Deadly Texas Flash Floods Kill Dozens

By Alex Miller

Rain-sodden remnants of Tropical Storm Barry dumped more than 6” (15 cm) of precipitation on Kerr County, Texas, USA in the early hours of 4 July 2025.  Rainfall rates of 2-3” (5-7 cm) per hour prompted the Guadalupe River to overflow its banks in a surge of more than 29 feet (9 m), causing devastating flash flooding across hundreds of acres of Texas hill country.  At least 129 were killed, including 38 children, with search and rescue efforts for more possible victims ongoing, including 10 girls missing from a summer camp in Hunt.

Mercury (8 Leo) is the planet most often associated with weather; we find it here opposed (180 degrees) Pluto (3 Aquarius), known as the modern lord of death, noted for destruction and devastating outcomes, depicting the loss of life (Pluto) from weather-related (Mercury) causes.  Mercury is accompanied by asteroids Lachesis (1 Leo), named for the mythic Greek Fate who determines the span of life, and Flood (7 Leo), whose application to the story is obvious.  This basic Mercury/Pluto polarity forms a T-Square pattern (two or more points opposed each other, each squared (90 degrees) a third) with asteroid Barry (0 Scorpio), the name of the Tropical Storm whose remnants created the catastrophe.

As well, the world is still in the grips of the annual conjunction of the Sun with Jupiter, a planet with a generally good reputation, but which magnifies and inflates whatever it touches, often encouraging excess.  Here we see the Sun (12 degrees) and Jupiter (5 degrees) combined in Cancer, a Water Sign, perhaps facilitating the deluge.  In addition, a second T-Square is formed, with an opposition to centaur Pholus (10 Capricorn) conjoined asteroid Rip (16 Capricorn), and squares to asteroids Nemesis (17 Libra) and Rainer (16 Libra).  Pholus is noted for mass casualties, from whatever cause (often found active in mass shootings and natural disasters); Rip functions as the acronym “RIP,” another death indicator; Nemesis represents ruin and destruction; and Rainer is a suitable celestial stand-in for “rain.”  Together they spell increased (Jupiter) loss of life (Pholus, Rip) and destruction (Nemesis) via flooding (Jupiter + Rainer).

UPDATE 7/8/25: Texas Governor Greg Abbott related that 161 persons were still known to be missing, with that number potentially higher; no survivors have been rescued since the day after the flooding.

The Mercury/Flood-Pluto opposition still reverberated as deadly flash floods took more lives in New Mexico, USA, China and Nepal on July 8th. The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Chicago, Illinois regions of the US were also inundated by record flooding, but without loss of life.

Sources: chart data from astro. com & serennu.com; statistics from Wikipedia

Title Image Credit: drawn by Craiyon

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