Texas flood victims: Girl 'having time of her life' and 'heart and soul' of camp

Yahoo

4 hours ago

An eight-year-old girl and the director of an all-girls' summer camp are among the victims of flash floods in Texas that have claimed at least 51 lives, including 15 children.
Officials say most of the victims have been identified. Authorities have not yet released any names publicly.
Here's what we know so far about the victims.
Eight-year-old Renee Smajstrla was at Camp Mystic when flooding swept through the summer camp for girls, her uncle said in a Facebook post.
"Renee has been found and while not the outcome we prayed for, the social media outreach likely assisted the first responders in helping to identify her so quickly," wrote Shawn Salta, of Maryland.
"We are thankful she was with her friends and having the time of her life, as evidenced by this picture from yesterday," he wrote. "She will forever be living her best life at Camp Mystic."
Camp Mystic, where 27 children are missing, is a nearly century-old Christian summer camp for girls on the banks of the Guadalupe River near Hunt, Texas.
Operated by generations of the same family since the 1930s, the camp's website bills itself as a place for girls to grow "spiritually" in a "wholesome" Christian atmosphere "to develop outstanding personal qualities and self-esteem".
Heart O' the Hills is another all-girls' camp that sits along the Guadalupe River and it was right in the path of Friday's flood.
Jane Ragsdale, described as the "heart and soul" of Heart O'Hills, "did not make it", a statement shared on the camp's official website said on Saturday.
Ragsdale, who started off as a camper then a counsellor, became the director and co-owner of the camp in 1976.
"We are mourning the loss of a woman who influenced countless lives and was the definition of strong and powerful," the statement said.
No campers were residing at the site when the floods hit and and most of those who were there have been accounted for, according to the statement.
Sarah Marsh, a student at Cherokee Bend Elementary School in Alabama, would have entered third grade in August.
She, too, was attending Camp Mystic and her grandmother, Debbie Ford Marsh, asked for prayers in a post on Facebook on Friday.
Just hours later she shared online that her granddaughter was among the girls killed.
"We will always feel blessed to have had this beautiful spunky ray of light in our lives. She will live on in our hearts forever!" she said.
In a post on Facebook, Alabama Senator Katie Britt said she's "heartbroken over the loss of Sarah Marsh, and we are keeping her family in our thoughts and prayers during this unimaginable time".
Nine-year-old Janie Hunt from Dallas, was also attending Camp Mystic and died in the floods.
Her grandmother Margaret Hunt told The New York Times she went to the camp with six of her cousins, who are all safe.
Margaret said Janie's parents had to visit a funeral home and identify their daughter.
Janie is a great-granddaughter of the oil baron William Herbert Hunt.
As floodwaters tore through their trailer in Ingram, Texas, Julian Ryan turned to his fiancée Christina Wilson and said: "I'm sorry, I'm not going to make it. I love y'all" - Christina told Houston television station KHOU.
His body wasn't recovered until hours later, after waters had receded.
Julian had just finished a late dishwashing shift at a restaurant when the Guadalupe River overflowed early Friday.
He and Christina woke to ankle-deep water that quickly rose to their waists. She told the station their bedroom door stuck shut and with water rushing in, Ryan punched through a window to get his family out. He severely cut his arm in the process.
Their 13-month-old and 6-year-old sons and his mother survived by floating on a mattress until help could arrive.
"He died a hero, and that will never go unnoticed," Connie Salas, Ryan's sister, told KHOU.
Richard "Dick" Eastland, the longtime co-owner and co-director of Camp Mystic, died while being flown to a Houston hospital.
His death was confirmed by Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, who attended Bible study with Dick and described him as a pillar of the local community.
Dick's wife, Tweety, was found safe at their riverside home, according to Texas Public Radio.
The Eastlands had run Camp Mystic, a girls' summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River, since 1974, becoming the third generation of their family to do so.
According to the Washington Post, the couple have 11 grandchildren and much of the extended family is involved in camp life.
Their eldest son, Richard, manages the camp kitchen and their youngest, Edward, and his wife direct operations at Camp Mystic Guadalupe River.
Katheryn Eads, 52, was swept away by floodwaters in the Kerrville area of Texas, early Friday morning after she and her husband, Brian, who told The New York Times, fled their campervan as rising water surged around them.
Another camper had offered them a ride and they made it across the street before the vehicle stalled in the flood.
Moments later, both were pulled into the current. Brian said he lost sight of his wife after being struck by debris. He survived by clinging onto a tree until he reached dry land.
Katheryn's body was later recovered.
"God has her now," her mother, Elizabeth Moss Grover, wrote on Facebook.
Amy Hutchinson, director of Olive Branch Counselling in Texas, where Katheryn had worked, told The Washington Post she was "a hope and a light to all who knew her… a stellar counsellor and professor."
Two sisters from Dallas - 13-year-old Blair Harber and 11-year-old Brooke Harber - were staying with their grandparents along the Guadalupe River when their cabin was washed away, CBS News, the BBC's US partner has reported.
Their parents were in a separate cabin and were not harmed.
Their grandparents are still unaccounted for.
The deaths were confirmed by St Rita Catholic Community, where Brooke was due to start sixth grade. Blair was preparing to enter eighth grade.
"Please keep the Harber family in your prayers during this time of profound grief. May our faith, our love, and our St. Rita community be a source of strength and comfort in the days ahead," said Father Joshua J Whitfield in correspondence with church members.
Nine-year-old Lila Bonner, a Dallas native was found dead after flooding near Camp Mystic, according to NBC News.
"In the midst of our unimaginable grief, we ask for privacy and are unable to confirm any details at this time," her family said in a statement to the news outlet.
"We ache with all who loved her and are praying endlessly."