Dozens of young girls missing after Texas flood washed them away from Christian camp

Many parents are still searching for their little girls after flood swept through campgrounds in Texas. Early morning on the Fourth of July, record-setting flash floods swept away 27 girls and counselors at Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, and washed through campgrounds where generations of young Texans have spent their summers along the Guadalupe River. Christians across the state and the country prayed as rescue teams navigated the flooded roads between Friday, July 4, and Sunday, July 6, to retrieve hundreds of campers in disaster areas, which had lost power, internet, and road access when water levels rose 26 feet in 45 minutes, per state officials. By Saturday evening, July 5, at least five of the missing girls from Camp Mysticages 8 and 9had been reported de@d. The co-owner of the Christian girls camp, Richard "Dick" Eastland, was also reported de@d. On Sunday, July 6, 10 campers and a counselor remain missing.  The de@th toll across the area rose to over 82 people, including 28 children, with recovery efforts ongoing. One of the young victims from the camp, Sarah Marsh, is the daughter of a professor at Samford University in Birmingham, according to the schools president, who asked for prayer for the family. At Camp Mystic, the cabins near the river housing the youngest campersnamed Twins and Bubble Inntook on water from both directions. Richard Dick Eastland rushed to rescue girls in one, and his brother Edward Eastland went to the other, directing the sleeping campers to get on the top bunks as flood levels rose higher and eventually reached the roofs. Pictures of the aftermath inside show a tangle of wet bunk beds, girly bedding, stuffed animals, and electric fans, with dark mud covering the cabins red floors.  Dick Eastland was found in a black SUV with three girls he had tried to save, camp staff member Craig Althaus said in The Washington Post. Althaus said he found surviving girls on cabin roofs and in trees. Camp Mystic is grieving the loss of 27 campers and counselors following the catastrophic flooding on the Guadalupe river, an online statement read. Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy. We are praying for them constantly.  In major cities in Texas, neighborhood Facebook groups and Instagram stories circulated photos of smiling elementary-age girls with their names and parents phone numbers in hopes that they would be found soon and their family could finally hear confirmation of their safety. According to news reports, most parents had only heard from Mystic by email. The email read: We have sustained catastrophic level floods. If your daughter is not accounted for you have been notified. If you have not been personally contacted then your daughter is accounted for. Dozens received the devastating phone call. A father was seen searching for his missing child amidst broken tree branches and mud-spattered cabins. Michael McCown drove to the Hill Country when he learned of the flooding. His daughter, Linnie, had been at Camp Mystic, among the youngest in the Bubble Inn cabin. Devastating rains that caused flooding had swept through the area and parts of Central Texas since the early hours of Friday. The floodwaters killed at least 18 adults and 14 children, including several girls at the Camp Mystic summer camp, as well as the director of another camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River. The search for the missing continues, including about two dozen Camp Mystic girls who had not yet been found, like Linnie. McCown went to churches, registered with all the necessary authorities, and even visited the local morgue to identify a child they thought might be his. But Linnie was still missing, so McCown headed to the campground just outside the town of Hunt. He went into the cabin and looked at the flooded stuffed toys, picked up some decorative bracelets and looked at the pictures taped to the wall. McCown said he wanted to get something for each parent of the 14 girls. Ill just walk, he said. He walked along the entire camp grounds to the bend in the river surrounded by rocky limestone cliffs. "I'll walk until I find something." McCown walked to the black sport utility vehicle where the camp director, Richard Dick Eastland, was found, along with three girls he was trying to rescue from the flood. "Dick did doing what he loved," said Craig Althaus, who had worked on the property for 25 years and described finding some of the surviving girls in trees and on the roofs of cabins. Camp Mystic had welcomed around 750 girls, 8 through 17, for a month-long term five days before the floods hit on Friday, July 4.The post Dozens of young girls missing after Texas flood washed them away from Christian camp appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.