Parents say a camp la Junta counselor saved their children from being wiped out by the floods that tore Texas Hill Country on Independence Day.
Camp Mystic kids sing hymns as they evacuate floods in Texas
The children at Camp Mystic sang during a post-flood evacuation in Texas.
New York Post – Vertical
After the sunshine day at Camp La Junta, 11-year-old Beau Brown woke up to his counselor on July 4th and headed into the early morning darkness.
From the doorway, Bo could see the floods beginning to drink the cabin and approaching the Guadalupe River, where the young boy was sleeping. Along with another group of campers, he reaches a high point on a nearby hillside and watches the counselor rush into a fierce flood.
The water torrents blew through at least one cabin wall and forced the counselor to move the children to the rafters above the bunk bed. As the water slowed, the counselor formed a line, drawing some of the boys safely. Several counselors put the children over their shoulders and swam them up high altitudes.
Within hours, nearly 400 children and counselors each decided and explained that everyone and counselor were safe. Acting on its own, staff took the decisive action, rushing the kids out of the Racing River to a cabin on the hill, rising over 20 feet within an hour. Parents who spoke to USA Today have been praised for saving their children’s lives.
“If it wasn’t for them, it would have been a very different scenario than our boys,” said Bo’s mother, Georgie Brown. “No one told them what to do, they did it and saved a lot of our boys.”
In other camps, floods have taken lives.
About five miles below Guadalupe, the flood tore Camp Mystic. As of Tuesday, rescuers were desperately searching for five girls who were still missing five girls after the river overwhelmed the campsite early on July 4th.
And although there were no children on the Hart grounds at Hills Camp, the flood killed the longtime camp owner Jane Rugsdale. Other camps dotted on the edge of the river reported damage – some are very important, but no loss of life.
While parents of the children rescued from Camp La Junta, they also said they were overwhelmed by grief at losing their lives at Camp Mystic, where many of them know the victims and their families.
“It’s incredible that such a terrible thing can happen in such a happy place,” Brown said.
“They were heroes.”
12-year-old Colton Taylor had only one day at camp after Screams woke up around 4am on Friday.
The flood was down to his knees as he climbed out of bed – and soon his hips. In the darkness, he felt the tennis shoes floating nearby and hurried down the door with them.
“He went up on the hillside for about two hours in the rain. It’s scary,” his mother, Janet Davis, told USA Today. “He said he heard a sound he would never forget.”
Nearby, nine-year-old Everett Higgins and several other boys were sitting in bed as the flood was furious outside. Water had soaked into the cabin through the gaps under the door and the wall, but the cabin was at a higher point than the closest to the river, evacuating the interior.
The children in the cabin near the edge of the river were told to climb onto the bundle at the top, and then rafters were poured into them, like the water was drooping. Some parents said the children were there for about an hour before the counselor walked into the water and whipped the children safely.
“They were heroes,” said Everett’s father, Sean Higgins.
All the children moved to several cabins that were safe distances from the flood. There, the counselor continued to occupy the boys and overtook the football as the sun rose. Camp leaders kept their parents up to date through email, text messages and social media posts.
Heading into the evening, the truck and bus drove campers to Kerrville’s first Presbyterian church, where they reunited with their families. During the drive, the boys saw further evidence of the devastation caused by the flood. Uprooted trees, cars are washed away and a field where you can see some dead horses.
Janet Davis, who has a generational connection to the Texas Hill Country camp, said Colton was traumatized.
“It was one of my favorite places to go as a kid, so it’s heartbreaking,” she said. “Now my son never wants to go back.”
“miracle”
Brown said the longest time she had waited for her to hear about Bo was her life.
Children were not allowed to call camps, and the blackouts made communication with counselors almost impossible. Until she saw her son in person, she clung to the short message that Camp had sent, repeating how everyone felt safe.
“I was in pure panic mode,” she said.
After Beau and hundreds of other boys bused over Carville, he boarded a helicopter flight with his best friend in Monroe, Louisiana, where they live. It was near midnight when Brown met him at the local airport.
“I held him very tight,” Brown said with tears.
A similar scene unfolded at the church in Kerrville.
Everett sat in the crowded church gymnasium, with many other children waiting for their parents. When he spotted his father walking through the door, he ran over to him and almost worked him on the ground.
After a long hug, Higgins looks at his son and realizes he is in his pyjamas, a borrowed T-shirt, and that he has not had enough shoes. The image has since remained in Higgins’ mind, trying to tackle how close his son has come.
“What happened was a miracle,” he said.
