A Summer Camp Reopens in the Texas Hill Country
Volunteers were still working to clear the mess, many wielding chain saws. But Mr. Hudnall, a 21-year-old college student, could not join them. He was partially paralyzed in a car crash at age 5 and needs a wheelchair to move and a ventilator to breathe.
Still, he had a part to play in the rebirth of Texas Hill Country after the deadly floods of July 4 that left at least 132 dead and nearly 100 still missing. Mr. Hudnall was traveling to Camp CAMP (Children's Association for Maximum Potential), which was improbably welcoming new campers, many with physical and cognitive challenges too serious for other camps, little more than a week after the deadly deluge.
'Seeing those volunteers on the road was very similar to the vibe at camp,' Mr. Hudnall said. 'It's bringing normalcy to a person who doesn't always feel normal.'
The reopening of a summer camp on Monday heralded the green shoots already sprouting in the flood's wake, and it felt particularly poignant, and perhaps a little scary. One of the most indelible horrors of the flood was Camp Mystic, 30 miles upriver, where more than two dozen campers, counselors and other employees lost their lives.
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CBS News
2 hours ago
- CBS News
Long road to recovery begins as Hill Country volunteers continue flood search and healing efforts
After 12 days, the initial adrenaline to jump into action is starting to wear off for some volunteers. Crews are starting to settle into what will become a long and complex process of bringing everyone home. Jodi Carpenter and her daughter Abigail love the Guadalupe River. The park where Abigail Carpenter grew up playing is now covered in crosses to remember those swept away by the floodwaters. "I'm talking to God and my, you know, my head going, 'what does this look like for the long haul?' God, you know, how do we plug into healing for the long haul? Because it's going to be different moving forward," said Jodi Carpenter. Twelve miles downstream, search efforts continue. "The last several days have been, they've been difficult," said Daniel Murray. "This whole situation is emotionally heavy. But the reason we're out here is because we know the community needs support." Murray is part of a volunteer crew that's been clearing piles of debris. His crew marks each pile with an orange "X" to let other teams know it's clear. "What happened here is, it's hard to wrap your head around until you're on the ground looking at it," said Murray. Murray's group is one of many working out of the Center Point Volunteer Fire Department's command post. "Concerned citizens are posting just right outside of our fire department. And they are coordinating and going on search groups as well," said Razor Dobbs with Center Point FD. For crews like Daniels' and the emergency responders, this is the start of the long, hard work to account for every person lost. "The goal is to bring everybody home. And there is no plan B," said Dobbs. For Jodi Carpenter, her daughter, and everyone else in the Hill Country, they're starting the long, hard work of healing. "We're going to have to figure out how to get in the water again. Not right now, but. Like we're going to have to get back there," said Jodi Carpenter.
CBS News
3 hours ago
- CBS News
Texas Search and Rescue continues urgent underwater missions in Kerrville, battling fatigue and rain to find human remains and bring closure
Search and recovery efforts continue in Kerr County, 12 days after the tragic flood that claimed more than 130 lives along the Guadalupe. CBS News Texas shadowed Texas Search and Rescue in an area along the river where cadaver dogs might have found human remains. Despite the constant rain, heat, and exhaustion, the crews are doing whatever it takes to bring families closure. "It's almost hard to believe the force that water had," said TEXSAR Operations Manager Patrick Turck. Turck said he has crews coming from all over the state to their patch of the Guadalupe River, where they are aiming to find what they believe could be human remains. "I told they guys before we go out today, 'If it was your family member that was missing, how hard would you dig through that debris?' And I said, 'Don't give me an answer, think about it and get to work,'" Turck said.. The operation's biggest hurdle is digging up debris underwater, which just so happens to be a mission made for Dave Knesek, a former Navy SEAL of 20 years. "This is something I felt like I was suited to do," said Knesek. "There's entanglement-type hazards, there's strainers and things you can get pushed into." In Ingram, North Texas horse trainer, Casey Hildago, came to Kerr County from Granbury with just his horse and truck. He said his mission was to go to the most remote riverbanks to search for debris. The long days were worth it when a search ended in what he calls "a victory." "We just found out today, one of our locations we found on Thursday was confirmed to be one of our teammates' friend's daughters. It makes me want to go back out there and help for another week," Hidalgo said. Crews are battling both time and fatigue, but Turck said faith has been their fuel to keep going. "I can't say that any of the crews have suffered from any type of mental stress because the Kerrville Community has embraced us," said Turck. "We try and keep the focus on bringing these people home." It rained on and off Tuesday, and crews said the weather temporarily halted some operations. However, TEXSAR said it treats every day with urgency and will stay until it is no longer needed.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Teen counselors and rookie rescue swimmer save dozens in Texas camp flood
A US coast guard rescue swimmer on his first rescue mission as well as teenage counselors who helped shepherd cold and wet young campers to safety have been credited with saving dozens of lives at a flood-ravaged Christian summer camp on the banks of Texas's Guadalupe River. Their stories of heroism and fortitude – including the counselors' writing young campers' names on their arms and legs with Sharpies so that authorities could identify them if necessary – are among the first to emerge recounting the grim reality of the torrent of water that surged Friday through the all-girls Camp Mystic, where at least 27 campers and counselors are known to have died. As of Tuesday morning, a further five campers and one counselor remained unaccounted for. Coast Guard petty officer Scott Ruskan, 26, of Oxford, New Jersey, spoke of plucking mud-covered children to safety after his helicopter crew flew through appalling weather to reach the campsite in rural Hunt early Friday afternoon. He and his colleagues, he told the Washington Post, were greeted with scenes of devastation, and dozens of children, teenage camp counselors and staff desperate to escape. 'That's how quickly this floodwater rose,' he told the newspaper in a phone interview. 'They didn't have time to grab shoes. You're just carrying kids that don't have shoes on, they're covered in mud, and you're trying to get them out of there. 'Some of it was simply talking to them and consoling them and trying to make them feel comfortable.' Ruskan, who joined the Coast Guard in 2021 and qualified as a rescue swimmer only last year, is credited with saving at least 165 lives during the three hours he spent on the ground triaging children and adults, and prioritizing the evacuation of the neediest cases, many on board Texas national guard black hawk helicopters. Many of the counselors, he said, were not much older than the young girls they were chaperoning – and they deserved credit for their role in saving lives. He said some told him of throwing children through windows and doorways to escape the fast-rising floodwater. 'It was some really heroic stuff by those camp counselors,' Ruskan said. 'I really hope they get the recognition they deserve.' Two Camp Mystic counselors, 19-year-olds Silvana Garza Valdez and María Paula Zárate from Mexico, spoke to the Mexican news network Televisa about the ordeal, which they said began at about 3am on Friday when electricity to the camp went out. But it was not until about noon, they said, that counselors were informed that some areas of the sprawling 725-acre campsite had been flooded and survivors were gathered in a dining hall. The pair said the urgency of the situation was becoming clearer, and they began preparing girls in their care for what might be to come. 'We began writing the girls' names on their skin, wherever it could be visible,' Zárate said. 'We told them to make a bag with all their things, whatever was most necessary … to get ready to evacuate. But we didn't know if they were going to evacuate us or not, and so we waited.' They attempted to calm the frightened girls with songs and games as they watched furniture and other camp equipment washing by as the water rose higher. 'All the girls started going crazy and crying because they didn't want to leave the camp – because they wanted to be with their parents,' Garza Valdez said. 'It was a terrible situation. I don't know to explain it. It was something very awful.' She said she and those with her didn't initially realize others at the camp had died. 'What they spoke to us about at the time was that 25 girls were missing – and that two were found at a nearby campground alive and well.' They did not have their cellphones with them to be able to know more about the situation that was unfolding – or call their families – because the devices were kept in the camp's front office, Garza Valdez said. Their group was eventually rescued by a military team that arrived at the campsite at about the same time as the Coast Guard and national guard. 'I felt like I was in a dream – I didn't think it was true,' Garza Valdez said. 'I don't think I understood the gravity of the situation until we saw it leaving on the army trucks. It was terrible. A week before, we were sleeping in the [hardest-hit cabins], and so simply it was difficult to process that they had moved and that we are alive' because of that. Ruskan spoke of the frustration of not being able to reach Camp Mystic immediately. He told the Post that early reports of flooding were received by 6.30am Friday, and his crew was in the air by 7am – but had to redirect to San Antonio because of zero visibility. They finally landed in Hunt at 2.30pm, knocking over archery targets in a field from the helicopter's downdraft as they descended. The former financial consultant recalled that his trainers told him that his first rescue missions would be unlike anything they taught him to expect. 'That's kind of the point,' he said. 'The expectation is that everyone is looking for someone to not be a hero, but kind of help them out and get them situated. 'That's what they needed me to be, and that's what kind of was in this case.'
