‘Thankful she was with her friends’: Eight-year-old girl among 15 children killed in Texas flood

Kerrville, Texas: Rescuers are scouring riverbanks littered with mangled trees and turning over rocks in a race against time to find more than two dozen children from a girls’ camp and many others who are missing after a wall of water blasted down a river in the Texas Hill Country, in the United States.

The storm has killed at least 51 people, including 15 children. Among the known victims are two eight-year-old girls and a nine-year-old girl who were staying at Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp along the river.

Shawn Salta, of Maryland, confirmed to The Washington Post that his eight-year-old niece, Renee Smajstrla, had died in the disaster.

“We are thankful she was with her friends and having the time of her life, as evidenced by this picture from yesterday. She will forever be living her best life at Camp Mystic. Please continue to pray for the other families in Kerrville,” he wrote on Facebook, posting a picture of the little girl at the camp before she died.

Authorities have still not given a number of how many people in total are missing beyond the 27 girls from Camp Mystic. Frantic parents and relatives have shared photographs of the missing children on social media. Salta said that effort had helped first responders identify his niece so quickly.

The destructive fast-moving waters rose eight metres in just 45 minutes before daybreak on Friday (Saturday AEST), washing away homes and vehicles. Torrential rain continued pounding communities outside San Antonio on Saturday local time and flash flood warnings and watches remained in effect.

Searchers used helicopters, boats and drones to look for victims and to rescue stranded people in trees and from camps isolated by washed-out roads. Authorities said about 850 people had been rescued. US Coast Guard helicopters were flying in to assist.

“We will not stop until we find everyone who is missing,” Nim Kidd, chief of Texas Department of Emergency Management, said at a press conference Saturday afternoon.

Authorities are coming under growing scrutiny over whether the camps and residents in places long vulnerable to flooding received proper warning and whether enough preparations were made.

A woman and a child embrace after north fork of the Guadalupe River, are reunited with their families.Credit: AP

The hills along the Guadalupe River in central Texas are dotted with century-old youth camps and campgrounds where generations of families have come to swim and enjoy the outdoors. The area is especially popular around the July 4 public holiday, making it more difficult to know how many are missing.

“We don’t even want to begin to estimate at this time,” said City Manager Dalton Rice said on Saturday morning.

President Donald Trump said that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was travelling to Texas and his administration was working with officials on the ground.

“Melania and I are praying for all of the families impacted by this horrible tragedy,” Trump said in a statement on his social media network.

One of the cabins at Camp Mystic, where dozens of girls went missing after a flood.Credit: AFP

Raging storm hit camp in middle of the night

Camp Mystic is one of several youth camps in the Hill Country that cater to middle- and upper-class families from Dallas, Houston and Austin who send their children for month-long getaways.

Photos and videos taken at Camp Mystic before the flood are idyllic, showing large cabins with green-shingled roofs and names like “Wiggle Inn”, tucked among sturdy oak and cypress trees that grow on the banks of the Guadalupe River.

In some social media posts, girls are fishing, riding horses, playing kickball or performing choreographed dance routines in matching T-shirts. Girls ranging in age from eight to 17 pose for the camera with big smiles, arms draped across the shoulders of their fellow campers.

Officials comb through the banks of the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area.Credit: AP

But the floodwaters left behind a starkly different landscape: A pickup truck balanced precariously on two wheels, its side lodged halfway up a tree. A wall torn entirely off one building, the interior empty except for a Texas flag and paintings hung high along one side. A twisted bit of metal – perhaps a bedframe – stacked next to colourful steamer trunks and broken tree limbs.

“The camp was completely destroyed,” said Elinor Lester, 13, one of hundreds of campers at Camp Mystic. “A helicopter landed and started taking people away. It was really scary.”

A raging storm woke up her cabin just after midnight Friday, and when rescuers arrived, they tied a rope for the girls to hold as they walked across a bridge with water whipping around their legs, she said.

On Saturday, the camp, which has been running for 99 years, was mostly deserted. Helicopters roared above as a few people looked at the damage.

Bedding items are piled up outside sleeping quarters at Camp Mystic after the flood.Credit: AP

Among those confirmed dead was Camp Mystic director Richard “Dick” Eastland, who reportedly died trying to rescue some of the youngest campers, as well as the director of another camp just up the road.

The flooding in the middle of the night caught many residents, campers and officials by surprise in the Hill Country, which sits northwest of San Antonio.

AccuWeather said the private forecasting company and the National Weather Service sent warnings about potential flash flooding hours before the devastation.

“These warnings should have provided officials with ample time to evacuate camps such as Camp Mystic and get people to safety,” AccuWeather said in a statement that called the Hill Country one of the most flash-flood-prone areas of the US because of its terrain and many water crossings.

Families members are reunited at a reunification centre in Ingram, Texas.Credit: AP

Officials defended their actions while saying they had not expected such an intense downpour that was the equivalent of months’ worth of rain for the area.

One National Weather Service forecast earlier in the week “did not predict the amount of rain that we saw,” said Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management.

A sheriff’s deputy pauses while combing through the banks of the Guadalupe River near Camp Mystic.Credit: AP

Helicopters, drones used in frantic search for missing

Search crews were facing harsh conditions while “looking in every possible location,” Rice said.

One reunification centre at an elementary school was mostly quiet on Saturday after taking in hundreds of evacuees the day before.

First responders scan the banks of the Guadalupe River for individuals swept away by flooding in Ingram, Texas.Credit: AP/The San Antonia Express-News

“We still have people coming here looking for their loved ones. We’ve had a little success, but not much,” said Bobby Templeton, superintendent of Ingram Independent School District.

Residents clung to trees, fled to attics

In Ingram, Erin Burgess woke to thunder and rain in the middle of the night Friday. Just 20 minutes later, water was pouring into her home, she said. She described an agonising hour clinging to a tree with her teenage son.

Debris sit on a bridge over the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area.Credit: AP

“My son and I floated to a tree where we hung onto it, and my boyfriend and my dog floated away. He was lost for a while, but we found them,” she said.

Barry Adelman said water pushed everyone in his three-storey house into the attic, including his 94-year-old grandmother and nine-year-old grandson.

“I was having to look at my grandson in the face and tell him everything was going to be OK, but inside I was scared to death,” he said.

The flooded Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas, on Friday.Credit: NYT

Local residents know it as “flash flood alley”.

“When it rains, water doesn’t soak into the soil,” said Austin Dickson, chief executive of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, which was collecting donations.

“It rushes down the hill.”

‘No one knew this kind of flood was coming’

The forecast for the weekend had called for rain, with a flood watch upgraded to a warning overnight Friday for at least 30,000 people. Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said the potential for heavy rain and flooding covered a large area.

“Everything was done to give them a heads-up that you could have heavy rain, and we’re not exactly sure where it’s going to land,” Patrick said. “Obviously as it got dark last night, we got into the wee morning of the hours, that’s when the storm started to zero in.”

Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, the county’s chief elected official, said: “We do not have a warning system.”

When pushed on why more precautions weren’t taken, Kelly said no one knew this kind of flood was coming.

AP, Bloomberg

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