How torrential flooding wrought tragedy at a ‘haven' for girls in central Texas
A total of 27 children were missing as of Saturday afternoon from Camp Mystic in Kerr County, according to officials. The Christian all-girls camp is located along the Guadalupe River – which rose more than 20 feet in less than two hours overnight into the July Fourth holiday.
The devastating storm took the lives of at least three campers, whose families confirmed their deaths to CNN.
Other families are desperately awaiting news of their loved ones.
Carrie Hanna told CNN her 8-year-old daughter, Hadley, is still missing.
'She is the most joyful, happy kid with a smile on her face,' Hanna said. 'She seemed to be loving camp. This was her first year.'
The massive flooding seemed to have ripped the wall off at least one building and left a cabin covered in dirt and mud, with girls' mattresses strewn across the floor, photos of the devastation show. The water line can be seen nearly reaching the doorway.
Authorities have pledged that they will not rest until all of the missing have been recovered, with search efforts including boats in the river, searches from the air, and crews on the ground. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Friday promised families of missing campers they would 'do everything humanly possible to find' their children.
'Twenty-four-seven, looking at every tree, turning over every rock, whatever it takes – if your child is one of those truly missing and not just out of touch – to find your daughter,' Patrick said.
Over 1,000 local, state and federal personnel are working to comb difficult, waterlogged terrain for the missing, Texas Rep. Chip Roy said Saturday. More than 850 people have been rescued, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said at a Saturday news conference, including some who were 'clinging to trees to save their lives.'
The missing campers are but one element in the sprawling tragedy that struck central Texas, after torrential rain triggered flash flooding in parts of the state Friday. Some parts of Texas saw a month's rain in just a few hours. At least 32 people are dead, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said Saturday afternoon. Fourteen of them are children.
The Trump administration is working with state and local officials in Texas to address the devastating flooding, President Donald Trump wrote on social media Saturday. He described the flooding as 'shocking' Friday.
Camp Mystic is a private nondenominational Christian summer camp for girls, nestled in Hunt, an unincorporated community in western Kerr County. The camp hosts about 750 kids overall, who can participate in 30 different activities, including archery, canoeing, dancing and fishing.
Founded in 1926, the camp provides a 'wholesome Christian atmosphere' and a haven where girls 'develop outstanding personal qualities and self-esteem,' according to its website. The girls at Camp Mystic develop friendships, grow spiritually and strive to 'be a better person' and to 'let Mystic bring out the best in them,' according to the website.
The current owners, Dick and Tweety Eastland, are the third generation to manage the camp, according to their website. They've been at the camp since 1974.
Authorities were in contact with about 18 different summer camps along the Guadalupe River and said Camp Mystic was the only camp with people still unaccounted for as of Friday evening.
The parents of at least three campers have confirmed their deaths. The mother of missing Camp Mystic camper Janie Hunt, 9, told CNN in a message Saturday morning that her daughter had died.
The families of Sarah Marsh and Lila Bonner also told CNN that their daughters died in the flooding. In a post on Facebook, US Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama said she and her husband were 'heartbroken over the loss of Sarah Marsh, and we are keeping her family in our thoughts and prayers during this unimaginable time.'
Bonner's family told CNN in a statement that the 9-year-old has died.
'In the midst of our unimaginable grief, we ask for privacy and are unable to confirm any details at this time,' the family said in a statement. 'We ache with all who loved her and are praying endlessly for others to be spared from this tragic loss.'
Other family members told CNN they are still awaiting news of their missing campers.
Natalie Landry said her 'brave and sweet' 9-year-old daughter Lainey is still missing.
Ellen Toranzo, whose 10-year-old daughter, Greta Toranzo, is missing, told CNN her daughter is 'an amazing girl.' Greta is 'very smart, sweet, and good at tennis,' she said.
The brother of one missing camper, Blakely McCrory, told CNN his sister is 'so loved from everybody around her.' The family also lost their father in March, he said.
'I'm just hoping she comes back home safe,' McCrory said. 'Our family has been going through a lot.'
The camp is located on the Guadalupe River, where heavy rain swelled two of the river's forks, city manager Rice said at a news conference Friday.
Storms late Thursday into Friday 'dumped more rain than what was forecasted on both of those forks,' Rice said, describing how the river swelled from 7 feet to 29 feet in a short amount of time during the night.
'All of that converged at the Guadalupe, and that's where we saw those very quick rising floods,' Rice said.
Rice also noted not all areas along the river have alarms to flag flooding. The alarms are typically 'further downstream,' he said, in places such as in Comfort, which sits about 15 miles southeast of Kerrville.
Early Friday morning, about 107 game wardens and an aviation group tried to access Camp Mystic, according to officials. Shortly after midday, they were able to enter the camp and start rescuing children.
Texas Lt. Gov. Patrick said the fates of the children still missing are still unclear. 'They could be in a tree, they could be out of communication,' he said Friday.
Helicopter rescues are also underway at Camp Mystic, according to a source familiar with the rescue operation. Multiple flights are rescuing children and counselors impacted by recent storms and relocating them to safer ground, the person said.
The wardens, part of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, were seen with a line of trucks coming into the driveway, photos from their Facebook page show. Children gathered into the beds of the trucks to be evacuated.
At nearby Camp La Junta, one 14-year-old camper says he woke up to 'just a little bit of water' before it became 'more and more.'
Wyndham Etheridge told CNN's Fredricka Whitfield Saturday that in the morning, he woke up to people from other parts of the camp coming 'to seek refuge' at his cabin.
'We didn't really know what was going on around us because it was dark. We couldn't see past the trees. All we really knew is that we needed to move stuff in order for it not to get wet,' he said.
Etheridge and his fellow campers 'couldn't really go anywhere, because around us there were streams, really strong streams converging and we didn't want to get swept away because of all the runoff from the mountain,' he said.
They then tried to move to the loft of their cabin to escape the water, but Etheridge said 'it was leaking up there, so we couldn't stay.'
'So at some point we just decided … we could go to bed for a little bit, but then we woke up again to more water,' he said.
His parents told Whitfield they received a text message from the camp Friday notifying them of the flood and that their campers were accounted for. They picked up their son last night.
'All those boys were pretty traumatized,' Amy Etheridge said.
School buses and trucks filled with rescued people drove into a reunification center in Ingram, Texas, on Friday as families reunited with their children from the nearby girls' and boys' camps.
At Ingram Elementary, families embraced as people lined up around the building and others loaded into an army-style truck.
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Some of the children appeared to be emotionally shaken and were heard telling their parents, 'I just want to go home.'
Helicopters were seen landing and dropping off campers at the reunification center as yellow school buses arrived, video footage shows.
Mystic isn't the only girls' camp that lost members in the catastrophic flooding. Jane Ragsdale, camp director and co-owner of Heart O' the Hills in Hunt, Texas, died in the flooding that struck the area overnight, according to an announcement from the camp.
'We at the camp are stunned and deeply saddened by Jane's death,' reads the announcement. 'She embodied the spirit of Heart O' the Hills and was exactly the type of strong, joyful woman that the camp aimed to develop with the girls entrusted to us each summer.'
The camp, set alongside the Guadalupe River and 'right in the path of the flood,' was between sessions at the time of the flooding and 'no campers were in residence,' according to the announcement.
The facility sustained 'serious damage' that is still being evaluated, the announcement said. The camp will be unable to open for its second session, which was scheduled to start Sunday.
Leitha, the Kerr County sheriff, said first responders will continue to search for 'every single person' who is missing in the floods.
'One thing I want to tell you and assure y'all is that we will not stop until every single person is found – we've got all the resources we need,' he said during a news conference.
'Tragic incidents like this affect us all. This community is strong and will continue to pull together during this tragic time,' Leitha said. 'We have been humbled by the outpouring of support; we are very appreciative everyone that's stepped up to help us.'
First responder helicopters with infrared technology will be flying overnight in a continued effort to locate any potential rescue victims, a source familiar with the search said.
Gov. Abbott said Saturday, 'We will be relentless' in the ongoing search for missing people.
'We're not going to stop today or tomorrow,' he said. 'We will stop when the job is completed.'
Ed Lavandera reported from Hunt and Ingram, Texas. Sarah Dewberry reported from Oklahoma. Zoe Sottile wrote this story from New York. CNN's Taylor Romine, Emma Tucker, Dalia Faheid, Rebekah Riess, Alaa Elassar, Hanna Park, Josh Campbell, and Tori B. Powell contributed to this report.
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