Heartbreaking video captures girls at Camp Mystic enjoying their holiday hours before flash flood
Videos taken by a nurse at Camp Mystic in Texas, show young campers having fun and playing games before the children’s camp was devastated by powerful and deadly floods.
North America
Don't miss out on the headlines from North America. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A heartbreaking video shows campers and staffers at Camp Mystic being playful and enjoying their summer hours before waters from the catastrophic Texas flash flood swept away scores of young girls.
Camp Mystic nurse Devon Paige shared a video compilation on TikTok of campers from the sleepaway camp dancing, enjoying meals in the mess hall, and playing games in a field.
Paige wrote in the caption that the videos were taken from June 28 to July 3 — hours before tragedy would strike the all-girls Christian summer camp, located in Kerr County along the banks of the Guadalupe River.
Camp Mystic was hosting 750 girls for the summer when water levels of the river surged more than 26 feet in less than an hour after a sudden storm dumped more than a foot of rain on the region and swept away the camp at 4am. Friday.
As of Monday, the death toll from catastrophic Texas flooding surpassed 100, climbing to at least 104 — including 27 girls and counsellors from Camp Mystic.
Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said 10 campers and one counsellor remain unaccounted for as the window for search and rescue operations is quickly closing.
When the flash flood struck early Friday, the camp was less than a week into its second four-week term, according to Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
Camp officials said they’ve been in contact with local and state authorities “who are tirelessly deploying extensive resources to search for our missing girls.”
“Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy. We are praying for them constantly,” the camp posted on its website.
Paige also shared horrifying videos of the destruction caused by the flooding as she and young campers fled for their lives.
In one video, the nurse captured footage of roads eroded, trees downed, and cars piled up.
Another video showed a busload of young girls singing worship songs while weeping as they rode through the devastation to a reunification centre.
“The girls are singing to try and calm everyone,” Paige wrote.
EERIE FINAL PHOTO OF TEXAS CAMP GIRLS
A tragic final photo has emerged of 15 girls beaming at a camera, just days before they were all swept away in flash floods that devastated Texas.
The haunting picture was taken on June 29 and showed Anna Margaret Bellows, Molly DeWitt, Ellen Getten, Janie Hunt, Lainey Landry, Sarah Marsh, along with Eloise Peck and her best friend Lila Bonner – all aged between eight and nine – dressed in white and smiling at the camera.
Also pictured was Abby Pohl, Renee Smajstrla, Linnie McCrown, Wynne Naylor, and Mary Stevens, along with camp counsellors Chloe Childress, 18, and Katherine Ferruzzo, 19.
Everyone in the photo is now presumed dead. Eleven bodies have been found, while Abby, Ellen, Molly, and Katherine are still missing.
Speaking with local media this week, Eloise’s mother Missy Peck said her daughter was “literally friends with everyone”.
“She loved spaghetti, but not more than she loved dogs and animals. She had a family who loved her fiercely for the eight years we were blessed to have her,” Ms Peck said.
Most of the girls were from Austin, Dallas, Houston, and Ingram in Texas. Sarah was from Alabama.
Disaster struck in the early hours of Friday, just four days after the photo was taken, when a freak storm dropped four months’ worth of rain on Kerr County. Water surged downstream into the Guadalupe River, which rose from three to nine metres in 20 minutes.
As the river swelled, about 750 girls were fast asleep in cabins dotted around the sprawling 725-acre property owned by Camp Mystic – a Christian summer camp where Texan political elites have been sending their daughters for almost a century.
The 15 girls in the photo were among the youngest members of the camp staying at the Bubble Inn cabin, about 150m from the river bank. Most of the children who died were either staying there or at other low-lying cabins.
Camp owner Richard Eastland tried to save the Bubble Inn girls, but they couldn’t escape because water hit the site from two directions – from the Guadalupe River and a nearby creek – and swirled around the cabins “like a toilet bowl”, camp worker Craig Althaus told the Washington Post.
Mr Eastland’s body was found with the remains of three girls inside a black SUV.
Promotional photos on the camp website show young girls sitting on beds together and laughing inside one of the cabins.
Images captured after the flood showed the same cabins coated in a thick layer of mud with pink sheets, twisted bed frames, stuffed toys and belongings strewn across the room.
Dirt on the walls showed water filled most of the room.
The floodwaters uprooted trees and tore buildings from their foundations. Some survivors clung to trees and watched cars float by, while others scrambled to attics and prayed the water wouldn’t reach them.
The storm also hit surrounding areas, tearing houses from the ground and killing more than 100 people. The bodies of 27 children have been recovered so far, with 10 girls and a counsellor still unaccounted for.
More Coverage
Originally published as Heartbreaking video captures girls at Camp Mystic enjoying their holiday hours before flash flood
Menendez brother rushed to hospital
The lawyer for one of the Menendez brothers has called for the immediate release of the parent killer due to a “serious condition”.
‘Ridiculous’: Obama blasts Trump treason claim
Former president Barack Obama has hit back at Donald Trump’s latest shock allegations, describing them as “bizarre” and “outrageous”.