Gary O’DonoghueChief North America correspondent, Kerr County, Texas and
Ana FaguyBBC News
REUTERS/Sergio Flores
Stuffed animals sit in a windowsill at Camp Mystic after a deadly flooding in Kerr County, Texas.
Camp Mystic, a Christian girls’ camp perched on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Texas, was a place of laughter, prayer and adventure just days ago.
But just before daybreak on Friday, the Fourth of July public holiday, the river rose 26ft (8m) in about 45 minutes amid a torrential downpour.
Many of the hundreds of girls at the camp were sleeping in low-lying cabins less than 500ft (150m) from the riverbank.
The bunk beds are now mud-caked and toppled, the detritus of a summer camp cut tragically short.
Destroyed personal belongings are scattered across soaked interiors where children once gathered for Bible study and campfire songs.
More than 90 people have been confirmed dead in the floods. Camp Mystic has confirmed that at least 27 girls and counsellors are among them.
Camp Mystic
Camp Mystic camper Renee Smajstrla did not survive
Stella Thompson, 13, was in a cabin on higher ground when storms awoke her early on Friday.
As helicopters began buzzing overhead, she realised something was dreadfully wrong. The girls in her cabin heard that the Guadalupe River side of the camp was flooded.
“When we got that news, we were all, like, hysterical and praying a lot,” Stella told a Dallas NBC affiliate.
“And the whole cabin was really, really terrified, but not for ourselves, worried for those on the other side.”
Stella described the “horrific” scenes as she and other survivors were evacuated by military trucks.
“You’d see kayaks in trees… then there was first responders in the water pulling out girls.
“And there were huge trees ripped out of the ground and their roots. And it didn’t look like Camp Mysti
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