TX TX-Hunt, Overnight flooding at Camp Mystic, all girls camp. Unknown number of missing. July 4, 2025

[CrimeDawg123]

I am thinking.....

Probably for the same reason that pricey housing developments and mansions are built in brush fire areas in CA. Ditto for equivelents in in Hurricane surge zones in say, Florida.

In the end, real estate money goes where there are desirable features. These features can be coastal hills with ocean views in Malibu, Florida beaches, and in the case of Texas...... a historic "River" that would be classified as a "Creek" back east.

But.... in a dry state with very little flowing water, very little interesting terrain next to major metropolitan areas, real estate on the Brazos, the Guadalupe and associated scenic "Hill Country"- some (key word) nice views, but really not scenic by Shenandoah standards can be very desirable.

Likewise, rivers and related water fun can be taken for granted back in the wetter East. But..... in dry Texas, they are rare and a super attractive novelty. Thus, even more temptation to build in close.

So you won't be visiting Texas then?

 

[Herat]

The oldest summer camp in the Guadalupe River - Hunt, Ingram, Kerrville region is 104 year-old Camp Rio Vista. Like the others, it was built along the river for children to enjoy water-based recreation in this hot summer area. For 101 of the years of it's existence, having a placid pond-like creek was safe.

It appears this flood was the third major flood in the region since Camp Rio Vista was built. One might ascribe this as a 100-year event, but in view of definite evidence of climate change in the region with heavier storms and rains, earlier and longer hurricane seasons, and longer blistering droughts, the safety of everyone in the area must be paramount and zoning codes need to be changed, as well as the design and management of these camps.

It's also inexcusable that there is not a major flood warning alarm near these camps, RV parks, and riverside camping regions where hundreds of vulnerable people are at risk at any time. I read that Camp Mystic evacuated 700 people, probably most of whom were children. Clearly, there are heavy concentrations of at-risk children in these flood zones. The tragic deaths of these people and those trying to rescue them have to be recognized by the State of Texas as an incentive for permanent flood alarm towers, massive strengthening of the cell coverage locally, and true recognition of the danger.

Then they need to get started on the bridges that are at risk of failing

 

[mickey2942]

I am thinking.....

Probably for the same reason that pricey housing developments and mansions are built in brush fire areas in CA. Ditto for equivelents in in Hurricane surge zones in say, Florida.

In the end, real estate money goes where there are desirable features. These features can be coastal hills with ocean views in Malibu, Florida beaches, and in the case of Texas...... a historic "River" that would be classified as a "Creek" back east.

But.... in a dry state with very little flowing water, very little interesting terrain next to major metropolitan areas, real estate on the Brazos, the Guadalupe and associated scenic "Hill Country"- some (key word) nice views, but really not scenic by Shenandoah standards can be very desirable.

Likewise, rivers and related water fun can be taken for granted back in the wetter East. But..... in dry Texas, they are rare and a super attractive novelty. Thus, even more temptation to build in close.

We live by a "wash", a ravine that shows it was carved out by water, decades ago. High sloping sides, flat bottom. Filled now with lush trees, grasses, wild flowers. Someone got a building permit. And built a huge house above the ravine. Looking over the ravine.

I don't even know how they got a building permit. If there is a "500 year" flood, that house is probably right in center of where the water will go and funnel into the ravine. Glad we live a mile away, higher up.

 

[Skigh]

Search for father and two children washed away in New Mexico deluge

No injuries or deaths are immediately reported, but officials say an unknown number of people are unaccounted for

www.bbc.co.uk

We have just heard from Kerr County and Texas state officials, who have given an update on the situation in the county worst hit by weekend flash flooding.

Here is what we learned:

• Officials said 87 people have died in Kerr County alone, including 56 adults and 31 children
• Five campers and one adult from the all-girls' Camp Mystic remain missing
• Identification of the bodies of 19 adults and seven children is pending. Some bodies have been released to relatives
• Police say there is no estimate of missing persons in the general population, besides the confirmed missing figures for Camp Mystic

 

[Jade]

I was a camper and later counselor at a camp in the Northeast USA in my younger years. I suspect it was not unlike a secular Camp Mystic.

These experiences were formative to me, and my heart breaks for the families who have been impacted by this terrible natural disaster.

One thing I will add to the discussion as to the location of the cabins / younger campers nearer to the riverbanks. In my experience, camp leaders need to balance a lot of risks, not just the risk of flooding.

There are high frequency/low severity risks (e.g., stomach bugs, homesickness). There are two-campers-a-summer risks (e.g., broken bones, concussion). There are every-several years risks (e.g., intruders - usually non-custodial relatives). There are also every-many-decades or never risks, like the kind of flooding that happened. The policies of the camp, the staff practices, even the layout of which campers sleep where considers ALL of these risks. It’s an Imperfect situation - balancing choices that help mitigate the stuff camps see day in and day out and those they hope never happen.

The summer I was 11 was my 3rd summer at my camp, which was all girls. It was the first summer that I was old enough to be in a cabin with all campers, no counselors. There was a nearby counselor cabin. One night, I woke to a man in my bed. There was another on the bed of my bunkmate. Naturally, I was terrified. I’ll spare the details but I was fully unharmed, and the young men were drunk, in the wrong place, and did not want or try to hurt us kids.

In the subsequent conversations with my parents about how the camp practices were designed (and later amended) to prevent this kind of stuff, we learned a lot about cabin design and camp layout.

I have no idea whether Camp Mystic actually took sufficient steps to understand and mitigate the risks of floods - but I do strongly suspect that the decisions were complicated and well considered.

The camp and its location is unique because of the geology and natural systems of that landscape. The flash floods are a known and all time present danger in the area.

I strongly disagree that a swanky and expensive summer long camp business has to “balance” risks that do not have the same ratio in risk management.

Individual risks such as illness, injury, homesickness are separate considerations than potential mass causality events like a flash flood for a camp on the water path of the “Flash Flood Alley”.

The risk from flash flooding is not only at night but during the day when campers are out recreating away from the immediate vicinity of the camp.

The private alarm system is an easy fix and not cost prohibitive for such a business.

This is why they needed a private early warning system to be prepared and drill evacuation:

The Texas summer camp where dozens of girls died in July 4th flash flooding is located in the middle of a well-studied, high-risk flood zone, according to mapping data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
>>>
Camp Mystic was at a particular disadvantage due to its location near the headwaters of the Guadalupe, reducing the warning period for evacuation.
>>>
At the time of the flood, there were roughly 750 girls between the ages of 7 and 17 staying at Camp Mystic, with the green-roofed cabins in the high-risk floodway believed to be hosting some of the junior campers.

https://www.realtor.com/news/real-estate-news/map-texas-girls-camp-mystic-flood-zone/


Although this event was practically dangerous with tropical system Barry adding to the Gulf’s usual convection condensation on the Escarpments and the two other weather systems contributing the flash floods are common and ignoring the potential especially with the other deaths in 1987 is negligent, imo.
Any amount of flash flooding is dangerous and has fatality potential because of the waters speed and force even at shallow levels.

>>>
She referred to Kerrville, which was hit especially hard, as part of "flash flood alley," a term local meteorologists and experts have called the region.
>>>
She noted that, while flooding like this "doesn't happen often," large scale ones "have occurred at least four times in the last 50 years."

"Kerrville actually had a higher crest of 37.4" in a July 1987 event where 10 campers were lost downstream," Burgess told Newsweek. The crest refers to the highest level a river reaches before it goes back down.

She added: "This flood resembled all of those previous events, although we have a much higher population now compared to 40 or 50 years ago."
>>>
"Each flood event of this magnitude has occurred in the month of June, July or August, and usually has some kind of tropical characteristic with it," Burgess noted, adding that "remnants of former Tropical Storm Barry that made landfall in Mexico last week and that circulation is still spinning across Texas today."

"Flash Flood Alley" has history of deadly camp floods: Meteorologist


all imo

 

[PunishThenForgive]

Current Known Victim List

Renee Smajstrla, 8, Camp Mystic
Sarah Marsh, 8, Camp Mystic
Janie Hunt, 9, Camp Mystic
Jane Ragsdale, 68, Heart O' The Hills (camp director)
Julian Ryan, 27, Ingram (arterial laceration while saving his family)
Katheryn Eads, 52, (camping in an RV)
Blair Harber, 13, (family riverside cabin)
Brooke Harber, 11, (family riverside cabin)
Bobby Martin, 46, (camping in an RV)
Amanda Martin, 44, (camping in an RV)
Lila Bonner, 9, Camp Mystic
Tanya Burwick, 62, San Angelo (car)
Anna Margaret Bellows, 8, Camp Mystic
Eloise Peck, 8, Camp Mystic
Dick Eastland, 74, Camp Mystic (camp director)
Reece Zunker, 36, (riverside cabin)
Paula Zunker, 35/36, (riverside cabin)
Linnie McCown, 8, Camp Mystic
Mary Stevens, 8, Camp Mystic
Wynne Naylor, 8, Camp Mystic
Lainey Landry, 9, Camp Mystic
Kaitlyn Swallow, 22, Williamson
Jeff Wilson, 55, Kerrville (truck with camper)
Chloe Childress, 18, Camp Mystic (counselor)
Hanna Lawrence, 8, Camp Mystic
Rebecca Lawrence, 8, Camp Mystic
Holly Frizzell, 72, Hunt/Casa Bonita
José Olvera, 70s, Kerr County/Hunt
Joyce-Catherine Badon, 21, (riverside cabin)
Hadley Hanna, 8, Camp Mystic
Mary Kathryn Jacobe, 8, Camp Mystic
John Burgess, 39, (camping in an RV)
Julia Anderson Burgess, 38, (camping in an RV)
Al Lorio, 66, Ingram
Sally Sample Graves, 91, Kerrville
Reese Manchaca, young adult, (riverside cabin)
Mary Grace Baker, 8, Camp Mystic

If my count is right, that's thirty seven.

Could this list be put in alphabetical order by last name?

This will make it easier to quickly check whether a person you know is on the list, especially as more people are added.

 

[10ofRods]

A simple fix is simply to make sure all overnight accommodations are a certain height above the historic maximum flood plain. Well above it. This is something camp owners can do on their own.

Having 24 hour monitoring of the weather by a safety expert trained in various aspects of outdoor safety (fire and flood).

Where I live, we have ravines that first flood, then become densely overgrown, then catch on fire. Endless cycle. Everyone has to be prepared. Slowly, zoning laws are changing and the cost of rebuilding the burnt houses is reshaping land use. While I believe Texas was remiss in not passing legislation that was up for voting in just the past year, it's not just Texas that is struggling with issues related to anomalous weather events. Places that almost never get fires are getting them (there's one right now encroaching on Marseille, France, which is virtually unheard of; airport is shut, firefighters are in an intense battle as it reaches city limits - it has lots of fuel).

It's so hard to read about the deaths of these children. I hope Texas can see its way through to mandating emergency evacuation siren systems. The bill this year was defeated because it required small towns to chip in for the project and there was a lot of public pushback.

 

[CrimeDawg123]

Could this list be put in alphabetical order by last name?

This will make it easier to quickly check whether a person you know is on the list, especially as more people are added.

• Mary Grace Baker, 8, Camp Mystic
• Joyce-Catherine Badon, 21, (riverside cabin)
• Anna Margaret Bellows, 8, Camp Mystic
• Lila Bonner, 9, Camp Mystic
• John Burgess, 39, (camping in an RV)
• Julia Anderson Burgess, 38, (camping in an RV)
• Tanya Burwick, 62, San Angelo (car)
• Chloe Childress, 18, Camp Mystic (counselor)
• Dick Eastland, 74, Camp Mystic (camp director)
• Katheryn Eads, 52, (camping in an RV)
• Holly Frizzell, 72, Hunt/Casa Bonita
• Sally Sample Graves, 91, Kerrville
• Hadley Hanna, 8, Camp Mystic
• Blair Harber, 13, (family riverside cabin)
• Brooke Harber, 11, (family riverside cabin)
• Janie Hunt, 9, Camp Mystic
• Mary Kathryn Jacobe, 8, Camp Mystic
• Hanna Lawrence, 8, Camp Mystic
• Rebecca Lawrence, 8, Camp Mystic
• Lainey Landry, 9, Camp Mystic
• Al Lorio, 66, Ingram
• Reese Manchaca, young adult, (riverside cabin)
• Amanda Martin, 44, (camping in an RV)
• Bobby Martin, 46, (camping in an RV)
• Sarah Marsh, 8, Camp Mystic
• Linnie McCown, 8, Camp Mystic
• Wynne Naylor, 8, Camp Mystic
• José Olvera, 70s, Kerr County/Hunt
• Eloise Peck, 8, Camp Mystic
• Jane Ragsdale, 68, Heart O' The Hills (camp director)
• Julian Ryan, 27, Ingram (arterial laceration while saving his family)
• Sally Sample Graves, 91, Kerrville (already listed; duplicate removed)
• Renee Smajstrla, 8, Camp Mystic
• Mary Stevens, 8, Camp Mystic
• Kaitlyn Swallow, 22, Williamson
• Jeff Wilson, 55, Kerrville (truck with camper)
• Reece Zunker, 36, (riverside cabin)
• Paula Zunker, 35/36, (riverside cabin)

 

[Quill]

We actually lived in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, which is where my sweet dad spent days searching. The water just washed everything down the mountain. We had no damage, but my dad took us there after the searches died down. He wanted us to see how others had not been so lucky. I just barely remember the scene but my older siblings do.

Wow. We lived about an hour or hour and a half to the Gulf coast in Mississippi but inland enough to not be considered coastal. My mother remembers the dishes rattling in the cabinets with Camille. They had horrible torrential rain and tornadoes. I was just a baby so I have no memory. We always had terrible weather systems with hurricanes growing up. As an adult I've weathered two hurricanes on the Gulf coast but Katrina was the shocker because we were 200 or so miles inland and she was still a hurricane as bad as the other two we experienced on the coast when she hit us. Of course, we got wind, rain and tornadoes while our friends on the coast got waves of storm surge water that took out entire towns. Many people suffered the same fate as the people in Texas recently. Mississippi just got hammered, and then ignored. We know a family that survived by getting in the attic the way many of the people in Texas recently had to do.

Good for Govenor Abbott and the state legislators.

We get tornado warnings by text messages where I live, but the sirens going off get your attention because that means they are much closer and it gets your attention.

Our sirens are actually a voice. It scared me to death the first time. I felt like I was in a Hunger Games movie. But, it works great because you don't become desensitized to a siren's monthly test the way you do with an actual siren. Our monthly test is a voice that says "this is only a test" and then when stuff gets real he says "take cover now" or some similar message. It is impossible to ignore that voice saying "take cover now". Since we mostly have tornadoes, this is the message we mainly hear. I don't live in a flood plain so I'm not sure if this system has different messages that can be used.

 

[seasideForest]

• 
  
• Sally Sample Graves, 91, Kerrville
• 
  
• Sally Sample Graves, 91, Kerrville (already listed; duplicate removed)

Good job. Doing instead of just asking!
Note that Sally Sample Graves is in twice, once alphabetically by Graves, and once alphabetically by Sample.

 

[Herat]

I was thinking of something like this. These are along the Washington, Oregon, and northern California coasts. These have a 1 mile audible range.

I like how she explains this, the siren tests and their sound, and what to do.

490 reactions · 318 shares | Have you seen sirens on the coast and wonder what triggers them and when they will go off? Our Tsunami Program Manager Elyssa Taperro talks about that in this video. At 10:19 a.m. on Oct. 19, as part of the Great Washingt

Have you seen sirens on the coast and wonder what triggers them and when they will go off? Our Tsunami Program Manager Elyssa Taperro talks about that in this video. At 10:19 a.m. on Oct. 19, as part...

www.facebook.com

 

[Quill]

No problem.

I'm aware that most people on here have school, jobs, kids, commitments. I'm on permanent psych disability, my responsibilities are caring for my disabled partner and keeping house for my very active full time working mother, and cleaning up after my three rescue cats. I've got a partial library science qualification and I have a neurodivergent brain that likes chasing rabbits and finding all the things and putting them in order. All this means I have the time and the inclination to follow a dozen liveblogs and google 'texas floods' fifty times a day.

I hope that it's helpful. I hope that it's honouring the victims. I wish I didn't know I'm going to be adding dozens more names to this list before this is over. There are too many kids still missing, too many families where they've only found one of a whole group who got swept away together. But found is always better than forever lost, which is always a possibility with this kind of flooding. I wish all the SAR folks, professionals and volunteers, stout hearts, keen eyes, and good luck. Because that's what it's going to take to bring everyone home.

MOO

You are doing an amazing job at this. Thank you so much for your diligence. I feel like you are honoring them and it's allowing the rest of us to honor them as well. Thank you.

 

[Cryptic]

So you won't be visiting Texas then?

Visit? No intentions to visit what so ever. I have lived in Texas for 28 years. And.... I would not want to live anywhere else. I do, however, enjoy visiting other states.

 

[SleutherGirl]

No problem.

I'm aware that most people on here have school, jobs, kids, commitments. I'm on permanent psych disability, my responsibilities are caring for my disabled partner and keeping house for my very active full time working mother, and cleaning up after my three rescue cats. I've got a partial library science qualification and I have a neurodivergent brain that likes chasing rabbits and finding all the things and putting them in order. All this means I have the time and the inclination to follow a dozen liveblogs and google 'texas floods' fifty times a day.

I hope that it's helpful. I hope that it's honouring the victims. I wish I didn't know I'm going to be adding dozens more names to this list before this is over. There are too many kids still missing, too many families where they've only found one of a whole group who got swept away together. But found is always better than forever lost, which is always a possibility with this kind of flooding. I wish all the SAR folks, professionals and volunteers, stout hearts, keen eyes, and good luck. Because that's what it's going to take to bring everyone home.

MOO

Hey, fellow neurodivergent on summer break from work(after school care). Would you like some help?

 

[Cryptic]

I don't even know how they got a building permit.

I would not be surprised if the granting authority had been pressured to relax building restrictions in the interests of lowering over all real estate prices.

It can be a double edged sword. People are allowed to build in areas where they should not, but.... it does make more housing available.

 

[SleutherGirl]

Odessa Police Officer Bailey Martin, age unknown and undisclosed members of extended family. Camping trip- Guadalupe River, Travis County, Texas

Camp Mystic- Blakely McCrory, age 8

Both reported by NBC

@iamshadow21

 

[BayouBelle_LA]

Two more names to add to the list. There’s also a 10 yr old that’s been recovered, waiting on MSM to report. @iamshadow21

James and Cindy Rushing

James Rushing and Cindy Nelson Rushing's bodies have been recovered. They were camping at the HTR TX Hill Country Campground on Fourth of July when the floods hit Kerr County.

dailytimes.com

James Rushing and Cindy Nelson Rushing's bodies have been recovered. They were camping at the HTR TX Hill Country Campground on Fourth of July when the floods hit Kerr County.

 

[SleutherGirl]

There will be a news conference at 4 pm Eastern time according to CNN

 

[sunflowermomma]

Is it common to not have even a rough estimate of how many missing people there are? Surely they can count the camp rosters, the number of ten camp sites, the number of RV camp sites....etc

 

[BayouBelle_LA]

Greta Toranzo, a 10-year-old Houston ISD student and caring big sister, has died after catastrophic flooding at Camp Mystic, her parents said in a statement Tuesday.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/greta-toranzo-hisd-death-20761086.php