UPDATE (9:30 P.M.) – All campers from every summer camp, except for Camp Mystic, have been accounted for and are being reunited with family.
SAN ANTONIO – According to local officials, 24 children who had been at summer camp are unaccounted for after flooding swept through the Kerr County campground.
According to Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, more than 20 young girls who had been at Camp Mystic are unaccounted for, after flood waters swept through the property, taking various structures and people with it.
If you or a loved one has a family member who has gone missing in the flooding, please reach out to us at 210-442-6397.
A number of families have taken to social media, pleading for help and support from the community in finding the missing girls.
According to the family, Kellyanne Lytal has been missing from Camp Mystic since the flooding rolled in on Friday. Former Astro and current Red Sox player Alex Bregman posted on X.
Another child reportedly missing from Camp Mystic is Virginia Hollis, who had been staying at Cabin Twins 2.
The family of Lainey Landry took to social media, pleading wth the public to help them find their daughter. Lainey has reportedly not been heard from since the flooding hit.
Families have been taking to Facebook, reporting that their children or extended family have not been contacted since the flooding broke out in Kerr County. These may change as the situation develops. We’ll update this article as the situation changes.
Mystic Camp is a traditional “sleepover camp,” featuring activities like canoeing, horseback riding, arts and crafts, dance, and other things since 1926.
The 23 unaccounted-for campers are in the youngest cabins on the property, with many who have just finished second or third grade.
The campers were either attending a two or four-week-long session, with the most recent session having started on June 29th.
Families out of Beaumont are reaching out to the public for help finding their missing loved ones, who were believed to be in the area when the flooding swept through.
A family member reached out to us to reach out to the public for help in finding Tanya and Jeff Ramsey, who had been caravaning at HTR TX Hill Country RV when the flooding reportedly took place.
According to local officials, 23 children who had been at summer camp are unaccounted for after flooding swept through the Kerr County campground. (SBG San Antonio)
Recovery efforts are currently underway, with campers who had been at the property being recovered via emergency helicopter after the property became surrounded by water.Emergency services are continuing to search for residents who have been impacted. Those looking for a missing person they believe was involved in the flooding are asked to call the Red Cross at 800-733-2767.
Texas families plead for information on at least 23 girls missing from summer camp after floods
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 23 campers from an all-girls summer camp were unaccounted for Friday after floods tore through the state’s south-central region overnight.
At least 24 people were dead and many missing after a storm unleashed nearly a foot of rain just before dawn Friday and sent floodwaters gushing out of the Guadalupe River, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha told reporters Friday evening. The flood-prone region known as Hill Country is dotted with century-old summer camps that draw thousands of kids annually from across the Lone Star State.
State officials said 23 to 25 girls from Camp Mystic, a riverside Christian camp in Hunt, Texas, still were unaccounted for. They declined to estimate how many people were missing across the region but said a massive search was underway, with 237 rescued so far.
“I’m asking the people of Texas, do some serious praying,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said. “On-your-knees kind of praying that we find these young girls.”
Rescuers evacuate some campers by helicopter
Texas Game Wardens said Friday afternoon that they had arrived at Camp Mystic and were starting to evacuate campers who had sheltered on higher ground.
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.
Campers in lower cabins sought shelter up the hill. By morning, they had no food, power or running water, she said. When rescuers arrived, Lester said they tied a rope for the girls to hold as they walked across a bridge with floodwaters whipping up around their calves and knees.
“The camp was completely destroyed,” she said. “It was really scary. Everyone I know personally is accounted for, but there are people missing that I know of and we don’t know where they are.”
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 another camp on the river, Camp Waldemar, said in Instagram posts that all campers and staff there were safe.
Elizabeth Lester sobbed when she finally saw her daughter, who was clutching a small teddy bear and a book. She said a friend’s daughter, who was a counselor for the younger children at Camp Mystic, was among the missing.
“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.
At an elementary school in nearby Ingram that was being used as a reunification center, more than a hundred people stood around a courtyard Friday afternoon with hopes of seeing their loved ones emerge from buses dropping off those who had been evacuated. One young girl wearing a Camp Mystic T-shirt stood in a puddle in her white socks, sobbing in her mother’s arms.
Many families hoped to see loved ones who had been at campgrounds and mobile home parks in the area.
Camp Mystic sits on a strip known as “flash flood alley,” said Austin Dickson, CEO of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, a charitable endowment that is collecting donations to help nonprofits responding to the disaster.
“When it rains, water doesn’t soak into the soil,” Dickson said. “It rushes down the hill.”
State officials began warning of potential deadly weather a day earlier. The National Weather Service had predicted 3 to 6 inches of rain in the region, but 10 inches fell.
The Guadalupe River rose to 26 feet within about 45 minutes in the early morning hours, submerging its flood gauge, Patrick said.
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.
Flood turns Camp Mystic into a horror story
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, which was established in 1926, 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.
