On July 4, 2025, exceptional rainfall caused the Guadalupe River in Texas Hill Country to rise dramatically. Waters rose 26 feet in just 45 minutes, cresting at a record 37 feet and resulting in one of the deadliest and fastest-moving flash floods in the history of the United States.
Henriques contextualizes the lack of preparation and long-term response to the events at Camp Mystic, where 27 people died to flood waters. The author also shows county-by-county differences in casualties, which they attribute to a variety of emergency preparation investments. Henriques notes the lack of substantiative data at the time of publication.