An Atlanta attorney and graduate of Emory University School of Law is among those presumed dead after heavy flooding devastated parts of central Texas over the July Fourth holiday.
Josephine Hardin had been working with the Huff Powell Bailey law firm, where she spent the summer of 2022 before joining as an associate the following year. A spokesperson for the firm said Hardin and her mother, Alyson, were in Texas with family for the holiday weekend and died in the early morning hours of July 4 during the flooding.
“She was smart and beautifully quirky. She made us laugh out loud, come together and think deeply about the needs of others,” the law firm wrote in a tribute.
Hardin is among about 120 people who have died in the Hill Country region of Texas, The Associated Press reported. More than 160 people are still believed to be missing.
Hardin was admitted to the Georgia Bar in October 2023 and remained in good standing, state records show. According to the firm’s site, she focused on medical malpractice and long-term care defense.
She graduated with honors from Emory’s law school, where she served as editor-in-chief of the Emory International Law Review and was named a David Bederman Fellow of International Law, the firm said. She also graduated magna cum laude in 2019 from the University of the South, commonly known as Sewanee, in Tennessee, with a bachelor’s degree in environmental sustainability.
The Webb School, an independent college preparatory boarding school in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, posted a tribute to Hardin on July 5 when she was still believed to be missing. She graduated from the school in 2015.
“Our hearts are with the Hardin family as the search for Josephine continues after being trapped in the floodwaters in Texas. On behalf of the entire Webb community, we pray that all who are missing will soon be found safe and reunited with their loved ones. Please keep them in your thoughts,” the tribute read.
Kerr County, which is northwest of San Antonio, was hit hardest. Over just two hours, the Guadalupe River at Comfort, Texas, rose from hip height to the height of a three-story building, sending downstream the equivalent weight of the Empire State Building every minute it remained at peak level, according to the AP.
The riverbanks and hills in the area are lined with vacation cabins, youth camps and campgrounds, including Camp Mystic, a century-old all-girls Christian summer camp where at least 27 campers and counselors were killed, AP reported. Officials said five campers and one counselor remain missing.
It was the deadliest inland flooding event in the U.S. since 1976, when flooding in Colorado’s Big Thompson Canyon killed 144 people, Bob Henson, a meteorologist with Yale Climate Connections, told AP.
President Donald Trump visited Texas on Friday to survey the damage, taking an aerial tour of severely affected areas and receiving a briefing from local officials. Before the visit, he approved Gov. Greg Abbott’s request to extend the major disaster declaration beyond Kerr County, making eight additional counties eligible for federal recovery assistance.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Trump said. “A little narrow river that becomes a monster.”
Hardin is not the only person with ties to Georgia to die in the floods.
For three days, the family of Joyce Catherine Badon searched for their daughter after the Savannah College of Art and Design student went missing, according to her mother’s social media posts. She and three friends had been staying near the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas, for the July Fourth holiday when the floodwaters swept them away, Kellye Badon said.
Joyce Badon, who was from Beaumont, Texas, was a senior architecture student at SCAD, the university confirmed.
“God showed us the way we should go this morning! We found our lovely daughter, who blessed us for 21 years,” Kellye Badon posted on her public Facebook page Monday. “Thanks to everyone for the prayers and support.”
The Huff Powell Bailey firm said Hardin was a “natural leader” who believed in giving back to her community. She served as a regular volunteer at the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation, eventually becoming the firm’s liaison in 2024. She also volunteered with the Atlanta Community Food Bank and the Georgia Society of Healthcare Risk Managers.
“In the coming days and weeks, the firm will observe a period of mourning to honor Josephine’s memory and her impactful contributions to this firm, our clients and the Atlanta legal community,” the firm wrote.
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