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Search for Texas campers presses on Death toll rises to 82 as officials warn more rain, flooding likely BY JIM VERTUNO and JOHN SEEWER Associated Press
KERRVILLE, Texas — Families sifted through waterlogged debris Sunday and stepped inside empty cabins at Camp Mystic, an allgirls summer camp ripped apart
THE
Volunteers search for flood survivors along the banks of the Guadalupe River on Sunday in Hunt, Texas.
pounding Texas, Gov. Greg AbINSIDE bott said there were 41 people confirmed to be unaccounted for ä Louisiana across the state and more could sends first be missing. responders. In Kerr County, home to Camp by flash floods that washed homes Mystic and other youth camps in Page 4A off their foundations and killed at the Texas Hill Country, search- ä How least 82 people in central Texas. ers have found the bodies of 68 weather Rescuers maneuvering through people, including 28 children, conditions led challenging terrain continued Sheriff Larry Leitha said in the to once-intheir desperate search for the afternoon. missing, including 10 girls and a He pledged to keep searching a-generation event. Page counselor from the camp. For the ä See SEARCH, page 4A 4A first time since the storms began
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By RODOLFO GONZALEZ
BEAR NECESSITIES
Fort Polk reversal draws cheers, sorrow
Trump administration says old name honors different person BY JENNA ROSS Staff writer
STAFF PHOTOS By LESLIE WESTBROOK
A golden orb weaver spider hangs out on a snare of its own as Hunter Hicks, a technician supervisor in the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Bear Program, left, and program biologist Tony Vidrine replace a bait bag and a raspberryscented attractant above a bear hair snare in St. Mary Parish.
Low-tech methods used to track former endangered species’ population in Atchafalaya Basin as state determines hunting limits BY AIDAN McCAHILL Staff writer
Tony Vidrine jerks his head to one side, then the other, dodging briars as he maneuvers his ATV through thick underbrush. It’s the hour before the day’s heat becomes oppressive, when the last of the morning dew still clings to knee-high blades of grass. Cruising ahead of him is
21-year-old Hunter Hicks, a recent Northwestern State University graduate. The two are traveling to a hunting camp in St. Mary Parish, hoping the bait they set the week before will prove fruitful. After working for 40 years as a biologist for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Vidrine spends his
ä See BEAR, page 3A
Bear hair is snagged in a barb in a snare Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries agents use to track the state’s black bear population.
ESSENCE FESTIVAL OF CULTURE l DAy 2
Main acts share Saturday stage at the Dome
E Keith Spera
rykah Badu didn’t intend to share the spotlight during the 2025 Essence Festival of Culture’s second night in the Caesars Superdome. But on Saturday she found herself engaged in an unexpected virtual “duet” with American Sign Language interpreter Cheyenne Atkins. Badu, the Mad Hatter of contemporary soul, noticed Atkins on the Superdome’s massive LED screen above the terrace level seats. A close-up view of Atkins filled the screen’s right half; a distant view of Badu filled the other. “Is there a way you can make her portion
ä See ESSENCE, page 5A
WEATHER HIGH 93 LOW 76 PAGE 6B
Erykah Badu performs Saturday at the Caesars Superdome during the Essence Festival of Culture’s second night. STAFF PHOTO By JOHN McCUSKER
Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................3B Nation-World................2A Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Opinion ........................4B Commentary ................5B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
Two years ago, with flags, speeches and the clang of a hammer, Fort Polk became Fort Johnson, shedding its Confederate namesake and honoring a Black World War I hero. Now, in another ceremony this month, Louisiana’s largest military installation will become Fort Polk once again. But the base’s old name now refers to a new person: Gen. James H. Polk, awarded the Silver Star for his World War II service. To many in the conservative, veteran-heavy Vernon Parish, the move is a welcome reversal, returning the fort to the name they’d continued using anyway. “If you did a poll, you would probably find 90% are happy,” said Phillip Hunt, an at-large council member in Leesville. “That’s what they’ve known it as.” But to the family of Sgt. William Henry Johnson — who was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart in 1996, the Distinguished Service Cross in 2002 and the Medal of Honor in 2015 — the move is a disappointment in the long fight for Johnson to get the recognition he deserves. His granddaughter Tara Johnson doesn’t want to fight anymore. Some have suggested that the name change, one of seven that President Donald Trump announced in June, could be reversed in four years, Johnson said by phone this week. “No, it won’t. Please don’t do that,” she said. “Take all seven of them and name them after something new. “Something new and vibrant that is not tainted by racism.” Members of both Polk and Johnson’s families have been invited to the Friday renaming ceremony, spokesperson Chuck Cannon said. Officials are looking at ways to honor Johnson at the base, he said, naming a street or building after him. “We will somehow honor him.” Founded in the early 1940s, the fort originally bore the name of Leonidas Polk, a Confederate general, slave owner and Louisiana’s first Episcopal bishop. The name change, required after Congress approved the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021, was part of a broader effort to remove the
ä See FORT, page 3A
12TH yEAR, NO. 329