The rain didn’t merely fall — it unleashed a sudden, violent deluge.
Despite modern forecasting and a century-old camp perched beside a flood-prone river, preparedness seemed to fall short. As the Guadalupe River surged well beyond historic levels and panic spread through Hunt, Texas, troubling questions have surfaced: Were the warnings issued too late?
Did authorities act too slowly? And how did a beloved summer camp, filled with children, remain so exposed in a region haunted by past floods? So far, the answers remain as opaque and murky as the floodwaters that engulfed Camp Mystic in the dead of night.
In Hunt, Texas, where the Guadalupe River twists and divides, over seven inches of rain began falling Thursday afternoon — the heaviest downpour the area has seen since the early ’90s.
The relentless storm pushed the Guadalupe River to rise at a staggering pace, cresting at more than 29 feet before dawn — marking the second-highest flood level ever recorded there.
Caught unprepared, both locals and officials scrambled to respond.
The National Weather Service issued a flood watch early Thursday afternoon for central Texas, urging multiple counties to stay alert. As conditions worsened, this watch escalated into urgent flood warnings from federal agencies.
Emergency personnel were mobilized in large numbers. Fourteen helicopters and numerous ground teams combed the waterlogged terrain, often hindered by flooded and impassable roads. Officials warned the death toll would likely climb.
“This is a tragic and devastating event — it will be a mass casualty disaster,” said Freeman F. Martin, Texas Department of Public Safety director, during a Friday news briefing.
At Camp Mystic — a nearly century-old Christian girls’ summer camp nestled along the Guadalupe — frantic efforts were underway to reach families of missing campers.
The camp, cherished for its rustic charm, features historic structures such as a 1920s recreation hall built from native cypress.
For many longtime Texans, Friday’s floodwaters dredged up painful memories of the catastrophic July 17, 1987, Guadalupe River flood — an event still etched deeply in the community’s collective consciousness.
As search and rescue efforts persist and families cling to hope, one message reverberates statewide: “Survivors stand with you, Texas.”
As floodwaters gradually retreat, the true scale of devastation in Hunt is coming into focus. From the unprecedented rise of the Guadalupe River to the heartbreaking losses at Camp Mystic, this disaster has shaken the region’s heart and soul.
Rescue teams press on with unwavering determination, while families hold tight to prayer, hope, and any glimmer of good news. For a community no stranger to flooding, this calamity tests more than emergency systems — it challenges the very resilience, unity, and compassion of the people.
Though the path to recovery will be long and arduous, across Texas a quiet resolve is rising — as relentless and powerful as the floodwaters that tried to break it.