At least 82 people — including 28 children — have died and dozens more remain missing after catastrophic floods swept through central Texas over the Fourth of July weekend, submerging entire communities and turning cherished summer camps into scenes of tragedy.
Kerr County, in the heart of the Hill Country, has borne the brunt of the devastation. Local officials say at least 68 people have been confirmed dead there, among them 28 children, many of whom were attending Camp Mystic, a Christian all-girls camp nestled along the banks of the Guadalupe River. That same river surged more than 20 feet in under two hours during the storm’s peak — a once-in-a-century event that struck with little warning in the early hours of Friday morning.
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Across the state, the human toll of the Texas flood is mounting. Travis County, home to the capital city of Austin, has reported six deaths. Burnet County, a largely rural region northwest of Austin, has lost at least three residents. Smaller communities in Kendall, Williamson and Tom Green counties have each confirmed fatalities as well.
A night of terror
Survivors of the Texas flood are beginning to share harrowing stories of narrow escapes and unimaginable loss. At Camp La Junta, brothers Ruffin and Piers Boyett described how they were jolted awake by flashes of lightning before dawn on Friday.
“People were screaming that there was a flood,” Piers recalled. Within minutes, water was climbing to the top bunks in their cabin.
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“Oh my God, we’re floating,” Ruffin said, reliving the moment they realised they had to swim to survive. The boys and their fellow campers scrambled out into the swirling water, clambered to higher ground, and were ultimately rescued by emergency crews on a nearby service road.
At neighbouring Camp Mystic, where 10 girls and a counsellor remain missing in the Texas flood, a security guard named Glenn Juenke became an unlikely hero. He used mattresses to keep the frightened girls above the rising torrent. “I witnessed firsthand the courage and faith that your daughters displayed during some of the most terrifying moments of their young lives,” Juenke told parents. “They trusted me, and we leaned on each other through a long, harrowing night.”
Some of the campers and the camp’s owner, Dick Eastland, are among the dead.
Danger far from over
The disaster has upended entire communities already struggling to comprehend the scale of their loss. And the threat continues. Texas governor Greg Abbott has warned that new storms are bringing fresh downpours, swelling rivers once more and putting exhausted first responders at risk as they continue to search for the missing — including the young girls from Camp Mystic.
Kerr County sheriff’s officials say that at least 41 people are still unaccounted for, as families cling to hope for good news that grows more unlikely by the hour.
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The Guadalupe River flood has been labelled a ‘1-in-100-year’ event, but experts warn that climate change is making extreme weather disasters like this more frequent and more intense. As the atmosphere warms, it holds more moisture, setting the stage for sudden, deadly flash floods in places ill-equipped to withstand them.
Federal officials have already begun to assess the damage, using flood zone data to pinpoint areas most vulnerable to future disasters. For now, though, the focus remains squarely on finding the missing — and comforting the survivors left to grieve.
In the words of young camper Ruffin Boyett: “We had one choice.” For families across central Texas, the choice now is to hold onto each other and begin to rebuild in the face of heartbreaking loss.
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