A heartbreaking photo shows an entire cabin of Camp Mystic girls and counselors who were washed away in the horrific Texas floods.
The 13 girls and two counselors were staying in Camp Mystic’s Bubble Inn cabin, which, alongside the Twins cabin, housed the youngest of the girls, aged 8 to 10.
The cabins were less than 500 feet from the river and thus took in water from two directions – the Guadalupe river and a creek nearby, making the girls’ escape particularly challenging.
The bodies of nine of the girls and counselor Chloe Childress, 18, have been found as of Monday morning, while counselor Katherine Ferruzzo and four campers remain missing.
Those confirmed dead are: Janie Hunt, Margaret Bellows, Lila Bonner, Lainey Landry, Sarah Marsh, Linnie McCown, Winne Naylor, Eloise Peck, Renee Smajstrla and Mary Stevens.
The co-owner of the Christian girls camp, Dick Eastland, reportedly died while trying to save the girls in the Twins and Bubble Inn cabins.
His body was found in a black SUV alongside those of three girls he had tried to save, reported The Washington Post.
But many of the girls in the cabins were unable to flee as the water rose 20 feet in just 90 minutes when the catastrophic floods hit on Friday morning.
The 13 girls and two counselors were staying in Camp Mystic’s Bubble Inn cabin when the catastrophic floods hit on Friday morning
A view inside of a cabin at Camp Mystic, the site of where at least 20 girls went missing after flash flooding
A search and rescue volunteer holds a T-shirt and backpack with the words Camp Mystic on them
Camp Mystic confirmed Monday that at least 27 campers and counselors had died in the floods.
‘We have been in communication with local and state authorities who are tirelessly deploying extensive resources to search for our missing girls,’ the camp said in a statement posted on its website.
The body of camp counselor Chloe Childress, 18, was recovered over the weekend
‘We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of support from community, first responders, and officials at every level.’
Families were allowed to look around the camp beginning Sunday morning.
One girl was seen walking out of a building ringing a large bell in an attempt to find survivors, while a man whose daughter was rescued from a cabin on the highest point in the camp walked the riverbank looking in clumps of trees and under big rocks.
A teenage girl had tears running down her face as they slowly drove away and she gazed through the open window at the wreckage.
Across the state, the floods killed at least 82 people.
Governor Greg Abbott said Sunday that a further 41 people confirmed to be unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing.
In Kerr County, home to youth camps in the Texas Hill Country, searchers have found the bodies of 68 people, including 28 children, Sheriff Larry Leitha said Sunday afternoon.
Fatalities in nearby counties brought the total number of deaths to 82 as of Sunday evening.
Nine-year-old Janie Hunt, left, and Sarah Marsh, 8, died in the flooding at Camp Mystic
Nine-year-old Lila Bonner (right), was attending Camp Mystic with her best friend Eloise Peck (left)
Eloise Peck (right) was sharing a cabin with Lila Bonner (left) when they were killed in the flooding
Rescuers have continued maneuvering through challenging terrain filled with snakes as they look for the missing.
The devastation along the Guadalupe River, outside of San Antonio, has drawn a massive search effort as officials face questions over their preparedness and the speed of their initial actions.
Beyond the Camp Mystic campers unaccounted for, the number of missing from other nearby campgrounds and across the region had not been released.
‘We don’t even want to begin to estimate at this time,’ Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said Saturday, citing the likely influx of visitors during the July Fourth holiday.
President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration Sunday for Kerr County and said he would likely visit Friday: ‘I would have done it today, but we’d just be in their way.’
‘It’s a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible,’ he told reporters.
