At least 5 dead and 2 missing in San Antonio after heavy rains flood parts of Texas

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Heavy rains in San Antonio rapidly flooded roads, swept away submerged cars and sent some people scrambling up trees to escape fast-rising waters Thursday while firefighters made dozens of rescues across the nation’s seventh-largest city. At least five people died and two were still missing, authorities said.

The deaths all occurred in the northeast part of the city, where authorities found over a dozen vehicles in the water. More than a dozen smashed and overturned vehicles littered a creek after being tossed and carried by floodwaters.

Some of the people rescued in that area said they were swept off an interstate access road by “sudden fast rising water,” San Antonio Fire Department spokesperson Joe Arrington said in an email. He said floodwaters swept vehicles into a creek and carried them downstream.

Crews brought in search dogs Thursday afternoon to help find missing people, Arrington said.

By afternoon, crews could be seen pulling heavily damaged vehicles out of the creek.

Calls for water rescues began before sunrise, officials said. Two women and two men were found dead, according to police Chief William McManus, who did not have their ages.

The fire department made 70 water rescues, officials said. Fire officials said that while most of the rescue calls consisted of crews helping drivers from vehicles that were stalled in high water, several "harrowing" calls involved their crews entering swift-moving water to rescue someone.

Fire officials said in a press release that the rescue effort in the area where the people were found dead was “extremely difficult." Officials said 10 people whose cars had been swept away in that area were rescued from trees and bushes about a mile from where they had entered the water.

The flooding occurred after a round of slow-moving showers and thunderstorms in the San Antonio area during the early morning hours Thursday, said Eric Platt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Over 7 inches (17 centimeters) of rain fell in parts of the San Antonio area, according to the weather service.

By midmorning, flooding was receding, though Platt noted that rain was still falling in some areas. He didn’t expect additional rain to be as heavy as overnight but said anything that falls on saturated ground can lead to flooding.

Stengle reported from Dallas.

A crew works near a vehicle that was swept away in floodwaters in San Antonio, Texas, on Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi)

Vehicles sit in the river after being swept away by floodwaters in San Antonio, Tx., Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi)

Authorities respond after vehicles were swept away by floodwaters in San Antonio, Tx., on Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi)

A police vehicle blocks a flooded roadway in San Antonio, Tx., where a vehicle was stranded after heavy rains in the city on Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi)

A police vehicle blocks a flooded roadway in San Antonio, Tx., where a vehicle was stranded after heavy rains in the city on Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi)

JERUSALEM (AP) — A former close aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that immediately following the October 2023 Hamas attack that triggered Israel’s two-year war in Gaza, the Israeli leader instructed him to figure out how the premier could evade responsibility for the security breach.

Former Netanyahu spokesperson Eli Feldstein, who faces trial for allegedly leaking classified information to the press, made the explosive accusation during an extensive interview with Israel’s Kan news channel Monday night.

Critics have repeatedly accused Netanyahu of refusing to accept blame for the deadliest attack in Israel’s history. But little is known about Netanyahu’s behavior in the days immediately following the attack, while the premier has consistently resisted an independent state inquiry.

Speaking to Kan, Feldstein said “the first task” he received from Netanyahu after Oct. 7, 2023, was to stifle calls for accountability.

“He asked me, ‘What are they talking about in the news? Are they still talking about responsibility?’” Feldstein said. “He wanted me to think of something that could be said that would offset the media storm surrounding the question of whether the prime minister had taken responsibility or not.”

He added that Netanyahu looked “panicked” when he made the request. Feldstein said he was later told by people in Netanyahu's close circle to omit the word “responsibility” from all statements.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 hostages back to Gaza. Israel then launched a devastating war in Gaza that has killed nearly 71,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around half the deaths were women and children.

Netanyahu’s office called the interview a “long series of mendacious and recycled allegations made by a man with clear personal interests who is trying to deflect responsibility from himself,” Hebrew media reported.

Feldstein’s statements come after his indictment in a case where he is accused of leaking classified military information to a German tabloid to improve public perception of the prime minister following the killing of six hostages in Gaza in August of last year.

Feldstein is also a suspect in the “Qatargate” scandal, one of two close aides to Netanyahu accused of accepting money from Qatar while also working for the prime minister.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a joint press conference after a trilateral meeting with Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Citadel of David Hotel in Jerusalem, Monday Dec. 22, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP)