The Texas National Guard continues the response to floods with the Czech team joining the effort

Kerville, Texas – With about 100 People still miss After devastating floods, the Texas National Guard and Local officials leading recovery efforts He received additional international support this week when a specialized detachment from the Czech Republic arrived ready to help.

Sixteen civilians and four corpses of a Czech search and rescue team landed on Sunday in Texas on an American military flight from the Ramstein air base in Germany.

The general head of the National Guard Office, Steve Nordhaus, coordinated the arrival of the team and met with the protagonists of the team in person on Tuesday while visiting Kerville, Texasfor updates on response efforts.

“Thank you for being here, Texas and the Czech Republic were partners from the beginning in 1993 and what an incredible association,” Nordhaus told the team leaders at the Kerville-Kerr County airport.

The National Guard of Texas y Nebraska has shared since 1993 a military relationship with the Czech Republic as part of the State Association Program of the National Guard Office that combines states with countries to train together.

There are more than 100 associations with about 115 countries worldwide, according to the National Guard, and that of the Czech Republic was one of the first after the initiative began in 1991.

Czechs who provide support from floods in Texas follow the assistance that Texas National Guard gave last year when the Czech Republic experienced serious floods.

When an flood arrived in Ostrava in the Czech Republic in September 2024, a unit of the Texas National Air Guard Unit in Europe diverted a MQ-9 reaper drone to Ostrava to provide aerial evaluations for recovery efforts.

In Texas, about 230 members of the Texas National Guard are supporting the response efforts. According to the Texas National Guard, the members of the Guard rescued more than 500 people in the initial 24 hours after the floods began. Around 360 of them were evacuated using UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.

During a Black Hawk flight on the Guadalupe River on Tuesday, Texas governor, Greg Abbott, told the areas impacted by Nordhaus floods, explaining where the water rose at a terrifying speed, which caused urgent evacuations and emphasizing how intensive it will continue to be the search for the approximately 100 people that are not yet recorded.

After the flight, both Abbott and Nordhaus talked to guard members who have helped in rescue and recovery efforts since the floods began on July 4.

One of the aerial bailouts occurred on July 4 when two guard helicopters evacuated 130 children from the Mystic Camp, a summer camp severely affected by floods that led to the death of at least 27 campers and counselors.

The 130 rescued on the day of flooding by the guard were evacuated from Camp Mystic and brought to higher land, according to Captain Connor Garrison, who directed one of the planes and told Nordhaus and Abbott’s mission.

“I thank you, I could not be more proud,” Abbott told Garrison and other members of the guard.

The Texas National Guard is receiving support from other states such as Arkansas, Arizona and Dakota del Norte, which provide additional personnel or equipment. For example, North Dakota has sent one of its own MQ-9 Reaper drones to help survey the scattered waste along the Guadalupe River still swollen.