{"id":119284,"date":"2025-08-04T22:33:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T22:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/119284\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T22:33:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T22:33:15","slug":"houston-dive-teams-among-the-nationwide-effort-to-find-remaining-missing-in-texas-hill-country-flood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/119284\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston dive teams among the nationwide effort to find remaining missing in Texas Hill Country flood"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><strong>KERRVILLE, Texas<\/strong> \u2013 As the sun rises over the Guadalupe River, divers with the Harris County Sheriff\u2019s Office and Houston Police Department are already suiting up. Their mission: find the final two victims still missing after the catastrophic Texas Hill Country Flood on July 4th.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">They\u2019re not just helping\u2014they\u2019re leading the search.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cThis isn\u2019t a happy ending,\u201d said Capt. David Jasper of the Harris County Sheriff\u2019s Office Marine Unit. \u201cMore than 130 people lost their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The numbers are staggering. The flood affected roughly 127 river miles from Camp Mystic to Canyon Lake, sweeping through Kerrville, Center Point, Hunt, and beyond. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">That\u2019s the equivalent of driving from downtown Houston to Galveston two and a half times\u2014except every mile here is water, often murky and dangerous.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cWe\u2019re literally looking for a needle in a haystack,\u201d Jasper said.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 kDvXdO font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\"\/><\/ul>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The teams from Houston have been in the Texas Hill Country for over a week, called in to support overtaxed local crews in one of the most expansive and complex waterborne searches in recent state history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">When KPRC 2 documented their search effort, they were assigned to a portion of the Guadalupe River called Nimitz Lake. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cWe\u2019re here for the public. We\u2019re here for the families,\u201d Jasper said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Among those still missing is 8-year-old Cile Steward, a camper at Camp Mystic who was swept away in the raging Guadalupe River.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Instead of combing every inch of the riverbed, a task that would take months, the Houston dive teams are using advanced sonar scanning to identify underwater anomalies. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Once marked with buoys, divers can then physically inspect the locations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cA lot of it\u2019s just debris piles,\u201d said Sgt. Benjamin Luce of the Harris County dive team. \u201cBecause here, especially upriver, a lot of things are very shallow, so there\u2019s not much really peaking oranges.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">But unlike standard teams, these divers are equipped with head-mounted sonar, allowing them to scan the riverbed in real time\u2014underwater.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 kDvXdO font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\"\/><\/ul>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Only about 30 dive units in the world have this tech. Houston Police and the Harris County Sheriff\u2019s Office are among them. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cHe can avoid obstacles, he can avoid hazards and he\u2019s going straight to that target,\u201d added Sgt. Edward Godwin of the Houston Police Department\u2019s dive team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The physical work is punishing. But it\u2019s the emotional toll that sticks with the divers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><b>Gage Goulding:<\/b> \u201cYou have kids. I can only imagine, you know, you\u2019re out here. This is probably something that is personal for you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><b>Sgt. Godwin:<\/b> \u201cFor sure. We met the family and I can\u2019t even imagine.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><b>Gage Goulding:<\/b> \u201cDoes that make the job even more important?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><b>Sgt. Godwin: <\/b>\u201cOh, for sure. Every day, yeah. The one thing: we need to find her. That\u2019s what\u2019s driving us. The whole team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KERRVILLE, Texas \u2013 As the sun rises over the Guadalupe River, divers with the Harris County Sheriff\u2019s Office&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":119285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[61170,31463,8580,31078,6386,8323,33212,4345,5429,34227,40037,30887,30742,728,358,42653,10431,74406,3187,61,313],"class_list":{"0":"post-119284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-center-point","9":"tag-comfort","10":"tag-flooding","11":"tag-guadalupe-river","12":"tag-harris-county","13":"tag-harris-county-sheriffs-office","14":"tag-hill-country-floods","15":"tag-houston","16":"tag-houston-police-department","17":"tag-hunt","18":"tag-ingram","19":"tag-kerr-county","20":"tag-kerrville","21":"tag-local-news","22":"tag-texas","23":"tag-texas-department-of-public-safety","24":"tag-texas-hill-country","25":"tag-texas-hill-country-flood","26":"tag-tx","27":"tag-u-s-news","28":"tag-weather"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114972878704098569","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}