KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — As the floodwaters started to recede from Camp Mystic, the identities of some of the campers who perished in the flash floods started to surface on Saturday, a wave of sorrow persisted.
After a storm that dumped about a foot (0.3 meters) of rain on Friday sent floodwaters rushing out of the Guadalupe River into Kerr County, a hilly area famous for its century-old summer camps, at least 43 people, including 15 children, perished. In neighboring counties, eight more persons lost their lives.
About 36 hours after the flood, state officials reported that 27 girls from Camp Mystic, a Christian camp for girls located along a river in Hunt, Texas, were still missing. Among those reported dead Saturday were the director of another camp just up the road and an 8-year-old child from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who was at Camp Mystic.
Governor Greg Abbott promised that authorities will search for the missing girls and others who were carried away by the storm that took many campers, neighbors, and officials off guard. Abbott made this commitment when touring the camp on Saturday with rescue personnel. Authorities reported that roughly 850 people have been rescued thus far, but many more are still unaccounted for.
The Hill Country area would continue to be under a flood watch until late Saturday evening, according to the National Weather Service.
At the conclusion of his Sunday lunchtime benediction, Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope in history, delivered a speech in English, giving special prayers and expressing deepest sympathies to all the families who have lost loved ones, especially their daughters who were attending summer camp.
In 1926, the camp was founded. Families are now urged to place potential campers on the waitlist years in advance because it became so popular during the ensuing decades.
Large cabins with green-shingled roofs and names like Wiggle Inn, nestled among the robust oak and cypress trees that line the Guadalupe River’s banks, are depicted in picturesque images and movies shot before to the flood. Some social media posts feature girls in matching T-shirts doing choreographed dance moves, playing kickball, fishing, or riding horses. With their arms slung over their fellow campers’ shoulders, girls between the ages of 8 and 17 smile broadly as they pose for pictures.
However, the terrain was drastically altered by the floodwaters: A pickup truck with its side stuck halfway up a tree is balancing dangerously on two wheels. One building’s wall has been completely torn off, and the interior is deserted save for paintings hanging high along one side and a Texas flag. Broken tree limbs and multicolored steamer trunks are piled next to a twisted piece of metal that may be a bedframe.
Searchers are searching the banks of the river for survivors. The faces of the missing are now the main focus of social media posts.
When a fellow teacher shared an email from the camp on the missing girls, Chloe Crane, a teacher and former counselor at Camp Mystic, said it hurt her heart.
Since Mystic is such a unique location, I must admit that I sobbed because I couldn’t fathom the horror I would feel as a counselor if I were to go through that for myself and the fifteen young ladies I’m caring for, she added. Additionally, it’s just depressing—the camp seems to have been forever, and the cabins have practically been swept away.
According to Crane, the camp offers a safe sanctuary for young females who want to become more self-assured and independent. She had fond recollections of instructing her campers in journalism, crafting, and participating in a canoe race that took place throughout the entire camp at the end of each summer. “Now, their happy place has become a horror story for many counselors and campers,” she said.
Amid questions over whether the camps and inhabitants in towns that have been at risk of flooding for a long time received the appropriate alerts, state and county officials defended their actions on Saturday.
The area was under a flood warning Thursday, and in the early hours of Friday, the National Weather Service issued several flash flood warnings. Ten inches (25.4 cm) of rain fell in the area northwest of San Antonio, compared to the government agency’s prediction of 3 to 6 inches (7.6 to 15.2 cm).
In roughly 45 minutes in the early morning, the Guadalupe River swelled to a height of 26 feet (7.9 meters), burying its flood gauge.
The nature of Camp Mystic’s evacuation plans was not immediately apparent.
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly stated that the county does not have a warning mechanism. He insisted that nobody was aware that such a flood was imminent.
Texas Game Wardens were at Camp Mystic by Friday afternoon, and they were evacuating campers. The floodwaters rushed around the knees of the girls as they crossed a bridge, a rope attached so they could cling on.
Elinor Lester, 13, reported that after wading through floodwaters, she and her cabinmates were evacuated by helicopter. Around 1:30 a.m., she remembered being startled awake by the sound of thunder crackling and water splashing against the cabin windows.
Lester was one of the older girls living on Senior Hill, a raised area. According to her, the cabins along the riverbanks that house the youngest campers—who can begin attending at age 8—were the first to flood.
She claimed that the camp had been totally demolished. It was quite frightening.
According to her mother, Elizabeth Lester, her son escaped and was in the vicinity of Camp La Junta. Water was rising in the cabin when the counselor there woke up, so he opened a window and assisted the guys in swimming out. All children and staff were safe, according to Instagram photos from neighboring Camp Waldemar and Camp La Junta.
When Elizabeth Lester saw her kid holding a book and a tiny teddy bear, she broke down in tears.
“My children are safe, but it’s killing me to know that there are still people missing,” she said.
In local Facebook groups, several of families said that safety officials had called them with heartbreaking news that their daughters were still missing amidst the fallen trees and washed-away camp cabins. In an email to the parents of the approximately 750 children, Camp Mystic stated that their child is accounted for if they have not received a direct message.
Decades before, in 1987, during destructive summer storms, a bus of teenage campers from another Christian camp along the Guadalupe River was submerged by floodwaters. After their bus failed to evacuate in time from a location close to Comfort, 33 miles (53 kilometers) east of Hunt, ten campers from Pot O Gold Christian camp perished by drowning.
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From Salt Lake City, Schoenbaum reported. Rebecca Boone, a journalist for the Associated Press, contributed from Boise, Idaho.
