Coast Guard rescue swimmer saves nearly 200 from Texas floods in first mission
'This was the first rescue mission of his career, and he was the only triage coordinator at the scene,' Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said Saturday on X. 'His selfless courage embodies the spirit and mission of the @USCG.'
U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Scott Ruskan, an aviation survival technician 3rd class stationed in Corpus Christi, directly saved 165 people from rising floodwaters in Kerr County, said Noem.
Over the weekend, storms inundated central Texas with rain, leading to flash floods and at least 104 deaths, including at least 27 children and counselors at an all-girls Christian camp, Camp Mystic.
The torrential rains caused the Guadalupe River to surge 26 feet in just 45 minutes, washing away homes, cars and entire campgrounds.
In Kerr County, Texas, which was most impacted by the floods, at least 56 adults and 28 children were killed.
Ruskan was sent to Camp Mystic, where he found himself alone with close to 200 children who were "all scared, terrified, cold, having probably the worst day of their lives," Ruskan said in an interview with Good Morning America.
'I saw a huge crowd of about 200 kids at a campsite,' he said during an appearance on 'Fox & Friends' on the morning of July 5. 'We were like, 'Cool, that's where we're going to go and get as many people out as we can.''
This was Ruskan's first rescue mission, he said.
"I really just relied on the training we get," said Ruskan. "Coast Guard rescue swimmers get some of the highest-level training in the world."
Ruskan, who grew up in New Jersey, graduated from Rider University in 2021.
Ruskan's LinkedIn page lists him as a rescue swimmer with the Coast Guard since 2022. His actions have drawn national attention as the region continues its recovery efforts.
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New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
Horrifying Texas flood before-and-after images show devastating damage at Camp Mystic
Devastating new satellite images reveal the extent of the Texas floods destruction at Camp Mystic and all along the Guadeloupe River. Aerial photographs of the Christian girls' summer camp that bore the brunt of Friday's flooding show trees swept away, cabins devastated and debris scattered across the site. Mud traveled hundreds of feet after the Guadalupe River rose an astonishing 27 feet in just 45 minutes. At least 119 people have been killed across the Lone Star State. In Kerry County, where Camp Mystic is located, 95 people have been found dead — and 150 others are still missing. Advertisement 5 This satellite image of Camp Mystic, taken after the flood, shows the damage that the raging water caused — including to the Bubble Inn, a cabin where every camper was swept away. Falon Wriede / NY Post Design The before and after pictures demonstrate the effects the flooding had on the area in Central Texas Advertisement The images provided by Maxar Technologies show an entire bank of trees alongside the river laid to waste. Dozens of emergency vehicles can also be seen in the aftermath pictures, taken on Tuesday. At least 27 of the dead were campers or counselors at Camp Mystic, many of them 8 or 9 years old. Advertisement 5 The campers and counselors from the Bubble Inn cabin at Camp Mystic. Facebook The images also show the location of the Bubble Inn, where all 13 campers and both counselors either died or are still missing. It appears to be located farther from the river than some of the other cabins. Five campers and one counselor are still missing, officials said on Wednesday, while another child not associated with the camp is also missing, according to Texas Governor Greg Abbott. The camp's owner and director, Dick Eastland, 74, also died in the flooding. Advertisement There have been no 'live rescues' since Friday, and the chances of finding further survivors is decreasing with each passing day, Jonathan Lamb with the Kerrville Police Department said at a press conference. At least 10 others are missing elsewhere across Texas, officials said on Wednesday. Follow The Post's coverage on the deadly Texas flooding A total of 650 people including around 550 children were staying at Camp Mystic when the Guadalupe River burst its banks early on Friday morning, according to inspection reports released by the Texas Department of State Health Services. Most of the older campers were staying in cabins on Senior Hill, and were less affected by the flooding, as aerial images show. However, the cabins for younger campers, along with other facilities such as the Dining Hall, Rec Hall, and camp office, were all directly in the path of the floods. Advertisement Emergency crews are covering a long stretch of the Guadalupe River, between the towns of Hunt in Kerr County, and Comfort, over the border in Kendall County. Kerr County residents were urged to shelter in place and avoid areas of destruction during a Wednesday press conference. Advertisement 'Our first responders are trying to get to places to do their jobs, and people coming here from outside the community and people within the community who want to go sightsee and look at the river, see the flood damage, making our job very hard,' Jonathan Lamb said. 'We ask folks to give us room to work.' 5 Inside a cabin in Camp Mystic that was devastated by flooding. REUTERS Advertisement 5 The death toll from the floods has now risen to 119, with at least 171 still missing. AP 5 The belongings of campers at Camp Mystic piled up outside a building after flooding hit the camp on July 7, 2025. AP County residents were also warned not to try and search through the huge debris piles still lining the river without contacting authorities. 'We asked them not to use heavy equipment to take down those debris piles until they've been checked by a search party, because it's possible there are victims in that debris pile,' said Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha.
USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
These Mexican camp counselors put on 'brave faces' to protect girls during Texas floods
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo recognized Garza and Zarate for protecting Camp Mystic girls. Two 19-year-old Camp Mystic counselors knew tragedy had unfolded in other cabins early in the morning hours of July 4. But they were responsible for the girls in their own bunk, who knew enough to be upset and worried. So the two teens hid their own fears and focused on distracting and entertaining the younger girls from the moment they awakened until they were evacuated by military vehicles around dinnertime. 'We had to put on brave faces so the girls wouldn't know,' Silvana Garza told the Mexican news outlet NMás. Garza and fellow counselor María Paula Zárate, both Mexican nationals at the camp for the summer, have been recognized for their heroism by Mexico's president. Their story has also gone viral on social media. Their crisis began in the early hours of July 4, as heavy rainfall knocked out the camp's power. The storm sounded like a scary movie, Garza said later. The camp, nestled between the banks of the Guadalupe River and its Cypress Creek tributary, had just begun its monthlong term for hundreds of girls. Attending Camp Mystic is a summertime ritual for generations of Texas families. The Christian camp is remote, about 90 miles northwest of San Antonio. Garza and Zárate were watching girls in the camp's newer site, up in the hills and away from the original campsite down by the Guadalupe River. It wasn't until hours later that the teens realized the original campsite, where they had slept just the week before, had been destroyed. At least 27 campers as young as 8 were swept away in the raging floodwaters. Nearly a dozen more remain missing. For hours, as Garza and Zárate waited for more information, they sang songs and played games with the girls. They instructed the girls to pack their belongings to prepare to evacuate. They had them put on name badgesand wrote their names on their skin where it was visible, Zárate said. If they had a favorite stuffed animal, counselors instructed them to bring it along with suitcases. Though the counselors tried to remain positive, the girls were scared. 'They wanted to be with their parents,' Garza said. Finally around 6 p.m., the counselors were alerted that more flooding was on the way. They had to evacuate. They passed through the original campsite by the Guadalupe River. Mattresses and clothes hung in the trees, Garza recalled to Univision 41. Tables floated along the river. 'I felt like I was in a dream,' she said in Spanish. 'I didn't think it was real.' In an evacuation center, 19 miles away in Kerrville, they saw similar damage of houses uprooted and turned aside. Cars were lodged in trees ‒ a sign of how high the water rose, Garza noted. Eventually, their campers were reunited with their families. Garza and Zárate also saw parents whose children were missing. "That was the worst part of the day," Garza told Univision 41. She later added, "I couldn't explain the feeling of being a parent and not seeing your daughter not being there." Garza had planned to stay for weeks at Camp Mystic, but she said she would return to Mexico early. From one day to the next, everything can change, Garza said. On the morning of July 7, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo expressed condolences for the lives lost in the floods. She also recognized Garza and Zárate for their efforts helping save camp attendees. 'They make us proud,' she said. Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Reach him by email at emcuevas1@ or on Signal at emcuevas.01.
USA Today
3 hours ago
- USA Today
'She saved my life:' Houston woman lost to Texas flooding was selfless to the end
Randy Schaffer met his wife Mollie in June 1967, just weeks after they graduated from high school. They'd been together ever since, with two sons and several grandchildren. In the end, the Houston criminal defense lawyer wrote in a moving post on social media, only the raging waters of the Guadalupe River could separate them. In the early morning hours of July 4, the river swelled to historic and deadly proportions as heavy rainfall doused central Texas, producing massive flooding that so far has claimed the lives of more than 100 people, with at least 161 still missing. The floodwaters tore through homes, riverside campgrounds and hotels and a beloved Christian girls camp in Kerr County, where 27 children and counselors perished. In Hunt, Texas, where the River Inn Resort and Conference Center advertises its waterfront location as a "serene escape from the outside world," the surging Guadalupe swept through the complex, taking vacationing travelers by surprise. Among them were Randy and Mollie Schaffer. Mollie would not survive. Kent Schaffer, who like brother Randy is also a criminal defense attorney in Houston, described his sister-in-law as 'an incredibly nice person' who never had a bad thing to say about anyone and always followed through if someone asked for help. A devotee of the theater, she was an ardent arts supporter, he said. The Schaffer brothers, while Jewish, were not practicing, but Mollie, who had converted to Judaism, would nonetheless cook elaborate Passover dinners. 'She became more Jewish than all of us,' Kent Schaffer told USA TODAY. 'Everything she made was pretty. She didn't serve food in tin pans. It looked like a work of art.' Still, being a good person was Mollie's specialty, he said, a beacon of warmth who all the kids rushed to hug at holiday gatherings. 'People would say, 'she's a saint' – mostly because she could put up with all of us,' he said. 'Especially in a family of lawyers. We're very contentious, passionate people.' The weather had seemed fine, Randy Schaffer wrote on Facebook, when the couple turned in for the night on July 3 at the River Inn Resort, where they were marking their 46th year visiting the riverfront area with an ever smaller group of law school friends. 'They'd meet there every summer for an extended weekend,' Kent Schaffer said. 'It was always the same hotel. They'd float around the river and have barbecues. That's the way they'd stay in touch with each other.' Around 3 a.m. Friday, the couple awoke to loud banging on their door, Randy Schaffer wrote. It was the manager, telling them they had to evacuate immediately 'because the river was about to overflow the banks.' 'I looked out the window and saw the river raging like Niagara Falls,' he wrote. At the manager's direction, he wrote, they got into Mollie's SUV and began driving toward a nearby hill. Instead, they saw cars ahead of them turning around to rush back the other way. They stopped on the shoulder of the road as the water quickly rose around the vehicle, sweeping it into the current. The car hit a tree, he wrote, then spun onto the road again. 'We knew that we had to get out of the car,' he said. 'However, the doors wouldn't open.' Mollie lowered the SUV's front windows and told him to dive out feet first, he said. It was difficult; the seat was too low, the window too high. He fell back onto the seat. 'You have to push harder,' Mollie told him. Those were the last words he ever heard her say, he wrote. He pushed as hard as he could and went out the window. The current pulled him underwater toward the river, propelling him into a pole. 'I wrapped my arms around the pole and climbed up until my head was above water,' he wrote. 'I looked for and called to Mollie but didn't see her or the car. She had been swept into the river.' He held onto the pole for an hour until the water finally began to recede and his feet touched ground. His wife's body was recovered on July 6. 'Mollie died in a manner consistent with how she lived – selflessly taking care of someone else before she took care of herself,' Randy Schaffer wrote. 'She wouldn't leave the car until she was sure that I had done so. She saved my life.'
