriarch. Some members of the Eastland family and camp staff referred to him as “The General” and “The Eagle.”
“He ruled,” his wife Tweety told investigators. Several Eastland family members attended the hearing.
“He was running the show over there … You just really didn’t cross him,” Garrett said.
The camp relied almost exclusively on Eastland for how to act in a flood emergency. The owner’s son, Edward Eastland, testified in a lawsuit last week that any detailed flood evacuation plan was simply inside his father’s head.
Richard Eastland and several girls were was found dead in his vehicle after he tried to drive them to safety. Edward Eastland was swept by the floodwaters into a tree. Camp security officer Glenn Juenke survived although he was trapped in a flooded cabin with campers.
Garrett described Richard Eastland as a popular camp leader who taught generations of girls how to fish. He had a knack for comforting young campers who were nervous about their first time away from home.
“We do know Dick Eastland loved every little girl who came to Camp Mystic,” Garrett said.
KILGORE – Several East Texas firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion on Monday after responding to a structure fire near Kilgore. According to our news partner KETK and the Kilgore Fire Department, the fire occurred at a large storage building and residential structure in rural Kilgore.
Crews from several departments across East Texas, including Sabine Fire and Rescue and Smith County ESD 2, began an aggressive fire attack to save the residence. While on the scene, several firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion; however, no further injuries were reported.
PERRYVILLE – Perryville Volunteer Fire Department Chief Daniel Charles Alexander has been ordered to pay more than $49,000 in restitution for failing to work on a private construction project. According to our news partner KETK, Alexander allegedly signed a contract on March 19, 2025, to construct a 40×40-foot shop building for an unnamed victim in exchange for $38,796, but the building was recorded as 30 feet by 40 feet instead of the desired 40 by 40 feet.
Officials said the victim contacted Alexander and he reportedly responded by verbally proposing that he add the extra ten feet for $10,443. They verbally agreed on the added price, and Alexander was paid upfront with two checks, one for $38,796 and a second for $10,443, totaling $49,239.
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SMITH COUNTY – Three men have recently been indicted by a grand jury for murder following a Smith County shooting in 2017, which eventually led to the victim’s death. According to our news partner KETK, Joel Camacho, Carlos Ochoa, and Tarrance Reggie were recently charged with murder in connection with the 2017 shooting after the victim, Michael Ross II, died in February 2024.
The shooting occurred on Sept. 17, 2017, and Ross was shot in the side of his head after he was set up and robbed by the three men, according the Smith County Sheriff’s Office said.
Following an investigation in 2017, Camacho, Ochoa and Reggie were arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon
All three men pleaded guilty to their aggravated assault charges in 2018 and were sentenced to 20 years in state prison. If convicted of the murder charge, they could face up to a life sentence.
GLADEWATER – A Gladewater man was arrested last month after Gladewater PD discovered he was in possession of over 300 photos depicting children engaging in sexual conduct.
According to our news partner KETK, Gladewater Police Department (GPD), officials received a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in December regarding explicit material involving child sexual abuse being uploaded to Google Photos.
Authorities learned that 24 images had been stored in Google Drive and identified the account owner as David Blalock.
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AUSTIN (AP) — Texas state regulators found nearly two dozen deficiencies in the emergency operations plan submitted in Camp Mystic’s bid to reopen less than a year after 27 children and counselors were killed in a devastating flood.
Camp Mystic’s owners have applied for a license to reopen the all-girls Christian camp in late May in part of the campus that did not flood. That has angered families of the girls killed, some of whom have filed lawsuits against the camp, and prompted several prominent state officials to call for the license to be denied or delayed pending the outcome of ongoing investigations.
The 11-page letter from the Department of State Health Services notes deficiencies that include problems with flood warning evacuation plans, use of an emergency warning and public address system, monitoring safety alerts and training campers on safety.
It was sent to the camp about a week after a three-day court hearing in the family lawsuits when several camp operators and staff acknowledged they missed official flood warnings, lacked a detailed evacuation plan and waited too long to try to get the children out. One of the camp’s owners, Richard Eastland, also died.
The letter notes that Camp Mystic is allowed to revise the emergency plan. Camp Mystic officials said they would work with the agency to address the problems cited.
“Our priority remains the safety and well-being of our campers, and we hope to continue the nearly century-long mission and ministry of Camp Mystic to provide a Christian camping experience for girls that allows them to grow physically, mentally and spiritually,” the camp said.
The camp’s emergency plan was submitted as part of strict new guidelines imposed by state lawmakers after the deadly flood.
DSHS spokesperson Lara Anton said many camps have received deficiency notices ahead of summer opening.
“This is part of the licensing application review process, and most youth camps have received a notice of deficiency letter for their emergency plan due to the statutory changes and increased emergency plan requirements,” Anton said.
Texas lawmakers have scheduled two days of hearings next week on what happened during the flood that ripped through the Guadalupe River and killed more than 130 people in all. Several lawmakers and the Texas Rangers, the state police elite investigations unit, visited the camp site this week.
NACOGDOCHES – Nacogdoches County Sheriff Jason Bridges provided an update on Thursday regarding the explosion at the Etoile natural gas well earlier this week. The explosion occurred around 11:20 p.m. on Monday evening. Our news partner KETK said Bridges confirmed that no injuries have been reported, as all workers had evacuated the scene before the blast.
Bridges expressed his gratitude to the local volunteer fire departments who arrived on the scene Monday evening and helped control the fire.
“They are exactly that, they are volunteers, and time and time again I have said what a great job they do and how much our community relies and depends on them, ” Bridges said. “They do a great job for us each and every day and we rely on them so much for what they do.”
The well is currently under what Bridges believes is a controlled burn, and a company from Houston is on the scene to monitor the burn and implement air-quality control measures, as the site is expected to continue burning over the next few days.
NACOGDOCHES (KETK) — A Nacogdoches County jury has convicted Ronnie Farrell Jernigan Jr. of capital murder in the shooting deaths of his girlfriend and her mother, ending a case that previously resulted in a hung jury.
According to the Nacogdoches County District Attorney’s Office, jurors on April 23, found Jernigan guilty on two counts of capital murder in the deaths of 48-year-old Laquice Sanford and her 73-year-old mother, Laura Jean Sanford. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Police were first called to a home on Stone Street in October 2023 after a neighbor discovered Laura Jean’s body on the front porch. Investigators said she had been shot in the back of the head, with her head resting in the basket of a bicycle parked nearby.
Officers then entered the residence and found Laquice dead inside. Authorities said she had been shot in the face at close range.
Jernigan, identified as Laquice’s boyfriend, was later located at his mother’s home. He initially denied being at the residence or seeing the victims that day, investigators said.
Surveillance footage from nearby businesses showed Jernigan riding the same bicycle found at the scene and wearing a hat later recovered inside the home near Laquice’s body, according to prosecutors.
During questioning, Jernigan told detectives he had previously purchased a firearm but claimed he had returned it. A neighbor later discovered a gun in a vacant yard behind his mother’s house. Ballistics testing confirmed the weapon was used in both killings and matched the firearm previously sold to Jernigan, authorities said.
Investigators also found gunshot residue on Jernigan’s hands and DNA from one of the victims on his clothing. Cellphone data placed him at the home at the time of the shootings, prosecutors said.
The case had previously gone to trial in October 2025 but ended in a hung jury. A retrial concluded this week with a guilty verdict after jurors also heard accusations of Jernigan’s prior abuse of Laquice and a previous partner.
In a statement, the district attorney’s office thanked jurors for their “diligence and careful consideration,” adding that the sentence ensures Jernigan “will never be released from prison and protects the public from further violence.” Prosecutors also said the case underscores the dangers of domestic violence and its potential consequences.
TYLER – In a significant milestone for the region, the University of Texas at Tyler has unveiled its cutting-edge School of Medicine Building on Friday morning.
The five?story facility brings education, clinical care and community services together in one place. The new building will not only serve as an educational hub but also as a crucial clinical resource, offering a wide range of services provided by UT Health East Texas clinicians.
From advanced imaging and women’s health services to specialized pulmonary, orthopedic and sports medicine care, the facility is poised to meet diverse healthcare needs. It also boasts eight fully equipped outpatient surgical suites, enhancing its capability to deliver comprehensive medical care.
UT Tyler President Julie V. Philley addressed the attendees, underscoring the university’s commitment to advancing healthcare education and access in East Texas.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — It was 1972 and Apollo astronauts Harrison “Jack” Schmitt and Eugene Cernan had just stepped onto the moon’s surface to begin collecting rock and soil samples.
The mission would mark the end of an era for the American space program, but Schmitt already was looking to the future. His voice crackling over a high-frequency radio signal that day, he shared his thoughts with Cernan and those listening in at Mission Control.
“Well, I tell you Gene, I think the next generation ought to accept this as a challenge. Let’s see them leave footsteps like these someday,” Schmitt said.
Schmitt, 90, is one of the four Apollo moonwalkers still alive today. A field geologist, he was the first scientist to set foot on the moon and his expertise helped answer questions about the origin of that big rock up there and what it tells us about the solar system.
Schmitt felt the thrill again when the Artemis II crew rocketed into space on a historic lunar flyby. Pure excitement and the potential for so much more. And he’s hopeful as new generations get back to the moon and beyond.
Interviewed by The Associated Press, the former U.S. senator from New Mexico spoke about everything from the importance of having a lunar base to tapping new energy sources and whether we’re alone in the universe. Dark matter and quantum entanglement also were mentioned, with Schmitt saying many discoveries are yet to come.
“You’ve just got to remember,” he said, “what used to be called supernatural probably should be called unknown physics.”
This interview has been edited for brevity.
Q: What about having a lunar base?
Well, I think a lunar base makes a lot of sense and it always has for a lot of reasons. One is geopolitical. Probably the most important one is a geopolitical presence in deep space — and in preparation for going on to Mars.
The moon has resources that are going to reduce the cost of actually going to Mars and it gains experience. One of the things people keep forgetting about is you’ve gone through several generations and the new generation has to gain experience — psychologically as well as practically about how you work in deep space. And they’re doing that. That was probably the most important part of Artemis II, is it gave the ground people, Mission Control and others, the experience now to really have the risk as real rather than as part of a simulation.
Q: What was your mission during Apollo 17?
I had a lot of understanding of what other crews had learned, what had been learned from some of the early sample analyses and so we were trying to put sort of the frosting on the cake of answering questions in a very complex geologic area called Taurus-Littrow.
Taurus-Littrow actually is deeper than the Grand Canyon and so it has a three-dimensional aspect to it that we hadn’t had on other missions. And plus having a field geologist like myself on board meant that we should be more efficient at gathering samples that had a meaningful aspect to our further understanding of the origin of the moon, its relationship to the Earth and, it turns out, also its relationship to the history of the sun.
Q: So we’re building upon our knowledge of the universe around us?
Well there’s no question that the moon has a history to tell us.
It’s been recording the history of the solar system ever since the solar system formed about 4.5 billion years ago. That is really what the moon gives us — that library of knowledge, of potential knowledge about how the solar system evolved and then what the sun has been doing in that 4.5 billion years.
In the recent work that I’ve been doing in that layer of debris, the regolith, we find that the sun became even more active than it had been about the same time as we had an explosion of life in the oceans on Earth, and so the oceans may have been and almost certainly were warming to that more active sun and life likes warmth. So it multiplied not only in quantity but in diversity. The mammals started to appear soon after that, life started to move up onto the continents that had formed so things were really starting to move about a half-billion years ago.
Q: Tell us about the moon rocks
This is a sample of a basalt lava and we have a lot of basalt lavas here in New Mexico. This is different in that it is rich in titanium, more rich than most terrestrial basalts. And that titanium turns out to be very important in terms of the resources that are available on the moon. It has a property of concentrating some of those resources, particularly hydrogen and helium.
There’s an isotope called helium-3 and that is going to be, I think, ultimately very, very important in the production of energy. It’s going to be extremely useful in quantum computing, in cancer therapy and other things here on Earth. We just don’t have much on Earth, so the moon is going to be a our reservoir, our source of this very important isotope of helium-3.
Q: How important will this isotope be in the future?
Helium-3 offers a possibility of having nuclear energy without nuclear waste. We’ve known that for decades, and so the moon now offers that opportunity to begin to substitute a nuclear form of energy that doesn’t produce nuclear waste for what we have today.
Q: Is it just as much an energy race as a space race?
There’s no question about it. China is interested in it, we’re interested in it. And that’s probably one of the big technological drivers of this new race to the moon, a new space race, a Cold War that’s on now primarily involving China and I think helium-3 is a big actor in that right now.
Q: What was it like in the Taurus-Littrow Valley?
First of all, we were in a valley deeper than the Grand Canyon. The mountains on either side were as high as the Grand Canyon from the bottom. Secondly, you’re in one-sixth gravity so that means you can walk much more easily than you could here on Earth. Now we were covered by a pressure suit but still walking around was like being a kid again … if you fell you didn’t fall very hard and you certainly didn’t cry about it. But the moon is really a very easy place to work so as long as you have the right equipment surrounding you. You have to have that atmosphere of course to breathe.
Q: Any downsides to working in a weightless environment?
For me, it was a very comfortable environment to be in and you get a little bit lazy. For example, if you’re taking notes with a pad of paper and a pen or pencil and somebody says would you take the SCS switch to off, well you just let go and it floats there and you go over to the switch and come back and start to dictate those notes again.
You’ve got to be careful though because you’re brain gets lazy. When I got on the carrier after splashdown, I was taking my first drink of water and I just let go of the cup and of course it broke on the floor. Human beings tend to take advantage of their environment very quickly and the brain does get a little bit lazy like that. It took about three days to get comfortable again back here on Earth.
Q: So we’ll have no problem living on the moon?
No, I think living on the moon is going to be very good. Now long term civilization on the moon, there’s still some major issues. The radiation issue has to be dealt with and we can. There are ways to do that. Going to Mars is another issue and that’s why you’ll almost certainly need fusion rockets to cut that time frame.
Q: We’ve heard a lot lately about UFOs. What are your thoughts on that?
Well there are billions of sunlike stars out there and so you just have to imagine that life may have originated on some other planet, although the conditions for life to originate here on Earth are really unique. Everything sort of fit together and creation for us sort of leads to you thinking of an infinitely intelligent being that made it all happen. But the technical potential statistically is very high that you could have had the similar kind of conditions develop elsewhere in the universe.
Now are they visiting us? My feeling is if they’re really so advanced they could be here, they’d communicate better than they have and so I just don’t know. But it’s plausible. Let’s put it that way. Unlikely maybe, but plausible.
Q: Would you take the opportunity to go back to the moon or to Mars?
Oh surely. Teresa, my wife, would like very much to go with me — that would be one condition. But I think a trip to Mars is going to be fantastic for those people.
So youth is extremely important and the education of those youth particularly in mathematics is extraordinarily important, and NASA now has a younger agency than they had grown to be during the shuttle era.
Look what has happened since Apollo. The commercial sector has developed new technologies, new ways of doing things and NASA is now trying to integrate those into a new approach to deep space exploration.
LUFKINS – The City’s Click2Gov online payment system will be unavailable this weekend due to a scheduled software upgrade by its vendor. The system is expected to be down for most or all of the day Saturday at least. Joshua Gentry, IT digital content manager for the City of Lufkin, stated the city appreciates citizens’ patience while this upgrade is completed.
UPSHUR COUNTY – The Texas Department of Public Safety has released details of a two vehicle accident that killed a Longview nurse practitioner and a Longview ISD teacher last weekend. According to the DPS, the collision occurred early Sunday morning in the Diana area involving Longview ISD teacher Kimberly Law and Hospitality Health ER nurse practitioner Joel Mack.
Law was allegedly driving south on the northbound lane of U.S. 259 when she struck Mack’s vehicle, who was driving north in the same lane an initial investigation revealed. Law was pronounced dead at the scene and Mack was transported to a local hospital for his injuries.
DPS said Mack has since died from his injuries sustained in the accident.
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RUSK COUNTY – A cyber tip from the North Texas Internet Crimes Against Children lead to the arrest of an East Texas man possessing child pornography on Tuesday. According to our news partner KETK and the Rusk County Sheriff’s Office, investigators obtained an arrest warrant for 35-year-old Christopher Smith II of Mount Enterprise following the cyber tip. A search warrant was also obtained to locate any additional child pornography he may have in his possession.
The sheriff’s office and a Texas Department of Public Safety officer who specializes in digital forensics executed the search warrant at Smith’s home. Smith was taken into custody and several items were seized as evidence, the sheriff’s office said. Smith is currently in the Rusk County Jail under a $65,000 bond for his possession of child pornography charge. According to the sheriff’s office, the case is still under investigation and may result in additional charges.
HIDEAWAY – Drivers on Interstate 20 east near Hideaway should expect significant delays Wednesday evening after a crash involving an 18-wheeler and a pickup truck towing a camper. The crash happened around 5:30 p.m. on I-20 between U.S. 69 and FM 14. According to preliminary information from the Texas Department of Public Safety, the pickup truck lost control on the interstate and an 18?wheeler struck the camper from behind.
TxDOT cameras show a miles-long backup in the eastbound lanes, where only one lane remains open. Traffic is moving slowly through the area. Injuries are currently unknown. People are asked to avoid the area at this time.
MARSHALL — The Marshall Police Department announces the arrests stemming from a large-scale disturbance that occurred on March 29, on Sanford Street. The incident involved about 300 individuals during a large party and prompted an extensive criminal investigation by Marshall Police.
Responding patrol officers made initial contact with the disturbance and arrested four individuals for offenses directly related to the incident. Officers also recovered three firearms at the scene. Following the initial response, Marshall Police Detectives initiated a comprehensive investigation of evidence collected during the incident.
Through this investigation, Detectives identified 14 individuals who actively participated in a riot as defined under the Texas Penal Code.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 17 million people along the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts are at the highest risk of being affected by flooding, with New York and New Orleans standing out, according to one of the most comprehensive studies ever of flood risk.
Researchers at the University of Alabama used 16 different factors including the geographic hazards, the population and infrastructure exposed and the vulnerability of people living there. They then brought in past damages from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s database and applied three different artificial intelligence tools to figure out flood risks from Texas to Maine, calculating that 17.5 million people were at “very high” risk and an additional 17 million were at “high” risk, the next level.
The authors looked at all sizes of flooding and examined separately what FEMA considers the most extreme, which are the top 1% of events. The study found 4.3 million people along the coasts to be at the highest level of risk of extreme flooding, but 20.5 million to be at high risk, the second highest level.
They found a lot of vulnerability, highlighting eight different cities from Houston, which flooded in 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, to New York, which was inundated in 2012’s Superstorm Sandy.
Wednesday’s study in the journal Science Advances found that New York City has 4.75 million people at the two highest risk levels for all flooding, with more than 200,000 buildings likely to be damaged.
And while the number of people at risk in New Orleans is far lower, about 380,000, it involves 99% of the city’s population. That doesn’t mean 99% of the people will be affected in the next hurricane or nontropical flood, but that they might be depending on the storm’s individual path and rain pattern, said study co-author Wanyun Shao, a climate scientist at the University of Alabama.
“Just look at the magnitude,” Shao said. “Those numbers are shocking, are alarming.”
The elderly and poor are most at risk
“When the next big storm hits New York City, when the next Hurricane Katrina -like hurricane makes landfall in New Orleans, people will get hurt, especially those socially vulnerable populations,” Shao said referring to the poor, the elderly, children and the uneducated.
Shao and outside experts said the numbers stunned them even though they were familiar with the worsening effects of climate change.
“New York is known to be susceptible to floods and it has the largest population. But the fact that New York has nearly an order of magnitude more flood-exposed population than any other city is surprising,” said Alex de Sherbinin, a geographer who directs Columbia University’s Center for Integrated Earth System Information. He wasn’t part of the study.
Flood problems are becoming more frequent in New York and New Orleans because of human-caused climate change, the study said.
Other cities are also threatened
Jacksonville has 679,000 people at high or very high risk of flooding, while Houston is just behind at just under 600,000. Other cities highlighted include Miami, Norfolk, Virginia, Charleston, South Carolina, Mobile, Alabama.
Shao and outside experts said what separates her study from others is the sheer comprehensiveness of all the factors it considers, including sinking land and pavement that doesn’t allow water to seep into the ground, as well as incorporating human social vulnerability such as poverty and age.
“This could be applied to other places in the world, such as Manila,” said University of Virginia engineering professor Venkataraman Lakshmi, who heads the hydrology section of the American Geophysical Union, referring to the capital of the Philippines. He wasn’t part of the study, but said the flooding problems it highlights will get more frequent and intense due to human-caused climate change.
Columbia University’s Marco Tedesco, who wasn’t part of the study, said “it reinforces the crucial concept that future flood disasters are not just about water—they are about where people live, how cities are built, and who is least protected.”
Actions can lessen the risk
De Sherbinin said, “the analysis of the flood risk factors is important for local planners, emergency managers, and even highway crews and utility providers. We all know that low lying areas are more flood prone, but the data they have assembled provide more insights into flood risk, particularly for flash floods.”
Study lead author Hemal Dey, a geospatial scientist, said he hopes local officials look at not just building more dams and levees, but more natural infrastructure such as wetlands, grasslands, rain gardens and estuaries.
“The research is solid confirmation of what emergency managers have been saying for years. Realtors will hate it,’’ said Craig Fugate, a former FEMA director who wasn’t part of the study. “The harder question is what we’re actually going to do about it.”
LONGVIEW — The City of Longview is urging pet owners to take preventative measures to protect their animals due to a potential uptick in wildlife carrying diseases, including distemper.
According to the Longview Animal Care and Adoption Center (LACAC), animal control officers have responded to 26 calls involving raccoons so far this year. Although the LACAC does not frequently test animals for distemper, they stated that local raccoons are showing symptoms similar to the disease.
Distemper is a viral disease that can pose a serious risk to unvaccinated dogs as it attacks their respiratory, gastrointestinal and nervous systems. Dogs at high risk of being impacted include puppies younger than four months and dogs that have not received their vaccinations.
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TYLER – For the 17th consecutive year, the Arbor Day Foundation has named the City of Tyler a 2025 Tree City USA, honoring its continued commitment to effective urban forest management.
Tyler earned this national recognition by meeting the program’s four core requirements: maintaining a tree board or department, having a tree care ordinance, allocating at least $2 per capita toward community forestry and holding an official Arbor Day observance and proclamation.
For the tenth year, the city also received the Tree City USA Growth Award. This award recognizes environmental improvement and a higher standard of tree care. Tyler is one of only half of the current Texas Tree Cities to receive this honor.
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SMITH COUNTY – The Alzheimer’s Alliance of Smith County is partnering with local law enforcement to encourage families to consider Project Lifesaver devices as summer approaches. The program provides radio-frequency tracking bracelets to individuals with dementia who are at risk of wandering.
The initiative involves the Tyler Police Department, the Lindale Police Department and the Smith County Sheriff’s Office, who aim to quickly locate loved ones in minutes rather than hours or days.
The device emits a radio frequency signal, enabling quick location tracking if a person goes missing.The program is available to anyone who might need it, providing a crucial resource for families. Alzheimer’s CEO Bonnie Varner’s Alliance of Smith County emphasized the prevalence of Alzheimer’s and dementia in the area and the program’s potential impact.
“We estimate there’s about 4,500 people in Smith County that have Alzheimer’s or dementia,” Varner said. “This is a very underutilized resource that we would love for more people to participate in. Most people with Alzheimer’s or dementia are known to wander at some point or another, just to know that they have this and they can be found easily is such a peace of mind.”
KILGORE – Following the months-long nationwide search, Dr. Staci Martin was named as the lone finalist for President of Kilgore College on Monday. The search for the college’s next leader began in 2025, after former Kilgore College President Brenda Kays announced her retirement. Martin, who was the college’s interim president, and Tracee Watts, from Brazosport College, were chosen as the two lone finalists in March.
On Monday night at a board of trustees meeting, Martin was named as the lone finalist.
“As this process has continued, we realize that Dr. Martin was the right choice and we’re all thrilled to have her,” Kilgore College Board of Trustees President Josh Edmonson said. “[…] Dr. Martin has done a phenomenal job in the last six months as interim president. So we have no doubt that she will do a fantastic job leading the college.”
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TATUM — Six people have been hospitalized following an electrical explosion at a power plant in Tatum on Monday afternoon. According to our news partner KETK, the Rusk County Sheriff’s Office said, the explosion identified as an arc flash, occurred around 2:30 p.m. at the Martin Lake Power Plant. An arc flash is an electrical explosion caused when electricity jumps through the air, releasing extreme heat and pressure.
Following the incident, two people were airlifted to the hospital for severe injuries, while another four people were taken by vehicle to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.
The plant has returned to normal operations and the cause of the explosion is expected to be investigated by OSHA
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TYLER – Saturday’s hailstorm may be over, but the Better Business Bureau (BBB) says another danger is rolling in behind it: opportunistic “storm chasers.”
The BBB advises residents to be cautious of storm chasers who arrive unannounced and offer to repair storm damage at a low cost. Be wary of those who require advance payment or make extravagant promises they have no intention of fulfilling.
Here are some homeowner safety tips from the BBB:
*Vet the contractor carefully: Confirm they meet state and local requirements, ensure licenses are current and check BBB.org for reputable options.
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