The faces of the Texas flooding tragedy

RNZ News

17 hours ago

Family of Camp Mystic camper Renee Smajstrla tells CNN that she has passed away.
Photo:
Shawn Salta via CNN Newsource
Julian Ryan's final words to his mother as floodwaters quickly engulfed their trailer home were simply, "I love you."
He had made a split-second decision to thrust his arm through a window to help his fiancée, two young kids and mom escape the catastrophic flood tearing through Kerr County, Texas, swallowing everything in its path.
That last-ditch effort, an act of bravery, ultimately cost him his life. The glass had cut an artery in his arm.
Ryan's mother held him as he bled and took his last breath, his sister, Connie Salas, told CNN.
"He went out a hero," Salas said.
In the pitch-black, storm-lashed hours before dawn Friday, surging floodwaters unexpectedly ravaged the region, including a campsite filled with sleeping children. Four months' worth of rain fell in just hours and the nearby Guadalupe River rose over 20 feet, sweeping homes, cars, campers and cabins downstream.
When the sunrise came and the storm softened, the full weight of the disaster came into view. Hundreds were missing, including over two dozen girls at a summer camp, and as minutes stretched into hours, hope gave way to grief.
At least 80 people, including 21 children, were killed in the catastrophic Texas floods and the death toll continues to rise, according to local officials. Ryan's body wasn't recovered until waters receded, according to CNN affiliate KHOU.
Now Ryan's family and their heartbroken Texas community are reckoning with the depth of the tragedy - and searching for answers.
Here's what we know about the victims.
It had been an exhausting shift for Ryan. The 27-year-old dishwasher had finished working at a local restaurant before returning to his Ingram, Texas, home, The New York Times reported.
He was finally asleep when surging floodwaters crashed through their trailer home.
In a matter of seconds, their front door gave way, slammed open by the power of the river. Ryan and his fiancée, with water rising to their chests, placed their 13-month-old and 6-year-old on the mattresses, which were floating, to keep them above the rising flood.
But the water kept rising. The bedroom door, sealed tight by the pressure on the other side, wouldn't budge.
In those terrifying moments, Ryan shattered a window in a final attempt to get his family out. The glass tore into his arm, leaving him critically injured, his fiancée Christinia Wilson said.
She added the glass almost cut his arm clean off.
After multiple calls to 911 went unanswered, Ryan looked at them, she said, and told them, "'I'm sorry, I'm not going to make it. I love y'all.'"
His sister, who lived just steps away from him and also lost her home, told CNN there was no warning and no time to act. A flash flood emergency warning was issued for Kerr County at 4:03 a.m. about an hour before the raging Guadalupe River burst from its banks. The late-night warnings limited who could see them - and how quickly they could move to higher ground.
"We had no time to physically save ourselves," Salas said. "Our last words were, 'I'm scared,'" she said. "And he says, 'Me too.'"
The family is overwhelmed with grief and struggling to cope, Salas says, especially their mother, who was there for Ryan's final moments and saw him take his last breath.
"While they were literally panicking and about to drown, my mother was still holding up her son and he looked at her and said, 'I love you,'" Salas said. "So my mom has that heartbreak of looking at her son and telling him goodbye, holding him while he takes his last breath."
Salas says the family feels like they're trapped in a nightmare they can't wake up from; a reality where Ryan will never walk through the door again "and be that funny person he is."
At Camp Mystic, the massive flooding seemed to have ripped the wall off at least one building and left a cabin covered in dirt and mud, with girls' mattresses strewn across the floor, photos of the devastation show. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the camp was "horrendously ravaged." He was shocked, he said, that the rushing water reached the top of the cabins.
The families of at least four campers have confirmed their deaths to CNN, while others are still waiting for news on their children. Twenty-seven kids are still missing from Camp Mystic, a Christian all-girls camp near the Guadalupe River that hosts about 750 kids.
Renee Smajstrla, the 8-year-old Camp Mystic camper who went missing during the torrential flooding in Kerr County, Texas, has died, her family confirmed to CNN.
"It's truly devastating," Shawn Salta, Smajstrla's uncle, told CNN.
Salta said his niece was recovered on Friday.
Family of Camp Mystic camper Renee Smajstrla tells CNN that she has passed away.
Photo:
Shawn Salta via CNN Newsource
The mother of missing Camp Mystic camper Janie Hunt, 9, told CNN in a message Saturday morning her daughter had "passed away."
After the catastrophic flooding hit Kerr County in Texas Friday, Anne Hunt told CNN "we are just praying" for her return.
The families of Sarah Marsh and Lila Bonner, two girls who had gone missing from Camp Mystic Friday morning, confirmed to CNN both died.
In a post on Facebook, Alabama Sen. Katie Britt said she was "heartbroken" over the loss of Sarah Marsh.
"We are keeping her family in our thoughts and prayers during this unimaginable time," Britt said.
"In the midst of our unimaginable grief, we ask for privacy and are unable to confirm any details at this time," the Bonner family said in a statement. "We ache with all who loved her and are praying endlessly for others to be spared from this tragic loss."
Blair and Brooke Harber, 13- and 11-year-old sisters, went missing during the flooding along with their grandparents.
The Harbers' father confirmed to CNN Saturday his daughters had died.
"(Blair) was a gifted student and had a generous kind heart," RJ Harber said. "(Brooke) was like a light in any room, people gravitated to her and she made them laugh and enjoy the moment."
His parents, Charlene and Mike Harber, are still missing, but he believes the couple is also deceased.
Blair and Brooke Harber's father has confirmed to CNN that the sisters have died. Blair, left, and Brooke, right, went missing during the catastrophic flooding in Kerr County, Texas.
Photo:
Courtesy RJ Harber via CNN Newsource
Jane Ragsdale was the "heart and soul" of Heart O' the Hills, according to the camp's website.
The co-owner and camp director, Ragsdale died during the floods. She had "influenced countless lives and was the definition of strong and powerful," the camp said.
The girls camp, set alongside the Guadalupe River, was not in session at the time of the flooding, and "most of those who were on camp at the time have been accounted for and are on high ground," according to an announcement from the camp.
A video last month shows Ragsdale playing the guitar and singing with campers. She sings the song "Let There Always Be A Song".
"When you sing you say, life is good today," "So keep singing till we meet again."
Reece Zunker was not just a soccer coach. The head coach of the Tivy High School's boys soccer team was "a mentor, teacher and a role model," the team said on Facebook.
They added they were mourning "the loss of our leader and inspiration."
Zunker died in this holiday weekend's flooding tragedy, his niece told CNN. Mackenzey Zunker said her father identified her uncle's body Saturday evening.
Paula Zunker, Reece's wife, also died, according to the soccer team's statement and a post by Recce Zunker's cousin, Haley Furlough.
The couple's two children remain unaccounted for, Furlough wrote.
Dr. Katheryn Eads, another victim of the Texas floods, "lived a fulfilling life, cut far too short," her daughter Victoria Eads told CNN in a family statement.
"She was an incredible wife, daughter, mother, grandmother, and person who spent her life helping kids," the statement continued.
Eads assisted children in the foster care system in her early career and continued on as a psychologist and a college professor, her daughter told CNN.
"Trying to figure out our lives without her is a possibility we never planned to face and we will always miss her."
- CNN