Over just two hours, the Guadalupe River at Comfort, Texas, rose from hip-height to three stories tall, sending water weighing as much as the Empire State building downstream roughly every minute it remained at its crest. The force of floodwater is often more powerful and surprising than people imagine.

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Sisters Blair Harber, 13, and Brooke Harber, 11, were killed, along with their grandparents, when surging floodwaters ripped through the community. Their parents were staying in a different home at Casa Bonita and survived, according to the family's GoFundMe.

Conspiracy theories about weather modification programs are surging online amid a torrent of misinformation following tragic flash floods that struck the US state of Texas on July 4, 2025, with posts across platforms claiming a local cloud seeding operation triggered the rainstorms.

Renee Smajstrla, a 8-year-old straight-A student from Ingram, Texas, who had played a role in her school’s production of “The Wizard of Oz,” was one of the victims who died in the flash floods at Camp Mystic, her family said.

Viral posts promoted false claims that cloud seeding, a form of weather modification, played a role in the devastation. Meteorologists explain it doesn't work that way.

The Hardins are not the only South Florida family who lost loved ones in the central Texas floods. The twin 8-year-old granddaughters of Miami childhood education advocate David Lawrence Jr. died in the floods. Hannah and Rebecca were among the girls staying at Camp Mystic.

Up to 18 inches of rain fell between Aug. 18 and Aug. 20, 2007, triggering flash floods that are still considered some of Minnesota's worst. It killed seven people and caused $179 million in damages, mostly in Winona, Fillmore and Houston counties.