In Texas Hill Country, a community devastated by deaths from deluge

USA Today

05-07-2025

On July 4, heavy rainfall engorged the Guadalupe River, upending summer camps, retirement plans and those getting away from Texas' urban bustle.
Tragedies struck as flooding made its way across Texas's Hill Country.
In the early hours of July 4, heavy rainfall engorged the Guadalupe River, upending people's lives as children attended storied summer camps and residents planned to come together for Independence Day.
As of July 5, at least 32 people, including 14 children, have died. Dozens more are still missing. Residents are left trying to rebuild while searching for people who went missing.
'Please pray for our community,' Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring Jr. said in a post.
'Serene' summer camp site gets deadly flooding
Family members of those at Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp for girls, have learned of the deaths of their children who died amid the flooding outside of Kerrville, a city of about 24,000 people in central Texas.
Images showed empty bunk beds covered in mud, with girls' belongings strewn throughout the decades-old campsite that has brought generations of Texas families together. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said 750 girls were at the camp when rain of up to 12 inches per hour fell. City officials estimated 27 girls are still missing.
To get to the camp, far removed from cell service, families traveled on Highway 39, which runs along the Guadalupe River, crossing over the waterway at points. Then, they'd see the Mystic sign atop a hill. The landscape is marked by rolling hills dotted with cypress, live oak, and pecan trees.
'What that area is like when it's in it's prime − when it's not devastated like this − is probably one of the most serene and peaceful places that I've ever seen in my life,' Clair Cannon, a 45-year-old realtor in Dallas who is the second of three generations of women to attend Camp Mystic, told USA TODAY. 'That part of Texas is just absolutely gorgeous.'
Cannon's mother, Emily Morrill, now 75, was a campgoer and later a counselor. She vowed to take Cannon to the camp from the womb, and tells Cannon to spread her ashes there, Cannon quipped. Cannon's daughter also went to the camp beginning at age 8 − the youngest someone can attend − and went for a decade before now being in college.
The family has developed lifelong friendships at the camp, and her daughter knew counselors in the cabins that flooded. Cannon's mother, Morrill, was just a bit older than their family friends, Dick and Tweety Eastland, who have run the campsite for decades and live on the property. The campsite itself dates back nearly a century.
On July 4, Dick Eastland, known for teaching the girls how to fish, died in the floods after he went to check on the younger girls amid the rainfall. The camp's cabins for its youngest were closest to the riverbank. His nephew confirmed the death on social media, Texas Public Radio reported.
Several girls have been identified among the dead. Renee Smajstrala, an 8-year-old camp attendee, was killed in the flooding, her uncle, Shawn Salta, confirmed to the Washington Post. He had shared a Facebook post announcing his niece's death.
'We are thankful she was with her friends and having the time of her life, as evidenced by this picture from yesterday,' Salta's post said. 'She will forever be living her best life at Camp Mystic.'
Another camper, Janie Hunt, 9, is among the dead, her mother told CNN in a message the morning of July 5.
Sarah Marsh, an 8-year-old from Alabama, also died at the camp, Mountain Brook, Alabama, Mayor Stewart Welch announced.
Several others are still missing.
Normally, at the end of the monthlong summer camp, girls would have a second reunion before leaving the Hill Country, Cannon said.
Their pilgrimage is to the Texas jewelry institution, James Avery. The artisan jewelry store, with locations across the state, is headquartered in Kerrville, a few miles downriver. With their families in tow, the girls would go together to decorate their camp bracelets with charms.
Still dirty from the outdoors, the girls would bedazzle their bracelets with charms for their cabin, the year they attended Mystic, and activities they completed, among other icons.
After the second reunion ends, parents put their daughters in the car, Cannon recalled. Girls would fall asleep on the drive home across Texas, exhausted from camp. They'd have to wait to see their friends until next summer.
Faithful Hill Country comes together
In Kerrville, churches of various denominations have worked to shelter and feed people in the county seat of Kerr County, which has become a destination for retirees.
First Presbyterian Church, just a few blocks from the eastern bank of the Guadalupe River, repurposed its Family Life Center to serve as a reunification area for hundreds of people, including children bused and even airlifted from camps up the river, where the roadways had been flooded. Video showed masses of children, many in shorts and flip flops or barefoot, standing in an indoor basketball gymnasium.
Christian faith is important to many Kerrville residents, according to the Rev. Jasiel Hernandez Garcia, the 32-year-old pastor of First Presbyterian.
'We have all sorts of convictions and beliefs,' he told USA TODAY. 'And yet, when things like this happen, we are eager to make that connection and say, 'What do you need? How can we help?''
In an update, Hernandez Garcia also announced to congregants that Jane Ragsdale, the longtime director of the Heart O' the Hills summer camp for girls, also died in the flooding.
For now, Hernandez Garcia said, the community appears lucky to have sufficient resources for food, water and other immediate supplies, but people will need help rebuilding their lives with financial assistance.
Church was home for families of missing Camp Mystic campers
Soyla Reyna, a staff administrator at Calvary Temple Church in Kerrville, told USA TODAY that the church became a shelter for displaced families when the flooding began.
"We did have people here that have been displaced (and) lost everything, or couldn't stay at their home because it was unsafe," Reyna said.
As of Saturday, many of the displaced families who were at the church have been moved to another location, and now the facility is being used to house the families who still have loved ones missing or awaiting rescue, according to Reyna.
Reyna did note that the families the church housed initially were all looking for their campers who went missing from Camp Mystic. She recalled a lot of those families being "devastated" and "heartbroken" because they did not know their children's whereabouts at that time.
Calvary Temple Church has been working hand-in-hand with the American Red Cross and Salvation Army throughout the rescue efforts, according to Reyna. A day after disaster struck, she said there are still a good number of people at the church waiting to be reunited with their lost family members.
Reyna applauded the "overwhelming amount of people" who have come from all over to bring supplies, food and necessities to the families in need.
"We're at the point where we're turning people away because we can't have any more stuff," she said about the immense support. "It's been that impactful to our community."
Contributing: Jeanine Santucci, Mike Snider and Joel Shannon of USA TODAY