Camp Mystic, Texas flood
Digest more
The emergency weather alert had come early Fourth of July morning: There would be life-threatening flash flooding in Kerr County, Texas. And Camp Mystic – an all-girls Christian camp situated along the Guadalupe River – housed about 750 campers on the flood-prone site as heavy rains started pouring.
Young girls, camp employees and vacationers are among the at least 120 people who died when Texas' Guadalupe River flooded.
Taaffe called the counselors at Camp Mystic “heroes” and wore a tie to honor them and the young girls who died during the Central Texas flood.
Bubble Inn saw generations of 8-year-olds enter as strangers and emerge as confident young ladies equipped with new skills from the great outdoors and lifelong friends – bonds that would one day prove vital in the face of unfathomable tragedy.
Camp Mystic successfully appealed to remove several structures from a FEMA flood zone, despite being located in a high-risk flood area in Texas Hill Country.
"Once I was in the attic, I gave 911 our names and our address so that they could identify our bodies," Ashley Smith shared of her experience
Many of the 650 campers and staffers at Camp Mystic were asleep when, at 1:14 a.m., a flash-flood warning for Kerr County, Texas, with “catastrophic” potential for loss of life was issued by the National Weather Service.
Her parents and brother will lovingly direct donations toward causes that reflect her joyful spirit and passions and bless others.”