Floods in Central Texas

Fear struck at 3 am on the patriotic holiday of Fourth of July. Central Texas was devastated by deadly flash floods, having taken at least 104 lives so far, nearly a quarter of the lives being from a local girls’ summer camp. In less than forty-five minutes, the Guadalupe River surrounding Kerr County rose more than 8 meters.

Nearly 1,000 rescuers continue to search for survivors while the affected and surrounding areas are under a flood watch. Although this is the 4th Texas flood in the last four years. According to Wikipedia, , which took 215 deaths, majorly affecting 3 counties, 93 people in Williamson County, 87 in Taylor, and 51 in San Antonio.

Here are some points to know based on what has been reported.

Approximately 74% of the confirmed deaths were from Kerr County

According to recent reports from Monday, at least 104 people have been confirmed dead due to the natural disaster. The majority of the deceased (84 people) hailed from Kerr County, which has the 250-mile Guadalupe River running straight through it. In the heart of Kerr Valley was the popular girls’ summer camp, Camp Mystic. The reason that Kerr County was so severely affected is due to the fact that having a home along the river is not only beautiful but proved by the recent floods deadly as well.

In Kerr County, there are several bodies of water, the two most popular ones being Lake Navarro and the Guadalupe River. The Guadalupe River runs straight through the heart of Kerr County and Lake Navarro is a collection of smaller reservoirs and creeks. Although there are other popular rivers in the area, the Guadalupe river is by far the most popular river in the county, with many waterfront properties being located in the surrounding area. River, according to Wikipedia and Zillow Kerr County Waterfront listings. Since the area of Kerr County has a total area of 1,107 square miles, of which 1,103 square miles is land and only 4.00 square miles is water, which means that approximately 99% of the land in Kerr County has no water, making homes along the Guadalupe river even more desirable. According to the various Wikipedia sites and Zillow listings, approximately 75% of the waterfront homes in Kerr County are located along the Guadalupe river. homesRiver

Approximately 25% of the confirmed deaths are from a Popular girls’ summer camp in the area

Camp Mystic, a popular Christian girls camp in the area, was “a place of laughter, prayer, and adventure just days ago,” according to BBC news, until the camp was struck by the recent Texas flood, it being only 1/2 a mile east from the Guadalupe river. Having been founded in 1926, RiverCamp Mystic is a sacred place nestled in the Texas Hill Country where generations of girls have laughed, grown, and found lifelong sisterhood under the cypress trees along the Guadalupe River. To lose even a moment of it to the floodwaters is to lose a piece of Texas’s heart, a place where innocence, tradition, and love have quietly bloomed for nearly a century.

So far, “at least 27 girls and staff were among the dead, with 10 children and one counselor still missing.” according to live news from BBC. One of the surviving campers from the night of the catastrophe, Stella Thompson, 13, gave her point of view to BBC news as the following: “as Helicopters began buzzing overhead, she realized something was dreadfully wrong. The girls in her cabin heard that the Guadalupe river side of the camp was flooded.” Thompson stated that, “when we got the news, we were all, like, hysterical and praying a lot.”

Thompson described the said “horrific” scenes as she and other survivors were evacuated from the scene by military trucks whilst having to watch their fellow campers and friend’s dead bodies being dragged out from the wreckage. The devastating rainfall tragically claimed the lives of dozen young girls at the camp. “You’d see kayaks in trees…then there was first responders in the water pulling out girls.” A horrified and shaken Thompson stated.

Nearly 1,000 citizens have been rescued.

According to the New York Times, more than 850 people have been rescued by first responders. The first responders include local, state, and national teams, with operations spreading to more than 60 miles. Additionally, more than 1,750 personnel and more than 975 search vehicles and equipment assets have been deployed statewide to address the ongoing flooding threats due to the fact that the rain in majority of the impacted areas has not ceded.

Words of Encouragement and Comfort

In a recent interview, Gov. Greg Abbott spoke directly to the people of Texas with a message of solidarity and resilience amid the devastating floods. His words offered not just comfort, but a powerful reminder of the light they carry inside them during dark times like these, “What I have observed in this community in the past 24 hours is what I call quintessential Texas. When Texans face a challenge, we come together, we unite, and that is what has happened in the past 24-48 hours in this community. Nothing more than extraordinary devastation in the worst thing that could happen to this community fell upon it. But instead, they understood the importance of unity, that’s what Texans do!” These few inspiring words will hopefully fuel the impacted Texans of the area in times of hardship and keep them going to see the light in the dark, the candle of hope in a cave of darkness, but like all caves, there is always a way out.

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