Harrowing reason why Camp Mystic girls had no idea of danger during Texas floods

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By Phoebe Egoroff

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Dozens of campers at Camp Mystic in Kerr County, Texas, remained inside their cabins in the early hours of July 4 as flash flooding swept through the area, unaware of the immediate danger unfolding around them.

Despite a flash flood warning, many were allegedly not evacuated before rising waters inundated low-lying parts of the camp.

Camp counselors reportedly told older campers that younger children had already been moved to safety, but survivors have since claimed that was not the case.

GettyImages-2223267262.jpg Search and recovery workers dig through debris looking for any survivors or remains of people swept up in the flash flooding at Camp Mystic. Credit: Jim Vondruska / Getty Images.

At least 27 people are now confirmed dead after deadly flash flooding tore through the all-girls summer camp in Kerr County, Texas, in the early hours of July 4. More than 650 girls and staff had been asleep when the National Weather Service issued a catastrophic flash flood warning at 1:14AM.

But some survivors say the flood hit well before most at the camp realized what was happening, and claimed that they were falsely reassured others were already safe.

Fourteen-year-old Amelia Moore says that as younger girls screamed in the darkness, counselors told them not to worry. “A lot of counselors had been here for so long they thought it was nothing,” she told The Wall Street Journal. “So they were like, ‘Just stay in the cabin.’”

Amelia claimed they were assured that the youngest campers had already been moved to safety. “This is the part that makes me sick,” she said. “The whole time we were told the flats were safe and accounted for… playing games in Rec Hall and that they were perfectly fine.”


But in reality, the area known as the Flats, a low-lying section near the Guadalupe River, was hit hardest.

At least 14 girls and their counselors from the Bubble Inn cabin, which housed children as young as eight, are either confirmed dead or remain missing.

Camp Mystic’s counselors, many of them only a few years older than the campers, were allegedly left to lead during the crisis.

Amelia recalled that “no one on that hill was over 21 years old.”

GettyImages-2223975343.jpg Credit: Brandon Bell / Getty Images.

At another cabin, 16-year-old Callie McAlary said she realized the storm was far from ordinary when lightning struck outside and word spread that cabins were flooding.

“One minute you see lightning strike next to your cabin, and next to you, you hear water's coming up,” she told Fox News. “It was really bad thunder. We heard one of the campers run in and say, ‘Hey, our cabin is flooding.’”

In the cabin known as “Giggle Box,” 19-year-old counselor Ainslie Bashara and her co-counselors acted quickly to save 16 girls, aged eight to 10.

As floodwater crept in, they had the children put on shoes and coats, moved items to top bunks, and blocked the door with trunks before escaping through a window into rising water.

“It’s going to be okay!” Ainslie called to the crying children as they made their way to a nearby pavilion. Despite their bravery, help came too late for many. The first helicopter didn’t land at the camp until 3PM, more than 12 hours after the flooding began. By then, much of Camp Mystic had been swallowed by water that rose 26 feet in just 45 minutes.

Camp director Dick Eastland, who had owned the camp since 1974, died trying to rescue children. Security guard Glenn Juenke said he threw girls onto floating mattresses in an attempt to keep them alive. “Each of those sweet girls [were] cold, wet, and frightened, but they were also incredibly brave,” he told CNN.

GettyImages-2223280600.jpg Danielle Villasana / The Washington Post / Getty Images.

The confirmed death toll in Texas stands at 134 at the time of writing, with 95 in Kerr County alone, The Guardian reports. Another 173 people remain missing as FEMA teams comb the area with helicopters, boats, and cadaver dogs.

The tragedy has sparked questions over the camp’s emergency response and the delay in evacuation. Some critics blame federal staffing cuts for the late warning from the National Weather Service, a claim the White House called a “depraved lie,” according to The Hill.

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania visited the region on Friday, as lawmakers call a special session to investigate gaps in emergency communication and flood preparedness.

Featured image credit: Danielle Villasana / The Washington Post / Getty Images.