Hundreds of girls were 'living their best life' at Texas summer camp. Then disaster struck

Australia Broadcast Center

3 days ago

Nestled among large oak and cypress trees on the banks of the glistening Guadalupe River in Texas, Camp Mystic was a summer paradise.
Girls aged between seven and 17 would spend days in the sun, kayaking, fishing, riding horses, and performing choreographed dance routines.
At night, they would share bunks in large cabins with names such as Wiggle Inn and Chatter Box.
Photos showed the idyllic scenes, as smiling campers posed for the camera with arms draped across each other's shoulders.
Carrie Hanna's eight-year-old daughter Hadley was having the time of her life attending the all-girls camp for the first time.
"She seemed to be loving camp," Ms Hanna told CNN.
She shared a photo of her daughter leaning against a tree with a big smile, wearing a yellow dress with frilled sleeves.
"She is the most joyful, happy kid," Ms Hanna said.
For nearly a century, the camp had been a haven for local girls looking to gain confidence and independence.
It is now the site of one of the deadliest flood disasters in recent Texas history.
Hadley is among the 10 girls and a counsellor still missing.
At least 79 people have been killed across central Texas, among them were 28 children.
There were 750 children staying across the 725-acre camp when torrential rainstorms hit overnight on Friday, July 4, local time.
The Guadalupe River rose to near-historic levels in a matter of minutes, catching local officials off guard.
The raging floodwaters reached treetops and the roofs of cabins as girls slept, washing some of them away.
Eight-year-old Renee Smajstrla was among those killed.
A photo of Ms Smajstrla was sent to her family just a day before the disaster struck.
"We are thankful she was with her friends and having the time of her life, as evidenced by this picture from yesterday," her uncle Shawn Salta wrote on Facebook.
Parents of Eloise Peck confirmed that their eight-year-old daughter and her best friend did not survive Friday's flooding.
"Eloise was literally friends with everyone. She loved spaghetti but not more than she loved dogs and animals," her mother Missy Peck told FOX 4.
"She passed away with her cabin-mate and best friend Lila Bonner who also died."
Heart O' the Hills, another all-girls camp that sits along the Guadalupe River, was also right in the path of Friday's flood.
The camp's co-owner and director, Jane Ragsdale, who was described as the "the heart of The Heart", was killed.
Videos of 68-year-old Ms Ragsdale strumming a guitar and singing to campers were posted on the camp's Facebook page alongside the words: "Life is good today. So keep singing 'til we meet, again."
By Friday afternoon, Texas Game Wardens had arrived at Camp Mystic and were evacuating campers.
The first responders were met with scenes of devastation.
Windows in the cabins were shattered by the force of the water.
Blankets, teddy bears and other belongings were caked in mud and strewn throughout twisted metal bed-frames.
A pick-up truck balanced precariously on two wheels, its side lodged halfway up a tree.
A wall was torn entirely off one building, the interior empty except for a Texas flag and paintings hanging high along one side.
"It was nothing short of horrific to see what those young children went through," Texas Governor Greg Abbott said.
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick recounted how some campers were able to escape.
He said a counsellor smashed a window so girls could climb out of their cabin, swimming through floodwaters in their pyjamas to safety.
"These little girls, they swam for about 10 or 15 minutes," Mr Patrick told Fox News.
"Can you imagine, in the darkness and the rushing waters, and trees coming by you, and rocks come on you?"
Camp Mystic co-owner Richard Eastland was killed while trying to rescue campers, according to Texas Public Radio.
The 70-year-old, whose death was confirmed by his nephew on Facebook, had been involved with the camp since 1974.
Rescuers scoured the riverbanks in hopes of finding survivors.
A rope was tied so girls could hang on as they walked across a bridge, the floodwaters rushing around their knees.
Elinor Lester, 13, said she was evacuated with her cabin-mates by helicopter after wading through floodwaters.
She remembered startling awake about 1:30am as thunder crackled and water pelted the cabin windows.
Ms Lester was among the older girls housed on elevated ground known as Senior Hill.
Cabins housing the younger campers are situated along the riverbanks and were the first to flood, she said.
Katharine Somerville was a counsellor on the Cypress Lake side of Camp Mystic, where cabins were on higher ground than the Guadalupe River side.
She said her 13-year-old campers were scared as their cabins were damaged and lost power in the middle of the night.
"Our cabins at the tippity-top of hills were completely flooded with water," Ms Somerville told Fox News.
"I mean, y'all have seen the complete devastation, we never even imagined that this could happen."
Ms Somerville said the campers in her care were put on military trucks and evacuated, and that all were safe.
Camp Mystic officials told parents that if they had not been directly contacted to assume their daughters were accounted for and safe.
But officials cautioned parents not to assume the worst.
Families were allowed to look around the camp beginning Sunday morning.
A woman and a teenage girl, both wearing rubber waders, briefly went inside one of the cabins.
At one point, the pair doubled over, sobbing before they embraced.
The National Weather Service warned on Sunday that slow-moving thunderstorms threatened more flash floods over the saturated ground of central Texas.
The governor said additional rounds of heavy rains lasting into Tuesday could produce more life-threatening flooding, especially in places already saturated.
But he vowed to continue the search.
"We won't stop until we find every girl who was in those cabins," Mr Abbott posted on social media platform X after a visit to the site.
Amid the frantic search for his daughter, Ty Badon said he had come across the body of a young boy.
He was still holding out hope for his 21-year-old daughter Joyce, who had spent the weekend at a home along the Guadalupe River with three friends.
His daughter had been on the phone and said "they just got washed away," and then a few seconds later, the phone went dead, Mr Baden told CNN.
"We pray that all four of them are still alive."