It was a miraculous story: two girls rescued alive, nearly 30 feet up in a tree, two days after a devastating flood hit the Texas Hill Country and claimed the lives of more than 100 people.
The story was reported in local media and shared hundreds of times across several social media platforms. It was an inspiring tale, giving people a glimmer of hope during a tumultuous time.
But just as quickly as it spread, the story was debunked by state and local officials as an all-too-common case of misinformation during a disaster.
One of the earliest versions of the story came out of a social media post by Cord Shiflet, a volunteer helping with search and cleanup Sunday. His Facebook Live video, now deleted, claimed he and other volunteers, “got news that two girls were found 27 feet up in a tree, alive.”
Once news broke that the story wasn’t true, Shiflet posted another video apologizing for sharing the story, claiming the information came from Texas Department of Public Safety officials.
“I don’t know their capacity. I don’t know their name, but [they had] DPS shirts with their badges and guns and radio communications,” Shiflet said in the video.
KERA News reached out to Texas DPS and will update this story with any response.
But Shiflet wasn’t the only one caught up in what turned out to be a fake story. Another Facebook post, from former Kerrville Police Officer Dannielle Reeh — also deleted — shared details similar to Shiflet’s post.
People were filled with hope after seeing the story on The Kerr County Lead, a local news outlet, stating the girls had been found near the city of Comfort, Texas, about 20 minutes southeast of Kerrville. Editor Louis Amestoy initially felt skeptical about publishing the story — there was no footage of the girls being saved.
But the messages about the rescue kept coming in, Amestoy said, and the information was coming from volunteers and even alleged eyewitnesses at the scene.
“All the volunteers were hearing the story, so it spread through that volunteer community, and it went crazy,” Amestoy said in an interview with KERA News.
Amestoy said he didn’t reach out to local officials for confirmation because he did not expect them to confirm the rescue, even if it was true. Despite his doubts, Amestoy decided to publish based on what he was told to him, hoping it would provide some good news during a tragic time.
But Kerr County Sherriff Larry Leitha later confirmed to Amestoy the story was completely inaccurate, and Amestoy immediately retracted the article.
“Like everyone, we wanted this story to be true, but it’s a classic tale of misinformation that consumes all of us during a natural disaster,” he wrote in an editor’s note.
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, also took to social media to confirm Sunday’s story was false.
“The story of rescues in Kendall County was NOT true,” Roy wrote on X. “Please be careful regarding possible fake news, even if well intended... It’s not fair to families and it distracts law enforcement…”
Ben Bentzin, an associate marketing professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said it's important for both consumers of media and news outlets to have evidence of any claims posted online.
"Each one of us has an individual responsibility to think to ourselves, ‘Is what I'm passing on, does it make sense? Is there some way I could confirm it before I pass it along?’” Bentzin said.
But it’s also easier to fall victim to misinformation in times of disaster, when people are desperate for any good news.
"There is an understandable desire in a tragedy like this to have as much information as possible and as quickly as possible,” Bentzin said. “But sometimes the interest in the speed of information winds up overwhelming the truth, as it did in this case."
However, there were several cases of people who were rescued — including people who were rescued from trees. Officials said more than 850 people had been rescued as of Monday. More than 400 first responders from over 20 agencies have been assisting with the search and rescue efforts in Kerr County.
Amestoy said some people continued to believe the false story to be true even after it was retracted.
“The [bad] part about it is that we gave people hope for a little bit in a difficult situation,” Amastoy said.
“There’s people out there who see an opportunity and they will either do something to enhance themselves on this, see how far we get the media to bite on this,” Amestoy said. “They got me to bite, unfortunately.”
Got a tip? Email Penelope Rivera at privera@kera.org.
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