{"id":9309,"date":"2025-07-07T23:37:33","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T23:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=9309"},"modified":"2025-07-08T21:50:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T21:50:31","slug":"central-texas-flash-floods-camps-mystic-heart-o-the-hills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/central-texas-flash-floods-camps-mystic-heart-o-the-hills\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Texas Flash Floods: Camps Mystic, Heart O&#8217; the Hills"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/place\/Camp+Mystic+Cypress+Lake\/@30.0121592,-99.3736774,3a,75y,106.7h,90.75t\/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sP-aUDa46kaf2n4k4a8iyrg!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D-0.7452800494605327%26panoid%3DP-aUDa46kaf2n4k4a8iyrg%26yaw%3D106.70354407930655!7i16384!8i8192!4m6!3m5!1s0x86594ffdfe444d8f:0x2a7a2695245457d6!8m2!3d30.0049622!4d-99.3731957!16s%2Fg%2F11j34_l5fs\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20250225ff\/20250707GuadalupeRiverNearCypressCreekApril2023-658.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Google Maps image: Guadalupe River, Texas, looking toward Cypress Creek. (April 2023)\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Guadalupe River, Texas, looking east toward Cypress Creek. (Google Maps 2023)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Folks living in central Texas are not having a good time. A heavy storm&#8217;s rain overloaded waterways before sunrise Friday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some folks enjoying an Independence Day weekend in that region&#8217;s picture-postcard landscapes survived. Others didn&#8217;t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Folks who have been helping sort out the mess have been finding some survivors, and many non-survivors. I&#8217;ve started seeing specifics about that: names, circumstances, facts that won&#8217;t come close to fully describing the people we lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c5ygl8lpyyqo\">Young campers, teachers and football coach among Texas flood victims<\/a>&#8221; <br>Rachel Hagan, James FitzGerald; BBC News (July 7, 2025)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/July_2025_Central_Texas_floods\">July 2025 Central Texas floods<\/a> <br>Wikipedia (&#8220;This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly and initial news reports may be unreliable. The latest updates to this article may not reflect the most current information&#8230;.&#8221;)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The seemingly-inevitable political sound and fury working off the tragedies started yesterday (Sunday, July 6, 2025) \u2014 the usual baying of the hounds. I won&#8217;t be talking about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I will talk \u2014 briefly \u2014 about what I noticed in news coverage, how I see the situation, and the slight change it&#8217;s made in my daily routines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a name=\"latebreaking\"><\/a>Late-Breaking News: Details, Discrepancies, and Making Sense<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Something that disturbed me early on, apart from what obviously was an appalling loss of life, were inconsistencies in the news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, an article said that 27 pre-teen girls had been at a summer camp, <strong>and<\/strong> that the camp was not in session at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I ran into that Saturday morning, but <strong>didn&#8217;t<\/strong> start posting about &#8216;Sinister Discrepancies at Summer Camp: WHAT ARE THEY HIDING???&#8217; I&#8217;d probably get a whole lot more attention if I did, and that&#8217;s another topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Turns out that there are \u2014 or were \u2014 at least two camps involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They weren&#8217;t much more than a mile apart. <strong>One, Heart O&#8217; the Hills<\/strong>, was on the Guadalupe River. <strong>Another, Camp Mystic<\/strong>, was sort of on the Guadalupe, but mostly on Cypress Creek. If I&#8217;m getting the names wrong, sorry about that: it&#8217;s what I found on Google Maps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The point is that <strong>both<\/strong> camps were hit, hard. One was in session, the other not. Names of the camps and other details started getting resolved over the weekend. I&#8217;ve put a couple excerpts and links at the end of this post.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/central-texas-flash-floods-camps-mystic-heart-o-the-hills\/\">1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, how come I didn&#8217;t see accurate coverage Saturday morning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a name=\"priorities\"><\/a>Priorities, Questions, and a Pre-Dawn Disaster<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Part of the problem, I very strongly suspect, involves what&#8217;s important and what&#8217;s not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A few hours after a major regional disaster most, if not all, of the folks who have any solid information are in the field. They&#8217;re trying to find people who are still alive, or coordinating efforts of those who are actively searching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Making time to slowly and carefully explain to hyperventilating reporters which camps have how many known missing and dead? That might not be a high priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What&#8217;s obvious, so far, is that searchers have found almost a hundred dead bodies; and that the area&#8217;s getting more heavy rain and flash floods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What may never be obvious is how so many folks apparently didn&#8217;t realize a flash flood was happening until they were in the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My guess, and it&#8217;s no more than that, is that flash floods don&#8217;t happen often enough in any one place to encourage staying up all night, waiting for a warning. Or evacuating low-lying spots each time there&#8217;s a heavy rain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Notices that flash floods were in progress getting posted, <strong>starting around four in the morning<\/strong> &mdash; that probably accounts for much of what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a name=\"disaster\"><\/a>Disaster, Deaths, Doing What I Can<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>It hasn&#8217;t been all bad news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Searchers have been finding folks who were still alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I&#8217;ve been running across accounts of folks who&#8217;d been caught in the flood and risked their own lives to help others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;&#8230;Julian Ryan, 27, died after trying to help his family escape their trailer home in Ingram, according to his sister, Connie Salas&#8230;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;&#8230;Dick Eastland, who served as the longtime director of Camp Mystic with his wife, died trying to save the lives of his campers, according to public officials&#8230;.&#8221; <br>(&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/US\/texas-flooding-victims-young-campers-dad-saving-family\/story?id=123531643\">Texas flooding victims: From young campers to a dad saving his family, what we know about the lives lost<\/a>&#8221; ; Emily Shapiro, Peter Charalambous; ABC News (July 7, 2025))<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m not at all happy about what happened: but it&#8217;s nice, learning that folks do what&#8217;s right in difficult situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, looking at the &#8216;so what&#8217; angle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What happened in central Texas doesn&#8217;t affect me directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I didn&#8217;t know anyone who was in that area, and  hadn&#8217;t been aware of either of the summer camps that were washed away. I gather that Camp Mystic has been owned and operated by the same family for generations, and that&#8217;s almost another topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a name=\"slight\"><\/a>Slight Change in Routine, Prayers<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>On the other hand, now I <strong>do<\/strong> know a little about the folks involved. Not much, but enough to let me include them in my daily prayer routine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Part of that inclusion would have happened anyway, even if I&#8217;d never heard of the Independence Day floods. This prayer for the dead has been part of my routine for some time:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.<br>May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>But now that I know about what&#8217;s happening near the Guadalupe River, I&#8217;ve been asking God to comfort and console the survivors. And help everyone involved cope with what they&#8217;re experiencing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I know: that&#8217;s no practical help at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I&#8217;m just some old guy living in central Minnesota. There&#8217;s precious little I <strong>can<\/strong> do to change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in my bare hands, and \u2014 well, you get the picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I did find some maybe-useful prayer resources. Those, I can share:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usccb.org\/prayers\/prayers-death-and-dying\">Prayers for Death and Dying<\/a><br>Prayers,USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/stpatricksto.archtoronto.org\/siteassets\/media\/files\/catholic-prayers-for-the-departed.pdf\">Catholic Prayers for the Departed<\/a><br>St. Patrick&#8217;s Parish, Toronto<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve maybe raised questions without answering them. I wrote most of this Monday afternoon \u2014 if you&#8217;ve got questions, put them in a comment. If I&#8217;ve got an answer, or at any rate a response; I&#8217;ll respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyway, I&#8217;ve talked about disasters and making sense before:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/a-prayer-for-america-seems-reasonable\/\">A Prayer For America: Seems Reasonable<\/a>&#8221; (January 20, 2025)\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/a-prayer-for-america-seems-reasonable\/#whyshare\">Why Share This Prayer?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/first-helene-now-milton-yikes-another-major-hurricane\/\">First Helene, Now Milton; Yikes: Another Major Hurricane<\/a>&#8221; (October 12, 2024)\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/first-helene-now-milton-yikes-another-major-hurricane\/#something\">Something I Can Do<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/hurricane-beryl-sort-of-good-news-and-taking-the-long-view\/\">Hurricane Beryl: Sort-of-Good News, and Taking the Long View<\/a>&#8221; (July 13, 2024)\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/hurricane-beryl-sort-of-good-news-and-taking-the-long-view\/#siloam\">The Siloam Reminder<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/hurricane-beryl-sort-of-good-news-and-taking-the-long-view\/#its\">It&#8217;s a Changing World<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/a-house-in-yellowknife-northwest-territories-canada\/\">A House in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada<\/a>&#8221; (August 20, 2023)\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/a-house-in-yellowknife-northwest-territories-canada\/#getting\">Getting Slightly Serious About Silliness<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/drought-air-quality-alert-living-in-the-upper-midwest\/\">Drought, Air Quality Alert: Living in the Upper Midwest<\/a>&#8221; (July 24, 2021)\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/drought-air-quality-alert-living-in-the-upper-midwest\/#love\">Love, Neighbors and Me<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-black-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-black-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><sup><a name=\"1\"><\/a>1<\/sup> Sunday, July 6, 2025; facts starting to get sorted out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;&#8230;The floodwaters arrived with little warning, ripping through the picturesque riverfront area that is home to nearly 20 youth camps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;<strong>Though Camp Mystic suffered the greatest losses,<\/strong> officials say <strong>the scale of the disaster is far-reaching<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;<strong>Nearby<\/strong>, the all-girls camp <strong>Heart O&#8217; the Hills<\/strong> was also deluged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Its co-owner and director, Jane Ragsdale, was among the dead. Fortunately, <strong>the camp was out of session at the time<\/strong>&#8230;.&#8221; <br>(&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cg75n3k1k3yo\">A girls&#8217; summer camp swept away by a &#8216;horrific&#8217; deluge<\/a>&#8221; ; Gary O&#8217;Donoghue, Chief North America correspondent; Ana Faguy, BBC News (Saturday afternoon, July 6, 2025)) [emphasis mine]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>From Wikipedia, Saturday, July 6, 2025, including links to the article&#8217;s sources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;&#8230;At <strong>1:18 pm CDT on July 3, 2025<\/strong>, the National Weather Service (NWS) office in San Antonio, Texas issued a flood watch for Kerr County and other areas that would later be impacted by severe flooding. <strong>The watch warned of 1-3 inches of rain, with isolated areas seeing closer to 5-7 inches.<\/strong> The watch noted that there would be &#8217;rounds of scattered to widespread showers and storms with heavy rain rates possible.&#8217;<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/July_2025_Central_Texas_floods#cite_note-6\">[6]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;<strong>Early on July 4<\/strong>, the Weather Prediction Center (WPC) branch of the NWS issued a mesoscale precipitation discussion citing that &#8216;areas of flash flooding will be likely across central TX overnight with very heavy rainfall expected. Hourly rainfall in excess of 2 to 3 inches seems reasonable given the environment and localized 6-hr totals over 6 inches will be possible&#8217;, and detailing that the potential flooding may have &#8216;significant impacts&#8217;.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/July_2025_Central_Texas_floods#cite_note-7\">[7]<\/a><\/sup> <strong>Another discussion issued at 6:27 am<\/strong> used stronger wording, warning that &#8216;Considerable to catastrophic flash flood impacts can continue to be expected.&#8217;<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/July_2025_Central_Texas_floods#cite_note-8\">[8]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Numerous flash flood warnings were issued throughout the event. Several of these warnings contained dire flash flood emergency wording. <strong>The first flash flood emergency was issued for Hunt and Ingram in Kerr County at 4:03 am on July 4<\/strong>, warning residents to &#8216;SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW!&#8217; and that rainfall rates of 2-4 inches\/hour would continue to impact the area which had already seen 4-10 inches of rain.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/July_2025_Central_Texas_floods#cite_note-9\">[9]<\/a><\/sup> <strong>By 4:05, the Guadalupe River at Hunt had risen to 21.99 feet, rising over ten feet in an hour and reaching major flood stage.<\/strong> The river continued to surge, reaching 37.52 feet and still rising at 5:10 am when the gauge at Hunt stopped updating. This level marked the second highest ever recorded at Hunt, surpassing flash flooding that occurred in 1987.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/July_2025_Central_Texas_floods#cite_note-10\">[10]<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/July_2025_Central_Texas_floods#cite_note-11\">[11]<\/a><\/sup> <strong>Multiple summer camps near Hunt, notably Camp Mystic, experienced catastrophic flooding.<\/strong> At <strong>Camp Mystic,<\/strong> a Christian summer camp for girls, at least five campers aged 8-9 died, alongside a dozen that remain missing. [evening of July 6, 2025] <strong>The camp&#8217;s director and co-owner, Dick Eastland, also died, reportedly while trying to save campers from floodwaters<\/strong>.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/July_2025_Central_Texas_floods#cite_note-12\">[12]<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/July_2025_Central_Texas_floods#cite_note-13\">[13]<\/a><\/sup> Another nearby girl&#8217;s camp, Heart O&#8217; the Hills, was not in session, however the camp&#8217;s director Jane Ragsdale died during the flooding.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/July_2025_Central_Texas_floods#cite_note-14\">[14]<\/a><\/sup>&#8230;&#8221;<br>(<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/July_2025_Central_Texas_floods\">July 2025 Central Texas floods<\/a> &gt; <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/July_2025_Central_Texas_floods#Preparations_and_impact\">Preparations and Impact<\/a>, Wikipedia (taken 5:50 p.m. (Minnesota, CDT (10:55 PM UTC\/GMT) July 6, 2025) [emphasis mine]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Folks living in central Texas are not having a good time. A heavy storm&#8217;s rain overloaded waterways before sunrise Friday morning. Some folks enjoying an Independence Day weekend in that region&#8217;s picture-postcard landscapes survived. Others didn&#8217;t. Folks who have been &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/central-texas-flash-floods-camps-mystic-heart-o-the-hills\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"A quick look at the Independence Day flash floods in central Texas: a rising death toll, emerging details. How I see the disaster, and a brief prayer.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"Central Texas Flash Floods: Camps Mystic, Heart O' the Hills","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[215,154,192],"tags":[16,144,91,132],"class_list":["post-9309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-being-catholic","category-discursive-detours","category-journal","tag-america","tag-disasters","tag-prayer","tag-weather"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Dwtw-2q9","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9309"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9316,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9309\/revisions\/9316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}