Cabin of children swept away in flooding at Texas summer camp pictured

Telegraph

a day ago

An entire cabin of young girls are either dead or missing after they were swept away in flash floods in Texas.
At least nine of the children staying in the Bubble Inn cabin at theChristian summer camp lost their lives in the flooding, according to reports.
The girls, aged between eight and 10, were staying in a cabin located a short distance from Texas's Guadalupe River, which burst its banks in the early hours of Friday.
Towns across central Texas were devastated by the floods. The county where the summer camp is located previously rejected plans to install a flooding alarm system because it was seen as 'too extravagant'.
More than 100 people were killed across the state after the Guadalupe River surged by 26 feet in the space of 45 minutes on July 4, authorities said on Monday.
Girls and counsellors staying in Camp Mystic's Bubble Inn cabin were located less than 500 feet from the river and were quickly swept away.
The once idyllic retreat with green-roofed cabins with names such as 'Wiggle Inn' has been devastated by the flood, with the huts uprooted and destroyed alongside discarded vehicles.
Of those pictured, the bodies of nine of the girls and Chloe Childress, an 18-year-old counsellor, have been located.
The children who have died have been named as Janie Hunt, Margaret Bellows, Lila Bonner, Sarah Marsh, Linnie McCown, Wynne Naylor, Eloise Peck, Renee Smajstrla and Mary Stevens.
Katherine Ferruzzo and the three remaining campers remain missing, according to reports.
In total, 27 campers and counsellors from Camp Mystic have been killed, while 11 more remain missing.
Childress's family said in a statement that she 'lived a beautiful life that saturated those around her with contagious joy, unending grace, and abiding faith.'
They added: 'Returning as a counsellor to the place she loved so dearly, Chloe was looking forward to dedicating her summer days to loving and mentoring young girls at Camp Mystic.'
The family of Eloise Peck said that their daughter had died alongside her best friend Lila Bonner.
'Eloise was literally friends with everyone. She loved spaghetti but not more than she loved dogs and animals. She passed away with her cabinmate and best friend Lila Bonner who also died,' her mother, Missy Peck, told Fox.
'Eloise had a family who loved her fiercely for the eight years she was with us. Especially her Mommy.'
Dick Eastland, the owner and director of Camp Mystic, also reportedly died while trying to rescue campers. Dan Patrick, the lieutenant governor of Texas, said 700 girls were in residence at the camp when the flood hit.
The girls staying at Camp Mystic were generally not allowed access to their phones or other electronic devices, per 2025 summer policies and procedures.
Sniffer dogs, drones and helicopters from state and local agencies have been drafted in to continue the search for survivors.
Officials in Kerr County, which bore the brunt of the floods and has reported at least 75 deaths, had previously decided against installing sirens along the river despite the region of Texas being known as 'Flash Flood Alley'.
Tom Moser, a former county commissioner, pushed for creating a warning system in 2016 but told The New York Times it did not materialise over budget concerns.
A commissioner who voted against approving a study for the project reportedly said: 'I think this whole thing is a little extravagant for Kerr County, with sirens and such.'
The county also applied to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) for a $1 million (£735 million) grant to build a warning system in 2017, but was not selected.
A Kerr County hazard mitigation plan from the autumn designated installing sirens along the river a 'high priority' and stated they would cost as little as $1,000 per device.
Instead, residents were dependent on text alerts sent out by the National Weather Service which arrived shortly after 1am and 4am on Friday morning, when most would have been asleep.
Ted Cruz, the Texas senator, warned on Monday that the death toll would continue to climb as the state braces for continued flooding.
Mr Cruz, who said he had picked up his own daughter from the camp last week, told reporters that the disaster had 'broken the heart of our state'.
'The children, little girls, who were lost at Camp Mystic – that's every parent's nightmare,' he said.
Just last week, Heidi and I were picking up our daughter from camp in Hunt, Texas.
The pain and shock of what has transpired these last few days has broken the heart of our state.
Pray for Texas. pic.twitter.com/Ku0YJVsLXM
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 7, 2025
He added: 'There's still 10 girls and one counsellor from Camp Mystic that are unaccounted for. And the pain and agony of not knowing your child's whereabouts, it's the worst thing imaginable.
'If we could go back and do it again, we would evacuate... the young children in the cabins closest to the water,' Mr Cruz said. 'We would remove them and get them to higher ground.'
Democrats are demanding an investigation into whether cuts by Donald Trump's administration, overseen by his former ally Elon Musk, left Texans unprepared.
Chuck Schumer, the Democrat leader in the Senate, formally called for a probe in a letter to the commerce department's inspector general, writing: 'We must do everything possible to provide answers as to why the community was not alerted sooner that dangerously high floodwaters were imminent.'
However, experts have largely said that although positions were unfilled in local National Weather Service stations, staffing levels were adequate and the issue lay in local warning systems.
Residents in central Texas were warned of a 'moderate' storm at about 1.18pm on Thursday, with the NWS initial flood watch predicting 5-7in of rain.
This was the first in a series of bulletins that grew increasingly serious in the early hours of Friday before a 'threat to life' was issued at 4.03am.
As the situation escalated, harrowing footage showed a large cabin floating down the Guadalupe River in Hill County, with yellow lights flickering from within as panicked voices echoed in the night.
'Oh my God, there's so many people in it,' a bystander was heard saying as the cabin disappeared into the current.
Mr Trump on Sunday fiercely rejected the suggestion that cuts had led to needless deaths, while the White House labelled the claim 'disgusting'.
Mr Cruz accused Democrats of 'partisan finger-pointing' and claimed their arguments were 'contradicted by the facts'.
'Just immediately trying to use it for either side to attack their political opponents, I think that's cynical and not the right approach, particularly at a time when we're dealing with a crisis and we're dealing with grief,' he said.
The National Weather Service warned of further flooding on Monday until 7pm local time and said some areas could expect up to 10 inches of 'very intense' rainfall.
'There remains a threat of flash flooding from slow-moving heavy rains overnight and through the day on Monday,' it said.
Gregg Abbott, the Texas governor, on Sunday warned Texans to be 'extraordinarily cautious' over the following 48 hours over the risk of potential floods.