In early July 2025, after deadly floods left more than 100 people dead and dozens missing in southern Texas, a claim circulated online that rescuers saved two young girls found clinging to a tree 30 feet in the air after being swept away by floodwater.
One X user wrote (archived): "Two girls were rescued alive, found in a tree!!!! These little angels stayed alive all on their alone [sic] for two days after being swept away in the Texas floods!!! My heart and eyes are swelling with happiness."
(X user @BarronTNews_)
The post included a screenshot from a since-retracted report detailing the alleged rescue in the Kerr County Lead, a local news outlet covering Kerrville, Texas, and the surrounding communities. The claim and screenshot also circulated on Facebook (archived), TikTok (archived), Bluesky and Reddit (archived). One X post (archived) featuring the claim had amassed 3.7 million views as of this writing. Snopes readers also wrote in to ask if the rumor was true.
The claim spread as the Kerr County Sheriff's Office said (archived) on July 7 that 10 girls from Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, and one counselor remained unaccounted for following the floods. At least 27 counselors and girls attending Camp Mystic died when the Guadalupe River burst its banks, flooding cabins at the riverside campground on July 4.
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By July 7, other news media outlets had begun to either remove their reports on the alleged rescue or report the Lead's retraction.
Another early source of the rumor, realtor-turned-rescuer Cord Shiflet, deleted his initial video talking about the alleged rescue and later apologized for sharing the claim in a separate video. In the follow-up footage, Shiflet said officials from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and "Kerr County Fire" had shared the story with rescuers before Shiflet relayed it on his Facebook account. However, given the above, we have rated this claim as false.
Snopes contacted the Texas DPS and Kerrville Fire Department (assumed to be the "Kerr County Fire" that Shiflet referenced) for evidence of the alleged rescue. DPS referred us to the Kerrville Texas Joint Information Center. We also reached out to Kendall County Sheriff's Offices to ask whether accounts of the rescue were true. We had not received replies as of this writing.
Shiflet first shared the claim on July 6, according to his follow-up Facebook live video (archived) posted at around 8 p.m. on that date. In the footage, Shiflet explained that Texas DPS and "Kerr County Fire" officials shared the rumor with rescuers earlier that day. He said (time code 00:49):
This was told to us today by DPS officials. I don't know their capacity, I don't know their name but their DPS shirts with their badges and guns and radio communications and there was another Kerr County Fire uppity-up, I don't know his position but some important guy with Kerr County who is telling us this as well.
Shiflet said he believed the officials in part because of the level of detail they provided (time-code 03:23):
We were in Ingram, which is between Kerrville and Hunt, and we were told that these girls were found in, I can't remember now if it was Comfort or Center Point, but I don't even know where those places are. I've seen them on a map and I know they're somewhere downriver, but they told us it was six miles downriver, they were 27 feet up in a tree. I mean, they gave us incredible details. These are not details I would know to make up or wouldn't even know how they would be accurate. I don't know if they're accurate; I assume Comfort or whatever is six miles down the river.
Texas DPS and Kerrville Fire Department did not immediately return requests for comment on the claim that their officials initially spread the rumor to rescuers, as stated by Shiflet.
The realtor-turned-rescuer apologized for sharing the claim about the two girls, saying: "The last thing I would ever want to do is give any false hope to any family hanging on to something."
Kerr County Sheriff's Office said (archived) in its July 6 casualty update: "Please be careful about social media rumors and misinformation. False information can cause pain to families and those already devastated by this event. Please follow the City of Kerrville - Police Department, City of Kerrville, TX - City Hall, or this page for verified information." The Kerr County Flood Event Joint Information Center also pointed to these pages as credible sources of information about the floods.
There was no confirmation of the alleged rescue on the sheriff's office page or any of the named pages, further indicating that the claim was false.