What began as a joyful summer adventure for a group of young girls at Camp Mystic ended in an unimaginable tragedy. Just days after posing for a photo in white dresses and sneakers, 13 girls and their counselors from the “Bubble Inn” cabin were swept away by flash floods that ravaged central Texas. The serene image, captured on June 29, now stands as a haunting symbol of a devastating natural disaster that has left a community in mourning.
The girls, aged 8 and 9, had been sleeping peacefully early Friday morning, their cabin nestled just a few hundred feet from the banks of the Guadalupe River in Kerr County. A rare and violent rainstorm struck the region overnight, dropping an entire month’s worth of rain in under two hours. The river, normally calm, surged more than 20 feet in mere minutes, catching hundreds of campers and staff off guard. By sunrise, floodwaters had swallowed large parts of the campgrounds, particularly the flatlands where the youngest girls were housed.
Camp Mystic, a historic Christian sleepaway camp popular with elite families from Houston, Dallas, and Austin, had welcomed 750 girls this session. But within hours, the site had turned into a disaster zone. Entire cabins, including the Bubble Inn, were overwhelmed by floodwaters, with survivors describing a “toilet bowl” effect that left no chance of escape.
Rising waters and vanished smiles
Of the 13 girls and two counselors in the Bubble Inn cabin, authorities have recovered the bodies of 10 children and 18-year-old Chloe Childress. Rescue crews continue to search for three girls and another counselor, 19-year-old Katherine Ferruzzo, who remain missing. Most of the victims were rising third- and fourth-graders placed closest to the river. Older campers, staying higher up on “Senior Hill,” were largely spared. Photographs taken in nearby cabins reveal how high the floodwaters climbed nearly reaching the tops of door frames. In total, over 100 people across the region were killed during the weekend deluge, with Texas officials confirming at least 95 deaths statewide.
Among the lives lost was Camp Mystic’s longtime owner, Richard “Dick” Eastland. According to his family, Eastland died trying to save the young girls in Bubble Inn. He was found inside a submerged SUV alongside three of the children. The powerful current from both the river and a nearby creek made escape impossible.
Counselor Chloe Childress is being remembered as a hero. A recent graduate of Houston’s Kinkaid School, she is said to have made a valiant attempt to rescue the girls under her care. Her school described her as a selfless leader, fiercely devoted to others, even in the face of danger.
Rescue teams continue their search for the remaining girls and counselor Ferruzzo. As Texas recovers from one of the deadliest natural disasters in recent memory, the smiling faces in that now-viral camp photo have become a heartbreaking reminder of lives lost too soon.