By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM and JIM VERTUNO Associated Press
KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Texas parents frantically posted photos of their young daughters on social media with pleas for information as at least 27 campers from an all-girls summer camp were unaccounted for Saturday after fatal flash floods tore through central Texas just before dawn Friday.
At least 43 people, including 15 children, died in Kerr County after a storm unleashed nearly a foot of rain and sent floodwaters gushing out of the Guadalupe River through the hilly region known for its century-old summer camps. Another six people died in nearby counties.
State officials said 27 girls from Camp Mystic, a riverside Christian camp in Hunt, Texas, still were unaccounted for about 36 hours after the flood.
An 8-year-old girl from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who was at Camp Mystic, and the director of another camp just up the road were among those confirmed dead Saturday.
Gov. Greg Abbott, who toured the camp Saturday with rescue crews, vowed that authorities will work around the clock to find the missing girls and others swept away in the storm that caught many residents, campers and officials by surprise.
Many more are still missing, and authorities said about 850 people had been rescued so far.
Flood turns storied Camp Mystic into a nightmare
The camp was established in 1926. It grew so popular over the following decades that families are now encouraged to put prospective campers on the waitlist years in advance.
Photos and videos taken 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 8 to 17 years old pose for the camera with big smiles, arms draped across the shoulders of their fellow campers.
But the floodwaters left behind a starkly different landscape: A pickup truck is balanced precariously on two wheels, its side lodged halfway up a tree. A wall is 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 — is stacked next to colorful steamer trunks and broken tree limbs.
First responders are scouring the riverbanks in hopes of finding survivors. Social media posts are now focused on the faces of the missing.
Camps’ emergency plans unclear
State and county officials defended their actions Saturday amid scrutiny over whether the camps and residents in towns long vulnerable to flooding received proper alerts.
The National Weather Service issued a flood warning for the region on Thursday, and it sent out a series of flash-flood warnings in the early hours Friday. The federal agency had predicted 3 to 6 inches (7.6 to 15.2 centimeters) of rain in the region northwest of San Antonio, but 10 inches (25.4 cm) fell.
The Guadalupe River rose to 26 feet (7.9 meters) within about 45 minutes in the early morning hours, submerging its flood gauge.
It was not immediately clear what kind of evacuation plans Camp Mystic might have had.
The county itself does not have a warning system, Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said. He maintained that no one knew a flood of this magnitude was coming.
Rescuers evacuate some campers by helicopter
By Friday afternoon, Texas Game Wardens had arrived at Camp Mystic and were evacuating campers. A rope was tied so girls could hang on as they walked across a bridge, the floodwaters rushing around their knees.
Elinor Lester, 13, said she was evacuated with her cabinmates by helicopter after wading through floodwaters. She recalled startling awake around 1:30 a.m. as thunder crackled and water pelted the cabin windows.
Lester was among the older girls housed on elevated ground known as Senior Hill. Cabins housing the younger campers, who can start attending at age 8, are situated along the riverbanks and were the first to flood, she said.
“The camp was completely destroyed,” she said. “It was really scary.”
Her mother, Elizabeth Lester, said her son was nearby at Camp La Junta and also escaped. A counselor there woke up to find water rising in the cabin, opened a window and helped the boys swim out. Camp La Junta and nearby Camp Waldemar said in Instagram posts that all campers and staff were safe.
Elizabeth Lester sobbed when she saw her daughter, who was clutching a small teddy bear and a book.
“My kids are safe, but knowing others are still missing is just eating me alive,” she said.
Families of missing campers worry
Dozens of families shared in local Facebook groups that they received devastating phone calls from safety officials informing them that their daughters had not yet been located among the washed-away camp cabins and downed trees.
Camp Mystic said in an email to parents of the roughly 750 campers that if they have not been contacted directly, their child is accounted for.
On Friday afternoon, more than a hundred people gathered at an Ingram elementary school that was being used as a reunification center, watching for the faces of loved ones as buses full of evacuees arrived. One young girl wearing a Camp Mystic T-shirt stood in a puddle in her white socks, sobbing in her mother’s arms.
Camp Mystic sits on a strip known to locals as “flash flood alley.”
“When it rains, water doesn’t soak into the soil,” said Austin Dickson, CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, which was collecting donations. “It rushes down the hill.”
Decades prior, floodwaters engulfed a bus of teenage campers from another Christian camp along the Guadalupe River during devastating summer storms in 1987. A total of 10 campers from Pot O’ Gold Christian camp drowned after their bus was unable to evacuate in time from a site near Comfort, 33 miles (53 kilometers) east of Hunt.
Happy camp memories are now tinged with grief
Chloe Crane, a teacher and former Camp Mystic counselor, said her heart broke when a fellow teacher shared an email from the camp about the missing girls.
“To be quite honest, I cried because Mystic is such a special place, and I just couldn’t imagine the terror that I would feel as a counselor to experience that for myself and for 15 little girls that I’m taking care of,” she said. “And it’s also just sadness, like the camp has been there forever and cabins literally got washed away.”
Crane said the camp is a haven for young girls looking to gain confidence and independence. She recalled happy memories teaching her campers about journalism, making crafts and competing in a camp-wide canoe race at the end of each summer. Now for many campers and counselors, their happy place has turned into a horror story, she said.
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Schoenbaum reported from Salt Lake City. Associated Press writer Rebecca Boone contributed from Boise, Idaho.