The recorded death toll from a devastating flash flood that swept through a Central Texas campground last summer has climbed to 44 victims, including four children, according to recently submitted court filings. The catastrophic event unfolded during the early morning hours of July 4, 2025, when surging waters from the Guadalupe River overwhelmed the HTR TX Hill Country RV Park and Campground situated near Ingram.
This updated fatality count marks the campground as the single deadliest site of the regional disaster. Across several Central Texas counties, the wider flooding event claimed a total of 136 lives, meaning that the fatalities at the Ingram recreational vehicle park accounted for nearly one-third of the entire disaster's death toll.
In the wake of the tragedy, four separate lawsuits have been brought forward against the commercial property's owners and operating entities. Two of the pending legal actions have been consolidated by the court and are currently slated to go before a jury trial in Kerrville next summer. The most recent complaint was entered on August 24 by a grieving family member who lost five relatives spanning three generations in the floodwaters.
The legal complaints accuse the resort's ownership, regional management, and on-site operators of negligence and gross negligence, with three of the cases formally asserting wrongful death claims. Plaintiffs contend that the business failed to take basic protective steps to safeguard visitors who had gathered at the campground for the holiday weekend.
In response to the litigation, representatives for the campground have pushed back against the accusations. A spokesperson for the facility issued a formal statement denying the claims as meritless, while expressing ongoing condolences and noting that the regional flooding was a devastating tragedy for the community.
Central to the plaintiffs' arguments is the timeline of severe weather notifications preceding the disaster. Official meteorological alerts warning of hazardous conditions began circulating on July 2, 2025, roughly two days prior to the peak of the storm, and persisted into the early morning of July 4. Attorneys for the victims argue that these alerts provided approximately 20 distinct opportunities for management to comprehend the impending danger, alert campers, and initiate an orderly evacuation.
Court filings state that multiple levels of company personnel—ranging from on-site supervisors to regional directors and corporate officials—received these continuous weather bulletins. Despite this information, the lawsuits allege that the defendants failed to heed the repeated warnings and allowed guests to remain in hazardous low-lying terrain until it was too late to escape.
The complaints further assert that at least one resort employee was explicitly alerted between 2:30 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. that nearby areas were actively undergoing emergency evacuations. However, the lawsuits state that staff took no immediate operational measures to awaken or rescue the guests staying on the property.
It was not until 4:49 a.m. that the general manager of the facility, Ilana Callahan, transmitted a text message to registered guests advising them of evacuation directives. By that moment, floodwaters had already inundated the grounds to lethal levels, cutting off routes of escape and trapping campers in their trailers and recreational vehicles.
Court documents paint a harrowing picture of the terror experienced by visitors as the river rapidly overflowed. Jeffrey Kent Ramsey, 63, of Lewisville, and his wife Tanya, 46, were lodged in a camper positioned near the riverbank. Trapped by the rising flood, Ramsey placed final telephone calls to his children to express his love, during which his wife could be heard screaming in panic in the background. Ramsey's body has never been recovered, and his surviving family members are among the active litigants.
The raging water also claimed the lives of Robert Leroy Brake Sr., 67, and Joni Kay Brake, 66, of Abilene, who were staying nearby. Another affected group included 23-year-old Odessa police officer Bailey Martin and his 22-year-old fiancée, Ector County juvenile probation officer Jayda Floyd, both of whom died alongside Martin’s father, Bobby Martin, 46, and stepmother, Amanda Martin, 44.
Other victims identified in the wrongful death filings include Richard Pagard, 71, and Carol Andrews, 65, of Kerrville; Cody Crossland, 45, and Shellie Crossland, 50, of Midland; Linda Bason, 78, and her daughter Deana Hillock, 57, of San Antonio; and Jeffrey Wilson, 55, his wife Amber Wilson, 45, and their 12-year-old son Shiloh Wilson, of Coldspring. The deceased also include William Bruce Ferguson III, 82, and Penny Ferguson, 76, from the Odessa region, as well as 72-year-old Steve Edwards of San Angelo, whose wife Marilyn sustained injuries while attempting to flee their swept-away RV.
The immense force of the Guadalupe River completely reshaped the landscape, dislodging structures from their concrete foundations and carrying off cabins, personal vehicles, and large trailers. Filings describe the once-thriving vacation destination as being reduced to a barren wasteland in the aftermath of the torrential surge.
In addition to communication failures, the legal actions accuse the facility's operators of operating without necessary flood contingency plans, emergency protocols, or critical life-saving equipment designed for rapid-onset river surges.
In defense motions filed on behalf of Callahan and operating company Blue Water Development, legal counsel argued that the resort never represented itself as having 24-hour staffing or active safety monitoring. The filings stated that guests acknowledged personal responsibility for their own safety and noted that Callahan had completed her work shift at 6:00 p.m. the evening before the disaster occurred.
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