With a drizzle falling on Camp Mystic, the flood-ravaged Christian summer camp on the Guadalupe River in Texas, a father navigated the debris in search of his eight-year-old daughter.
“My daughter was here,” he said Saturday, examining a stone-walled cabin with shattered windows, eventually finding a towel with her name, a bracelet and a family photo.
Michael, 40, who declined to give his last name, lives in the state capital Austin and received the message every parent fears most on Friday morning: his child was missing.
She is among 27 girls who have yet to be found after powerful waves of water rushed through the riverside camp in the pre-dawn hours after torrential rainfall.
One of the walls of Camp Mystic’s dining hall, a large wooden cabin, was completely ripped off by the force of the floodwaters, which left some 32 people dead in the Kerr County region of south-central Texas.
Scattered on the floor are bottles of maple syrup and Cholula hot sauce, staples of Texan tables.
Approximately 750 girls were staying at the camp when the flood hit, and the majority of campers were successfully evacuated.
Authorities said at least 18 adults and 14 children were killed when heavy rains engorged the Guadalupe River until it overflowed its banks, dotted by multiple campgrounds.
The search for Michael’s daughter and 26 other girls continues.
– A hundred-year flood –
US media reported that of the 27 missing girls, four were dead, citing their families.
Along the Guadalupe River, which rose over 26 feet (eight meters) in 45 minutes, devastation stretches as far as the eye can see.
The force of the floodwaters felled trees and overturned cars, as rescue teams worked — on foot, in trucks, by helicopter and with drones — to scour the debris in search of survivors or victims.
One girl was spotted clinging to a tree, Texas Governor Greg Abbott told reporters Saturday.
She held on “until a helicopter was able to descend upon her and lift her out of that harrowing situation,” Abbott said.
The river’s breach also damaged neighboring Kent County, flooding homes, knocking down fences and subsuming a fuel station.
Distraught parents searched for their children at reunification centers, posting photos to social media, calling for prayers and divine aid.
“There is a saying here that there’s a flood every hundred years,” said Gerardo Martinez, 61, who operates the Vecinos restaurant near a viewpoint.
“We had it. We’ve never seen anything like that and hopefully we won’t ever see it again.”
Martinez said he watched as waters topped trees and “cars, whole houses were going down the river.”
The river runs through the city of Kerrville, where resident David Amorr, 35, said the floods felt “unreal.”
“We see this stuff on TV. You don’t imagine it happening so close, especially in your hometown,” Amorr said.
“We also have two daughters. They could have been there, at the camps, missing. So we feel solidarity with those families.”
At Camp Mystic, Michael continued to comb through the mud-soaked surroundings.
“I hope for a miracle. Absolutely,” he said.
