Camp Mystic, guadalupe river
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Texas, Camp Mystic and floods
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Virginia Hollis is one of the girls missing from Camp Mystic, according to a social media post from Bregman. She was staying in Cabin Twins 2 when floodwaters from the Guadalupe rushed through the campgrounds. Ellen is a missing Camp Mystic camper, according to her family.
The devastating floods that pounded areas of Texas -- including a Christian girls summer camp -- over the weekend recall a similar tragedy that occurred back in 1987.
Two days before flash floods on the Guadalupe River in Texas killed dozens of campers at a Christian girls summer camp, a state inspector approved operations, noting there was a written plan for responding to natural disasters.
Flash floods surged through in the middle of the night, but many local officials appeared unaware of the unfolding catastrophe, initially leaving people near the river on their own.
Stacy Stevens, whose daughter Mary Barrett Stevens was among the 27 killed when tragedy struck the all-girls Christian camp on July 4, said the youngster’s beloved brown monkey was swept away in the deadly floodwaters.
Many Catholics in the region have been stepping up to help, converging on Notre Dame Parish in Kerrville, located in the hardest-hit community along the Guadalupe River.
An analysis of flood maps shows that several buildings, including those where children were sleeping, were in known hazard zones. A $5 million expansion in 2019 did nothing to alleviate the problem.
With more than 170 still missing, communities must reconcile how to pick up the pieces around a waterway that remains both a wellspring and a looming menace.