CNN anchor who attended Camp Mystic as a kid ‘overwhelmed with emotion' as she returns to cover deadly Texas floods
Pamela Brown, CNN's chief investigative correspondent, shared her fond memories of the camp that was ravaged by Friday's floods during a live broadcast in an emotional off-the-cuff moment.
3 CNN correspondent reflected on her fond memories as a little girl when she was a camper at Camp Mystic.
CNN
'It's surreal coming back here 30 years later. I was a 10-year old little camper here filled with so much hope and joy,' Brown said during a discussion with an anchor. 'I remember the excitement and anticipation of coming to Camp Mystic.'
She explained how hard it was to wrap her head around how a river that is the source of such fond memories for her and other former campers could be the source of so much unspeakable tragedy.
'It's such a magical place, now all these girls – these sweet young campers – who had to evacuate and their families,' she said. 'So much innocence has now been lost.'
Brown, along with the press corps from around the country and the world, have descended upon Texas Hill Country after a once-in-a-generation catastrophic flood devastated the area Friday, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake, including Camp Mystic, an historic all-girl Christian camp that catered to Texas's elite.
3 CNN correspondent Pamela Brown said that with the devastation caused by the flooding so much innocence has been lost.
Pamela Brown/Instagram
At least five girls from the camp have been confirmed dead — all ages 8 and 9 — and 10 others are still missing.
The death toll from Friday morning's calamitous flooding rose to at least 80 across Texas on Sunday evening, with 68 of the deaths in Kerr County, where Camp Mystic's two campuses once stood.
'For me coming back I'm overwhelmed with emotion and I'm overwhelmed with memories,' Brown said. 'I can't get over looking at those cabins right next to the Guadalupe River, that river was the source of so much joy.'
She and her fellow campers loved to play games in the river.
'There was this thing called The Blob, which was like this inflated balloon type thing that we would jump on and then the person at the end would jump off into the water and it was so much fun,' she reminisced.
3 CNN correspondent Pamela Brown recounted how she and her fellow campers would look for dinosaur fossils in the Guadalupe River.
Pamela Brown/Instagram
Brown recounted how she and her fellow campers spent much of their time frolicking in the river, and even hunted for dinosaur fossils.
'Thats what we loved. And to think that that same river is the source of this devastation,' she added.
Brown is a multi award-winning CNN anchor and chief investigative correspondent, who currently anchors The Situation Room, according to her bio on the CNN website.
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New York Post
9 hours ago
- New York Post
CNN anchor who attended Camp Mystic as a kid ‘overwhelmed with emotion' as she returns to cover deadly Texas floods
A CNN reporter shared on air how 'surreal' it has been for her to cover the devastation at a 'magical place' like Camp Mystic after attending the Texas camp herself as a young girl. Pamela Brown, CNN's chief investigative correspondent, shared her fond memories of the camp that was ravaged by Friday's floods during a live broadcast in an emotional off-the-cuff moment. 3 CNN correspondent reflected on her fond memories as a little girl when she was a camper at Camp Mystic. CNN 'It's surreal coming back here 30 years later. I was a 10-year old little camper here filled with so much hope and joy,' Brown said during a discussion with an anchor. 'I remember the excitement and anticipation of coming to Camp Mystic.' She explained how hard it was to wrap her head around how a river that is the source of such fond memories for her and other former campers could be the source of so much unspeakable tragedy. 'It's such a magical place, now all these girls – these sweet young campers – who had to evacuate and their families,' she said. 'So much innocence has now been lost.' Brown, along with the press corps from around the country and the world, have descended upon Texas Hill Country after a once-in-a-generation catastrophic flood devastated the area Friday, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake, including Camp Mystic, an historic all-girl Christian camp that catered to Texas's elite. 3 CNN correspondent Pamela Brown said that with the devastation caused by the flooding so much innocence has been lost. Pamela Brown/Instagram At least five girls from the camp have been confirmed dead — all ages 8 and 9 — and 10 others are still missing. The death toll from Friday morning's calamitous flooding rose to at least 80 across Texas on Sunday evening, with 68 of the deaths in Kerr County, where Camp Mystic's two campuses once stood. 'For me coming back I'm overwhelmed with emotion and I'm overwhelmed with memories,' Brown said. 'I can't get over looking at those cabins right next to the Guadalupe River, that river was the source of so much joy.' She and her fellow campers loved to play games in the river. 'There was this thing called The Blob, which was like this inflated balloon type thing that we would jump on and then the person at the end would jump off into the water and it was so much fun,' she reminisced. 3 CNN correspondent Pamela Brown recounted how she and her fellow campers would look for dinosaur fossils in the Guadalupe River. Pamela Brown/Instagram Brown recounted how she and her fellow campers spent much of their time frolicking in the river, and even hunted for dinosaur fossils. 'Thats what we loved. And to think that that same river is the source of this devastation,' she added. Brown is a multi award-winning CNN anchor and chief investigative correspondent, who currently anchors The Situation Room, according to her bio on the CNN website.
New York Post
12 hours ago
- New York Post
New Jersey native on first rescue mission with Coast Guard helps save 165 Texas flood victims: ‘American hero'
A Coast Guard rescue swimmer is already being hailed as an 'American hero' after his very first mission — helping to save the lives of 165 Texas flash-flood victims. 'This is what it's all about, right? Like, this is why we do the job,' said Scott Ruskan, 26, a New Jersey native and former KPMG accountant, to The Post after his work in central Texas. 'This is why we take those risks all time. This is why like Coast Guard men and women, are risking their lives every day,' said Petty Officer Ruskan — who was in charge of triage at Camp Mystic, the Christian girls' summer camp that saw some of the worst of the flooding. Advertisement 10 US Coast Guard Petty Officer Scott Ruskan helped save 165 people from the Texas flash-floods this week. Facebook Raised in Oxford, NJ, Ruskan enlisted in the US Coast Guard in 2021, and after completing basic training, went to Aviation Survival Technician school in Petaluma, Calif., before being stationed in Corpus Christi, Texas. He had been on call since November after completing all of his training, familiarizing himself with the Coast Guard's iconic MH-65 helicopter and enrolling in additional rescue swimming classes as he waited to be called into action. Advertisement That fateful call came on the Fourth of July as a massive summer rainstorm led to catastrophic flash flooding in the Lone Star State that has so far claimed at least 80 lives. Bryan Winchell, a helicopter search and rescue technician with Texas Task Force 1 — a joint partnership between the Texas Army National Guard and the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service — called the Coast Guard looking to get boots on the ground and in the air for an emergency rapid response near central Texas. 'That's a little bit outside our area of operation normally, but people were in danger, and we're a good asset to try and help people out, and these guys were asking for help, so that's kind of what we do,' Ruskan said. 10 Ruskan with his family after passing rescue swimmer school last year. Instagram/Julie Ruskan Advertisement 10 The rescues at Campy Mystic were Ruskan's first mission. Instagram/Julie Ruskan By 7 a.m. Friday, crews loaded into Blackhawk 60 and Coast Guard MH-65 choppers and took to the skies. It was 'literally the best aircrew we could possibly have,' Ruskan said. Follow The Post's coverage on the deadly Texas flooding Advertisement Their destination was Camp Mystic, a Christian girls' summer camp just off the banks of the Guadalupe River, which saw some of the worst of the flooding. Five campers ages 8 and 9 have been confirmed dead, with a counselor and 11 more girls still missing, officials said. 10 A Coast Guard crew participating in rescue missions near Kerrville, Texas with a MH-65 helicopter. USCG Heartland When the crew arrived, they were racing against sundown to rescue as many stranded flood victims as possible. All roads were impassable, and the currents were too strong for any boats to get in, leaving helicopter evacuation as the only hope for the nearly 200 survivors. As the crews evaluated the operational logistics, their goal was to move as many people out of harm's way as possible, but they were bound by the weight limits of the helicopters. During a briefing, they decided to leave Ruskan on the ground to triage the rescue mission. 'I was like, sweet, sounds great, I'll be more helpful on the ground than I will be in the air right now, so that's kind of what we went with,' he said. 10 An aerial view of the flooding from the Guadalupe River near Kerville on July 5, 2025. Po3 Cheyenne Basurto/UPI/Shutterstock 10 A helicopter flying over Camp Mystic to search for missing flood victims on July 6, 2025. Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty Images Advertisement The rescuers loaded the first four to five survivors into the MH-65, and Ruskan set out to take a closer look at the scene of the camp, which was on higher ground than the flood-ravaged surrounding areas, where trees were snapped like twigs and twisted metal of cars littered the muddy ground. While on the ground, Ruskan tended to terrified and injured campers, many of them shoeless and still wearing pajamas from their mad dash out of their bunks in the middle of the night. In between comforting the 'cold, wet and miserable' survivors, both kids and adults, Ruskan directed Army Blackhawk 60s and MH-65s to pockets of survivors to begin painstakingly bringing them to safety. 10 Two girls getting rescued from the floodwaters in Texas by a helicopter. via GageGouldingTV Advertisement 'My main job was triaging, and then my second job I kind of picked up was just trying to comfort these kids and the family members and counselors,' Ruskan said. 'I mean this is like, probably the worst day of their life. They're in a terrible situation, they have friends and family unaccounted for, missing, unknown status, and they're looking to me and all the rescuers for guidance and comfort.' He said one of the hardest parts was having crying grown adults coming to him for help finding missing loved ones. 10 A search crew on the grounds of Camp Mystic on July 6, 2025. AP Photo/Julio Cortez Advertisement 10 A cabin destroyed by flooding at Camp Mystic. REUTERS 'It's like, 'Hey, I can't help you guys locate these people, but I can get you guys out of here right now if we just try to remain calm,' and just trying to comfort everyone as best I could is kind of what I was doing,' he said. Over the next several hours, Ruskan spearheaded a high-risk rescue mission under the worst possible environmental conditions, which in the end saw 165 brought to safety. 'So we basically got the majority of the people out of Camp Mystic, which is awesome. And I feel like we did a lot of good that day, but obviously it's still super sad,' he said. 'There's still a lot of people missing and unaccounted for, so the mission's not over yet. It's not over for us. Advertisement 10 Ruskan celebrating with his sister after completing rescue swimming school. Instagram/Julie Ruskan 'We're back home and stuff, but there's still so many crews, Coast Guard, Department of Public Safety, Air National Guard and those Task Force 1 guys, as well as other local agencies. They're still out there,' Ruskan said, eager to share the credit for him and his crew's heroics with the other agencies involved in the rescue. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem trumpeted the successful rescue mission on social media, identifying Ruskan by name and calling him an 'American hero' whose 'selfless courage embodies the spirit and mission of the Coast Guard.' But Ruskan's reaction to her glowing praise was to share the glory with his fellow guardsmen. 'Honestly, I'm mostly just a dude. I'm just doing a job. This is what I signed up for, and I think that any single Coast Guard rescue swimmer or any single Coast Guard pilot, flight mechanic, whoever it may be, would have done the exact same thing in our situation,' he said. 'That's what we were asked to do and we're gonna do it. Any one of us, if anyone else was on duty that day, they would have done the same thing as us. We just happened to be the crew that got the case.'
New York Post
13 hours ago
- New York Post
Camp Mystic girls sob and sing campfire songs as they are evacuated from horrifying Texas flood zone: video
Downed trees, cars piled up, and little girls singing hymns. A Camp Mystic nurse captured these harrowing scenes as she and hundreds of other campers and staffers were evacuated from the devastated scene following Friday's catastrophic floods. Devon Paige had been working at the girls' Christian summer camp when surging waters tore through the area, drowning at least 69 people and leaving 11 girls unaccounted for in Kerr County. 7 A bus full of girls evacuating from Camp Mystic in Texas during the floods. Devon Paige/TikTok 7 The flooding at Camp Mystic during the evacuation. Devon Paige/TikTok 'I wish you could see 'before' shots to show how devastating it is,' she wrote under one video taken from the back of a law enforcement truck, showing cars scattered like toys and rural houses reduced to matchsticks. In another video, a busload of young girls sing worship songs in between weeping as they ride through the devastation to a reunification center. 'The girls are singing to try and calm everyone,' Page wrote. More than 850 people were rescued within 36 hours of the start of the flash flooding, which came after a sudden storm dumped more than a foot of rain on the region. 7 Girls from the camps sang hymns to remain calm as they left for a reunification center. Devon Paige/TikTok 7 Eleven girls are still unaccounted for in Kerr County. Devon Paige/TikTok 7 Camp nurse Devon Paige captured the harrowing evacuation. Devon Paige/TikTok The waters tore through the old buildings at Camp Mystic, sweeping away scores of campers and counselors or trapping them in their bunks. Thirty-eight adults and 21 children have been confirmed dead, but 18 adult victims and four children have not yet been identified. Follow The Post's coverage on the deadly Texas flooding Five girls from Camp Mystic, ages 8 and 9, are among the dead — along with the camp's owner. Some 400 first responders from 20 city, state, and national agencies are frantically searching for 11 girls and a counselor who are still missing from the camp, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said at a Sunday press conference. 7 A Camp Mystic sign seen near the banks of the Guadalupe River. AP 7 Search and rescue workers digging through debris near Camp Mystic on July 6, 2025. Getty Images When asked why the camps weren't evacuated before the water level rose, and whether emergency alerts went out in time, Leitha and city manager Dalton Rice declined to comment, abruptly ending Sunday's 10 a.m. press conference. Rescuers face toppled trees, overturned cars, large piles of mud-filled debris, and other obstacles as they continue their rescue efforts.
