This article was originally published by The Epoch Times: What We Know About Victims of Texas Floods
The demise toll from a collection of devastating Texas floods over the July 4 weekend has risen to greater than 100 individuals, a lot of whom are youngsters.
“Everybody right here on the White Home, together with the President of america, is praying for the victims’ households and buddies throughout this unimaginable time,” White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned Monday, including that President Donald Trump had signed a catastrophe declaration for the world.
Many of those deaths—attributable to the overflow of the Guadalupe and Llano Rivers after 12 inches of rainfall doused the dry, flooding-prone area—got here from Camp Mystic, a summer season camp for women, and the world of Kerrville, Texas.
Camp Mystic
Of the presently recognized deaths, almost one in 4 have come from Camp Mystic, which had many cabins sitting near the Guadalupe River.
On Monday, the Christian ladies’ camp introduced that 27 of its campers and counselors had died within the flood.
“Camp Mystic is grieving the loss of 27 campers and counselors following the catastrophic flooding on the Guadalupe River,” Camp Mystic in Kerr County, Texas, said in an announcement posted on its web site. “Our hearts are damaged alongside our households which can be enduring this unimaginable tragedy. We’re praying for them consistently.”
Others stay unaccounted for. On Sunday, officers reported there have been 10 individuals lacking who had been on the camp.
Within the assertion, Camp Mystic mentioned they’d been in communication with native and state authorities “who’re tirelessly deploying in depth sources to seek for our lacking ladies.”
Richard ‘Dick’ Eastland
One of many casualties at Camp Mystic was Dick Eastland, the camp’s director.
Paige Sumner, a former camper, wrote in a neighborhood newspaper column that Eastland was “the daddy determine to all of us whereas we have been away from house.”
Her perspective was widespread amongst different campers, Sumner wrote, saying that Eastland “put campers first.”
Eastland and his spouse had owned the camp since 1974, Texas Public Radio reported.
His spouse, Tweety, who was away from the camp on the time, was discovered secure of their house afterward.
Chloe Childress
One other casualty from Camp Mystic was 19-year-old counselor Chloe Childress.
In an announcement, her household wrote that the latest highschool graduate “lived a phenomenal life that saturated these round her with contagious pleasure, endless grace, and abiding religion.”
A former camper herself, “Chloe was wanting ahead to dedicating her summer season days to loving and mentoring younger ladies at Camp Mystic,” the assertion mentioned.
Jonathan Eads, the pinnacle of the Kinkaid College in Houston from which Childress had just lately graduated, wrote that Childress “was clever past her years, with a gradual compassion that settled a room.”
Hanna and Rebecca Lawrence
Two of the women who died within the flood have been Hanna and Rebecca Lawrence, 8-year-old twin sisters.
“Hanna and Rebecca introduced a lot pleasure to us, to their large sister Harper, and to so many others,” John and Lacy Lawrence, the women’ dad and mom, mentioned in an announcement.
“We are going to discover methods to maintain that pleasure, and to proceed to unfold it for them. However we’re devastated that the bond we shared with them, and that they shared with one another, is now frozen in time.”
Zunker Household
Reece and Paula Zunker, two educators from the world, have been confirmed to have died within the flood.
Their two youngsters, Lyle and Holland, are nonetheless lacking.
Reece Zunker was described by Tivy Excessive College in Kerrville, the place he taught, as “a passionate educator and a beloved soccer coach.”
Jane Ragsdale
Jane Ragsdale, 68, directed The Coronary heart O’ the Hills, one other summer season camp for women within the space.
No ladies have been current on the camp, which was in between periods when the floods hit.
Nonetheless, Ragsdale was within the camp’s amenities, which have been within the path of the flood.
“She was the guts of The Coronary heart,” the camp mentioned in an announcement mourning her passing. “She was our guiding gentle, our instance, and our secure place. She had the uncommon present of constructing each particular person really feel seen, liked, and necessary.”
Tanya Burwick
Tanya Burwick’s final communication to her household got here within the type of a frantic cellphone name warning of the floodwaters because the 62-year-old headed to work at Walmart.
When the small-town grandmother didn’t present up for work, a lacking individuals report was filed.
Her SUV, unoccupied and absolutely submerged, was found earlier than Burwick’s stays, a number of blocks away, have been recovered.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
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