\n
Even those on higher ground were not safe.<\/p>\n
Katharine Somerville, a counsellor on the more-elevated Cypress Lake side of Camp Mystic, told Fox News on Sunday: “Our cabins at the tippity top of hills were completely flooded with water.<\/p>\n
“I mean, y’all have seen the complete devastation, we never even imagined that this could happen.”<\/p>\n
She\u00a0said\u00a0the\u00a0campers\u00a0in\u00a0her\u00a0care\u00a0were\u00a0all\u00a0safely evacuated.<\/p>\n
Texas Lt\u00a0Gov\u00a0Dan\u00a0Patrick\u00a0told of one heroic camp\u00a0counsellor\u00a0who smashed\u00a0a\u00a0window\u00a0so\u00a0girls\u00a0in\u00a0their\u00a0pyjamas\u00a0could\u00a0swim\u00a0out\u00a0through\u00a0neck-high\u00a0water.<\/p>\n
“These\u00a0little\u00a0girls,\u00a0they\u00a0swam\u00a0for\u00a0about\u00a010\u00a0or\u00a015\u00a0minutes,” he\u00a0Fox\u00a0&\u00a0Friends\u00a0Weekend\u00a0television\u00a0programme.<\/p>\n
“Can\u00a0you\u00a0imagine,\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0darkness\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0rushing\u00a0waters\u00a0and\u00a0trees\u00a0coming\u00a0by\u00a0you and rocks\u00a0come\u00a0on\u00a0you?\u00a0And\u00a0then\u00a0they\u00a0get\u00a0to\u00a0a\u00a0spot\u00a0on\u00a0the\u00a0land.”<\/p>\n
On Sunday, the rain was pouring down as the BBC reached the camp.<\/p>\n
The entrance was cordoned off by police and the rubble of what might have been some kind of gatehouse was strewn across the ground.<\/p>\n
More rain is forecast, which will make the rescue effort even harder.<\/p>\n
Three days after the deluge, hope is fading and this is rapidly becoming a recovery exercise more than a rescue mission.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n\n
Camp Mystic has been operated by the same family for generations, offering girls a chance to grow “spiritually” in a “wholesome” Christian atmosphere, according to its website. <\/p>\n
Families from all across Texas, including the state’s political elite, and the wider US send their daughters each summer to swim, canoe, ride horses and form lifelong friendships.<\/p>\n
But the beauty of the Guadalupe River, which draws so many to the area, also proved deadly.<\/p>\n
The floodwaters arrived with little warning, ripping through the picturesque riverfront area that is home to nearly 20 youth camps. <\/p>\n
Though Camp Mystic suffered the greatest losses, officials say the scale of the disaster is far-reaching.<\/p>\n
Nearby, the all-girls camp Heart O’ the Hills was also deluged. <\/p>\n
Its co-owner and director, Jane Ragsdale, was among the dead. Fortunately, the camp was out of session at the time. <\/p>\n
An unknown number of other campers were in the area for the holiday weekend.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n\n
Questions are mounting over why so many camps were situated so close to the river, and why more was not done to evacuate the children in time.<\/p>\n
Congressman Chip Roy, who represents the area, acknowledged the devastation while urging caution against premature blame.<\/p>\n
“The response is going to be, ‘We’ve gotta move all these camps – why would you have camps down here by the water?'” Roy said. <\/p>\n
“Well, you have camps by the water because it’s by the water. You have camps near the river because it’s a beautiful and wonderful place to be.”<\/p>\n
Families of the missing, meanwhile, face an agonising wait for news. Search and rescue teams – some navigating by boat, others combing through debris – are working round the clock.<\/p>\n
Texas Governor Greg Abbott vowed on Sunday that the mission would “stop at nothing” until every missing person was found.<\/p>\n
As for Stella, she takes some solace in her grief from a poem that was taught by Camp Mystic leaders.<\/p>\n
“A bell is not a bell until you ring it.<\/p>\n
“A song is not a song until you sing it.<\/p>\n
“The love in your heart was not put there to stay.<\/p>\n
“Love is not love until you give it away.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gary O’Donoghue Chief North America correspondent Reporting fromKerr County, Texas REUTERS\/Sergio Flores Stuffed animals sit in a windowsill at Camp Mystic after a deadly flooding in Kerr County, Texas. Camp Mystic, a Christian girls’ camp perched on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Texas, was a place of laughter, prayer and adventure just days […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32452,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32450\/revisions\/32452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}