Wife and daughter of a key FIU dean are among the missing in Texas floods
The wife and daughter of William G. Hardin III, dean of the College of Business at Florida International University, are among the dozens of presumed dead after catastrophic flooding swept through Central Texas in the predawn hours of July 4.
According to multiple sources, including a letter from the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida and a statement from The Webb School, a college preparatory school in Tennessee, the Hardin family’s home in Hunt, Texas, was washed away by floodwaters while the family was inside. Dean Hardin survived the disaster, but his wife, Alyson, and their daughter, Josephine, are missing and presumed dead, the bishop wrote.
Hunt is in Kerr County, the county hit hardest by the floods.
William “Bill” Hardin has been dean of FIU’s College of Business since May 2021.
“This is an unfathomable loss for the Hardin family, for All Saints, and for our diocese,” wrote the Right Rev. Peter Eaton in a letter to parishioners. Alyson had served as senior warden at All Saints Episcopal Church in Fort Lauderdale and was a trustee of Sewanee: The University of the South, the Episcopal college in Tennessee where Josephine had graduated.
“The bodies of Alyson and Josephine have not yet been recovered,” Bishop Eaton wrote in his July 6 letter.
Josephine, a 2015 graduate of The Webb School and an attorney at Huff Powell Bailey in Atlanta, was known for her work in medical malpractice and long-term care defense. She was a 2023 graduate of Emory University School of Law.
“Our hearts are with the Hardin family as the search for Josephine ‘15 continues,” read a statement from Webb School. “Please keep them in your thoughts.”
Alyson Hardin was a financial consultant with Equitable Advisors in Fort Lauderdale, per her LinkedIn page, and was deeply involved in community and church life, according to Bishop Eaton’s letter.
FIU also acknowledged the Hardin family tragedy.
“Please keep him [Bill Hardin], his family, and everyone touched by this disaster in your thoughts and prayers,” FIU President Jeanette M. Nuñez wrote in a July 5 email to students and faculty.
A university spokesperson said Thursday the dean would not be commenting.
More than 100 confirmed dead
As of Friday, more than 120 people have been confirmed dead from the flooding, including 27 children and counselors at Camp Mystic, a girls’ Christian camp in Hunt that sits along the banks of the Guadalupe River. The river rose to 26 feet — the height of a two-story building — in about 45 minutes in the early-morning hours of July 4, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said during a news conference.
At least 160 people were still missing as of Friday morning.
The Hardins are not the only South Florida family who lost loved ones in the central Texas floods.
The twin 8-year-old granddaughters of Miami early childhood education advocate David Lawrence Jr., a former Miami Herald publisher, died in the floods. Hanna and Rebecca, who had just finished second grade, were among the girls staying at Camp Mystic, a beloved camp founded 99 years ago.
“It has been an unimaginable time for all of us. Hanna and Rebecca gave their parents John and Lacy and sister Harper, and all in our family, so much joy,” Lawrence said in a statement to the Herald. “They and that joy can never be forgotten.”
Harper, the twins’ 14-year-old sister, also was at the camp. She survived.
READ MORE: Granddaughters of Miami childhood education advocate David Lawrence die in Texas flood
Hunt, in the heart of Texas Hill Country in western Kerr County, is where Miami-Dade Fire Rescue’s Urban Search and Rescue Florida Task Force One is deployed alongside federal, state and local emergency responders. They’ve been working along the Guadalupe River.
This story was originally published July 10, 2025 at 2:37 PM.