by Nicole Russell
The scene in Kerr County and other areas of the Texas Hill Country is worse than any horror film.
The Guadalupe River surged more than 26 feet in less than an hour in the early morning of July 4, Friday, sweeping away homes and flooding campgrounds as children and adults slept.
At least 90 people died in the flood, including as many as 27 children. Authorities say 10 children from a summer camp are still missing.
Amid the horror, heroes and helpers have emerged.
Scott Ruskan, 26, is a new Coast Guard rescue swimmer. He has been hailed as a hero for helping save the lives of 165 flood survivors on his first rescue mission.
Others gave their lives helping to save lives. Richard Eastland, the director of Camp Mystic, died attempting to rescue campers caught in the raging flood. More than 700 girls were staying at the Christian camp when the flash flood hit.
Julian Ryan, 27, also died a hero. As water rose inside the mobile home he shared with his fiancée, two children and his mother, he broke a window, allowing his family to escape the flood.
But the broken glass cut an artery in his arm. As he bled to death, Ryan told his family, “I’m sorry, I’m not going to make it. I love y’all.”
Young sisters lost their lives in the flood
Still, most of the stories emerging from this tragedy offer only heartbreak and devastation. A search crew found sisters Blair and Brooke Harber with their hands locked together. The girls were only 11 and 13 years old.
As a mother of two children the same ages as Blair and Brooke, I’m horrified. I can’t imagine the pain and anguish that their parents, and so many other parents, are now suffering.
My heart also breaks for the family and friends of Chloe Childress, a counselor at Camp Mystic who planned to attend the University of Texas at Austin this fall. Her high school principal described Chloe as having had a “remarkable way of making people feel seen” and “steady compassion that settled a room.”
So many other stories are being told of children and young people lost to the flood, of adults swept away in an instant, of families devastated forever that we can hardly absorb the magnitude of this horror.
Texas leaders must address questions about warning system
Although it is a sensitive moment for grieving families and communities, state leaders in Texas need to address several urgent questions.
Flash floods are common in the state. It’s not politicizing a tragedy to ask what could have been done to prevent this disaster and to head off others like it in the years ahead. A thorough and transparent review of early warning systems is vital.
The National Weather Service issued multiple warnings about the potential for flash floods, and a text alert was sent at 4:03 a.m. July 4 about an imminent threat in Kerr County. But many of the victims were sleeping as the river surged in the early morning darkness.
Parents of the hundreds of children staying at Camp Mystic, on the banks of the Guadalupe River, deserve answers as to why the camp was not evacuated before the flood.
Nothing can erase the pain of this tragedy. But for the sake of other children, other families, we must learn from this horror, including the addition of early warning systems and improvements in how and when urgent weather information is shared.
Those of us who call Texas home are resilient. We’re generous in times of need. We will grieve with our neighbors and be grateful for the heroes who rushed into danger.
And we will not allow the horror of this flood to pass without demanding the changes needed to protect our children now and in the years ahead.
