Following floodwaters that swept through the state’s south-central area overnight, Texas parents frantically shared pictures of their young daughters on social media along with requests for information after an all-girls summer camp went missing on Friday.
In only a few hours, months of intense rain dropped on the Texas Hill Country, leaving at least 13 people dead and hundreds missing, according to Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha. Centuries-old summer camps dot the flood-prone area, attracting thousands of children each year from all around the Lone Star State.
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About 23 girls who were enrolled in Camp Mystic, a Christian camp located near Hunt, Texas, along the Guadalupe River, went missing Friday afternoon, according to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Teams of searchers were attempting to navigate the swiftly flowing floodwaters.
“This afternoon, I’m asking the people of Texas to pray fervently and on your knees that we find these young girls,” Patrick stated.
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. Some were waiting to find out if helicopter evacuation was an option for their kids. According to Patrick, the search was being conducted by nine rescue teams, fourteen helicopters, and twelve drones.
In an email to parents, Camp Mystic stated that their child is accounted for if they had not received a direct message. According to safety officials, there were about 750 campers.
More than a hundred people gathered in a courtyard at a local elementary school serving as a reunification center, hoping to see their loved one get off buses that were dropping off evacuated people. As she watched the buses come, a small girl in a Camp Mystic T-shirt stood in a puddle in her white stockings, crying in her mother’s arms while rubbing her hands together.
Many families wanted to see loved ones who had visited nearby mobile home parks and campgrounds.
According to Austin Dickson, CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, a charity endowment that is raising money to support NGOs assisting with the crisis, Camp Mystic is located on a strip known as “flash flood alley.”
According to Dickson, water does not seep into the ground when it rains. Down the hill it rushes.
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.
According to Camp Mystic leaders, the highway that leads to the camp has washed away, and they are without running water, Wi-Fi, or electricity.
Instagram posts from Camp Waldemar and Camp La Junta, two additional camps on the river, reported that all of their staff and campers were safe.
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From Salt Lake City, Schoenbaum reported.
