…including 15 children and 28 adults
The death toll in the devastating Guadalupe River flash flood in south Texas has risen to 43 — including 28 adults and 15 children, officials said in a grim Saturday night update.
Officials said 12 adults and 12 children are pending identification and that another press conference is expected Sunday morning.
At least four of the dead — Renee Smajstrla, 8; Sarah Marsh, 8; Janie Hunt, 9; and Lila Bonner, 9 — were attending Camp Mystic, a Christian summer retreat for girls where 23 other campers were still unaccounted for.
Renee Smajstrla, 8; Sarah Marsh, 8; Janie Hunt, 9; and Lila Bonner were among as many as 27 campers who were washed away in the deadly Guadalupe River flash floods.
A total of 27 bodies were recovered as of Saturday — 14 of which were children, Kerr County Sheriff Larry L. Leitha said at a press conference. Some 18 adults were among the dead.
Officials have not revealed whether those children are the Mystic campers, but family members took to social media to break the heartbreaking news.
“Thank you to all our friends and family for all the prayers and outreach. Renee has been found and while not the outcome we prayed for, the social media outreach likely assisted the first responders in helping to identify her so quickly,” her uncle wrote on Facebook along with a picture of the young girl beaming.
“We are thankful she was with her friends and having the time of her life, as evidenced by this picture from yesterday. She will forever be living her best life at Camp Mystic. Please continue to pray for the other families in Kerrville.”
Sarah, of Mountain Brook, Alabama, was also found dead, her mother confirmed to The Post.
“Our sweet Sarah is gone!” her grandmother, Debbie Ford Marsh, wrote Saturday.
“We will always feel blessed to have had this beautiful spunky ray of light in our lives. She will live on in our hearts forever! We love you so much sweet Sarah!”
Lila’s family confirmed her death in a statement in which they described suffering “unimaginable grief,” according to NBC News: “We ache with all who loved her and are praying endlessly.”
Janie was also discovered dead, according to Corpus Christi Crónica.
The 9-year-old’s mother had told CNN Friday that she had not heard anything about her daughter’s whereabouts after the flood hit the camp.
“We are just praying,” Janie’s mother had said.
Kerr County officials ominously alluded to the death of a “director,” but refused to confirm their identity or the circumstances around their death.
“There are so many great people in this community that are responding and moving quickly, lives lost saving people, like camp directors. I’m going to let other people name names and stuff. That’s not my job here,” said Dalton Rice, the city manager of Kerrville.
Texas officials refused to confirm the identities of the dead or missing, saying they were protecting the privacy of the grieving families, but family of Mystic’s director, Dick Eastland, confirmed he heroically died while trying to save the young girls from the storm.
Eastland raced to one of the camp’s 23 cabins when the floodwater swept it away early Friday morning, Channel2Now reported.
Another director at nearby Heart O The Hills Camp also perished in the flood. The camp — located just one mile north of Camp Mystic — was not open at the time, but Director Jane Ragsdale was on the property when the floods suddenly surged.
“We are mourning the loss of a woman who influenced countless lives and was the definition of strong and powerful,” the camp wrote on its Facebook Page.
Ragsdale had been a co-owner of the camp since 1976, but was, at one point, a camper and a counselor herself.
Other staff at the camp have been accounted for and made it to higher ground, the camp said.
It is not clear if any of the other campers had been found dead, but local reports indicate that some of the girls were rescued and were transported to family reunification centers.
One missing camper, Annie Flack, was home safe Saturday, her mother told The Post.
At least four girls from Texas Christian camp dead and nearly 2 dozen still missing after devastating flooding
“There are lots of families missing, children and friends missing. Our daughter is safe. Our son is safe. The operation to get the girl camp out did a good job. It was very organized, and we’re still hoping and praying for good news for friends that are hoping and praying for good news,” Ashley Flack said, adding that her son was at the nearby La Junta camp.
“We certainly feel that our children are fine and processing.”
Little Annie has friends who are still missing. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families trying to locate their children, and that’s really where we feel the focus should be,” Flack added.
At least 858 people were rescued during search missions, eight of whom were injured.
As many as 27 girls at Camp Mystic, a Christian sleep-away camp, were swept away by the dangerous floods early Friday morning — including some who were in cabins that were washed out.
Most of the campers were evacuated early Thursday, and the others were rescued by the Texas Game Wardens on Friday.
Mystic Camp is a 99-year-old camp that serves more than 750 girls between the ages of 7 and 17 and operates two sites alongside the Guadalupe.
“The camp was completely destroyed,” Elinor Lester, 13, one of the evacuated campers, told The Associated Press.
“A helicopter landed and started taking people away. It was really scary.”
Harrowing photographs of the camp showed the damage wrought by the floodwaters, which reached the middle of the windows of the cabins where the girls slept.
Entire walls were ripped off the buildings, trees uprooted and the girls’ belongings tossed into shrubbery.
One soaked and mud-covered moose plushie was heartbreakingly lying on the outdoor steps of the cabin.
Campers at other sites in the surrounding areas were all accounted for, but were stranded at the ground, said Rice, adding that most of the rescues were concentrated on the campgrounds.
“We have a lot of camps and they are all accounted for, but they are isolated because of road damage. So we know where they’re at, we’re getting them food, water, resources. Now it’s a matter of just getting them safely across low water crossings or other areas to other shelters,” he said.
The Guadalupe River — on which Camp Mystic is perched in the San Antonio suburb of Hunt — rose 26 feet in just 45 minutes, according to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a level of flooding the area hasn’t seen since 1987.
A flood alert went out at 4 a.m. when most people were sleeping.
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly errily warned that the rescue missions, though ongoing, would soon turn into recovery, but when pressed, said that every missing person is considered to be alive until otherwise proven.
The total number of missing persons is unknown. Officials have only calculated the 27 missing Mystic campers, but said the true number of tourists and other campers is impossible to estimate.
“That’s going to be a long, toilsome task for us. And what I would reiterate that I’ve heard others say is as long as we stay together, we’ll get this done,” he said at a presser Saturday evening.
Gov. Greg Abbott on Saturday added six other counties — Bexar, Burnet, Caldwell, Guadalupe, Travis and Williamson– to a disaster declaration he signed the previous day, bringing the total to 21.
The State of Texas has deployed more than 1,000 state responders and more than 800 vehicles and equipment assets, and more than 15 state agencies are currently responding to the flooding threat across the state.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem requested four fixed-wing aircraft from the Coast Guard to join in the search.
The Texas National Guard was activated and is orchestrating helicopter searches, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency is also assisting.
Searches went on Saturday morning as rain continued to fall across Hill County, with officials warning of the ongoing threat of possible flash flooding extended from San Antonio to Waco for the next 24 to 48 hours.
On Saturday, President Trump said his administration was working with Texas state and local officials and that Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem was expected to join on the ground.
“Melania and I are praying for all of the families impacted by this horrible tragedy. Our Brave First Responders are on site doing what they do best. GOD BLESS THE FAMILIES, AND GOD BLESS TEXAS!” he wrote on Truth Social.
The Guadalupe River previously flooded across Kerr County in 1987, overtaking a church bus and killing 10 teenagers.
The campgrounds do not have a warning system in place, Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said.
New York Post
