
Among the Texas flood victims: campers, staff, grandparents and teachers
More than 100 people have now died in the floods. At least 27 of those are children. The crisis is being described as one of the US's deadliest floods in decades and has caused between $18bn and $22bn in total damage and economic loss, according to a preliminary estimate from AccuWeather.
The hardest-hit area was Kerr county, where at least 75 of the deaths occurred.
Many of the victims have been identified by their relatives. Here is what we know so far about some of those whose lives were taken by the floods:
As of Monday morning, at least 27 girls and camp counselors from Camp Mystic, a Christian all-girls summer camp along the Guadalupe River, have died, the camp confirmed in a statement.
Among the victims was eight-year-old Renee Smajstrla, whose uncle, Shawn Salta, has confirmed her death to multiple outlets. Salta wrote on Facebook that Renee was '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'.
'We are thankful she was with her friends and having the time of her life,' Salta wrote.
Twin sisters Hanna and Rebecca Lawrence, eight, were also among those lost, according to their grandfather, David Lawrence Jr, the former publisher of the Miami Herald.
'It has been an unimaginable time for all of us,' Lawrence Jr told the Herald.
Best friends and cabin mates Eloise Peck, eight, and Lila Bonner, nine, both from Dallas, also died in the flood, according to members of their families who spoke with Fox 4 News and other outlets.
'Eloise was literally friends with everyone,' her mother told FOX 4. 'She loved spaghetti but not more than she loved dogs and animals.'
Nine-year-old Janie Hunt of Dallas, also died in the flash flooding, her mother told CNN and her grandmother told the New York Times.
A great-granddaughter of the oil baron William Herbert Hunt, Janie was remembered on Instagram by her relative, Tavia Hunt, the wife of Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt. 'How do we trust a God who is supposed to be good, all knowing and all powerful, but who allows such terrible things to happen – even to children?' she wrote.
The family of another camper, eight-year-old Sarah Marsh, confirmed to multiple outlets that the girl died in the flooding.
The mayor of Mountain Brook, Alabama, said in a statement that 'Sarah's passing is a sorrow shared by all of us, and our hearts are with those who knew her and loved her'. Alabama senator Katie Britt said that she was 'heartbroken' over the loss of Sarah.
The family of -year-old Anna Margaret Bellows also confirmed to Fox News that their daughter was among those killed. According to the local NBC affiliate, Bellows shared a cabin with two other missing campers.
Camp Mystic's co-owner and director, Richard 'Dick' Eastland is also among those who have died, according to the the New York Times and other outlets.
Eastland, who had run Camp Mystic alongside his wife, Tweety, for more than 50 years, died while being transported to a Houston hospital, the BBC reported. He and his wife were the third generation of their family to operate the all-girls Christian summer camp. Many of their 11 grandchildren are involved in camp operations today.
Eastland died while trying to save campers during the flooding, his grandson George wrote on Instagram.
Camp counselor Chloe Childress was also killed during the devastating flooding, her family told ABC News.
Childress 'lived a beautiful life that saturated those around her with contagious joy, unending grace, and abiding faith', her family said.
As of Monday, one counselor and 10 young girls remain missing.
Jane Ragsdale, 68, the co-owner and director of another all-girls camp along the Guadalupe River, Heart O' the Hills, was among those killed in the devastating flood, the camp confirmed.
In a statement, the camp described Ragsdale as someone who 'embodied the spirit of Heart O' the Hills'.
The camp was between sessions at the time of the flooding, and no campers were on-site, the camp said.
Julian Ryan, 27, died while helping his family escape rising floodwaters in Ingram, Texas, his fiancee, Christinia Wilson, told CBS affiliate KHOU and the New York Times.
As water surged into their home early Friday, Wilson said that Ryan placed their 13-month-old and six-year-old children on floating mattresses, and punched through a window to get his family out.
Wilson said that Ryan was badly injured in the process and that despite multiple 911 calls, help didn't arrive in time.
'He died a hero, and that will never go unnoticed,' Ryan's sister, Connie Salas, told KHOU.
Jeff Wilson, a longtime teacher in suburban Houston, was also killed in the Kerrville flood, according to the Humble independent school district, which called him a 'beloved teacher and co-worker' who worked in the school district for more than 30 years.
His wife and 12-year-old son remain missing, according to the post by the school district.
The family had been camping in the area ahead of the Kerrville Open Pro Rodeo, the New York Times reported. Wilson's son, Shiloh, had been planning to compete in the event. Both father and son were the proud descendants of Stanley Wilson, a member of the Texas Rodeo Hall of Fame.
Sisters Blair and Brooke Harber, 13 and 11, died after their cabin along the Guadalupe River was swept away, according to their pastor, the Joshua J Whitfield, who spoke with the New York Times and NBC News, and their school, St Rita Catholic Community in Dallas.
In a statement, the school said that the girls had been staying with their grandparents, who remain missing.
'[Blair] was a gifted student and had a generous kind heart,' the girls' father, RJ Harber, told CNN. '[Brooke] was like a light in any room, people gravitated to her and she made them laugh and enjoy the moment.'
Reece Zunker, a teacher and soccer coach at Tivy high school, and his wife, Paula, a former teacher, were killed in the flooding, according to the Kerrville independent school district.
Their children, Lyle and Holland, remain missing as of Sunday.
Grandmother Sally Sample Graves was another victim of the flash flooding, according to her relative Sarah Sample, who posted a statement on Facebook.
'A powerful 30ft wave destroyed her home, sweeping her and our dad downstream,' Sample wrote. 'Though our dad and his dog miraculously survived, we're still reeling.'
Tanya Burwick, 62, was swept away by the floodwaters while driving to her job at Walmart in San Angelo on Friday morning, her family has confirmed.
Burwick's employer filed a missing persons report when she did not show up to work and police recovered her SUV from the water later the same day. Burwick was later discovered downstream on Saturday.
'She lit up the room and had a laugh that made other people laugh,' her daughter, Lindsey, told the Associated Press.
Dr Katheryn Eads, a psychology professor at the University of Texas, San Antonio, was also killed in the flooding.
Her daughter told ABC News said that Eads and her husband were camping in an RV when they got separated in the floodwater.
Her family described her as having 'lived a fulfilling life, cut far too short'.
They said that she was 'an incredible wife, daughter, mother, grandmother and person who spent her life helping kids, from those in the foster care system early in her career to those in school, both in early education as a psychologist and in college as a professor'.
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The Guardian
5 hours ago
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According to the firefighter, some of the department's already limited resources had been sent to fight the White Sage fire. They were missing two fire engines and a bulldozer, and they needed more boots on the ground. Plus, aerial suppression support would not arrive until the next day. By nightfall on 11 July, the fast-growing fire had surrounded the crew and they were instructed by managers to take cover in the North Rim's fire station. Soon, he said, the fire was everywhere. Nearby, another group of firefighters were trapped on a helipad, flanked by flames 100ft (30.5 metres) tall. 'We were trapped,' recalled the firefighter. 'We thought we were going to die. Propane tanks from surrounding buildings were exploding all around us. Our homes and our friend's homes were burning and there was nothing we could do.' Located at a cool elevation of 8,000ft on the Kaibab plateau in northern Arizona, Grand Canyon national park's North Rim is a four-hour drive from the more famous South Rim. The isolation is what makes it special for park employees and visitors, but the largely undeveloped region is also especially vulnerable to wildfire. A single paved road connects the park to Jacob Lake, a small village some 50 miles away. The ponderosa pine forest ecosystem of the Kaibab plateau relies on regular low-intensity fires to stay healthy, but those fires were supressed by federal policies throughout most of the 20th century. National park managers have attempted to restore the Grand Canyon's natural forest ecosystem over the last two decades through prescribed fires, or by allowing lightning-sparked wildfires to burn. The strategy went off without a hitch as recently as July 2022, when a lightning strike started a fire on the North Rim that grew to only 1,300 acres as fire crews tightly managed the boundaries of the blaze. However, other examples have been less successful. In June 2006, a lightning-sparked fire trapped several hundred visitors after strong winds pushed the flames beyond its containment lines. The only paved road out of the park was blocked by flames, but law enforcement officers led visitors to safety on a web of winding dirt roads. Ken Phillips, who worked at Grand Canyon for 27 years and served as chief of emergency services, believes the decision to let the Dragon Bravo fire burn was a mistake. He also points out that lives could have been lost if visitors had not already been evacuated due to the White Sage fire. 'The North Rim did not need to burn the way it did and put firefighters in harm's way,' he said. 'There is a history of escaped managed wildfires at Grand Canyon. It is very tragic that the lessons learned from those fires weren't heeded in this situation.' In response to a request for comment about the handling of the fire, a spokesperson directed the Guardian to a public statement from Ed Keable, the Grand Canyon superintendent, that described the wildfire as a 'devastating event'. In a previous statement to the Arizona Republic, Rachel Pawlitz, a park spokesperson, defended the initial handling of the fire and also contradicted what firefighters said they experienced on 11 and 12 July. 'We've lost buildings but hundreds of lives were saved due to the fact that this fire was expertly handled,' she said. 'The firefighters did not put themselves or others at risk when they managed the initial firefight, pushing historic wind gusts that caused the fire to jump multiple containment features and move toward facilities instead.' Built in 1936, the Grand Canyon Lodge sits at the tip of a peninsula jutting out into the canyon allowing unmatched views of the natural wonder. Visitor cabins, perched on the rim nearby, are shaded by towering old growth pine and spruce trees. Kathryn Leonard, the state historic preservation officer for the state of Arizona, calls the style of the historic buildings 'national park rustic'. The lodge and cabins echo the surrounding environment with rock walls made from Kaibab limestone and roofs supported by exposed ponderosa pine trusses. The Grand Canyon Lodge was uniquely 'idyllic' and 'open' according to Leonard. Once visitors entered the building, they could walk down a stairway where a sun room with leather couches featured a giant south-facing picture window looking out onto the Grand Canyon, some 5,000ft deep and 20 miles across. The best view in the house was on the lodge patio where visitors leaned back in Adirondack chairs and watched the sunset while sipping a beer. Pictures of the lodge that circulated on social media after the fire showed that all but two Adirondack chairs had been destroyed. Everything else was ash except for the limestone walls. 'I couldn't believe that the lodge was gone until I saw the photo,' said Phillips, the former emergency services manager. 'The loss of the entire North Rim developed area is like the death of a close friend.' 'The scale of this loss is breathtaking,' agreed Leonard. 'Historic resources are non-renewable and the workmanship in the cabin and lodge interiors can't be replaced.' Yet Leonard is also cautiously optimistic that some elements of the building can be salvaged. 'There could be a way to rebuild that does not attempt to replicate what was there but honors it.' Beyond the charred facilities, the more lasting damage could be to the Grand Canyon's environment itself. The forested area on the Kaibab plateau where the Dragon Bravo fire is burning encompasses the recharge zone feeding Roaring Springs, the park's sole drinking water source. Rain and snowmelt percolate down through the ground to feed the springs located several thousand feet below the canyon rim. Surface water in the area also flows off the plateau and into Bright Angel Creek. 'From a hydrology perspective, the fire is a disaster,' said Mark Nebel, who until recently retiring, oversaw water monitoring at Grand Canyon. Nebel worries that ash, sediment and chemical fire retardant may seep through the ground and into the aquifer that feeds the springs. These pollutants will also likely be swept into the Bright Angel watershed this summer as flash flooding is expected to occur as a result of the fire. 'The drinking water quality in the park could be impacted for many years,' added Nebel. As Arizona governor Katie Hobbs has called for an investigation into park service decisions and firefighters continue to battle the blaze, North Rim employees find themselves reminiscing about happier times. John McFarland, a former maintenance mechanic who lived and worked on the North Rim for 30 years, recalls how he organized a Fourth of July parade at the park every summer that was followed by an 'epic' water gun fight in front of the lodge. Many of the buildings he cared for are gone, but he is taking the loss in stride. 'The Grand Canyon is still there,' he said. 'Some of the old growth trees are still there. The place will come back.'