{"id":8136,"date":"2025-07-06T21:38:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T21:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inhealthyzone.com\/?p=8136"},"modified":"2025-07-06T21:38:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T21:38:18","slug":"youngest-girls-at-camp-mystic-were-sleeping-just-feet-from-the-river-before-horrific-texas-floods-with-5-kids-dead-12-missing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inhealthyzone.com\/?p=8136","title":{"rendered":"Youngest girls at Camp Mystic were sleeping just feet from the river before horrific Texas floods \u2014 with 5 kids dead, 12 missing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The youngest girls at Camp Mystic in Texas were asleep in cabins as little as 225 feet from the river when flash flooding suddenly surged \u2014 causing the water to rise 20 feet above flood stage in just 90 minutes, starting around 4 a.m. on July 4.<\/p>\n

At least five girls from the camp have been confirmed dead \u2014 all age 8 and 9 \u2014 and 12 others are still missing. The victims include a relative of the Kansas City Chiefs owners<\/p>\n

The death toll from Friday morning\u2019s horrific flooding rose to at least 80 across Texas on Sunday evening, with 68 of the deaths in Kerr County, where Camp Mystic is based.<\/p>\n

In Kerr County, rescuers have found the bodies of at least 21 children \u2014 with 11 little girls still missing from Camp Mystic, along with one camp counselor.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Items lie scattered inside a cabin at Camp Mystic after deadly flooding in Kerr County, Texas, July 5, 2025.
REUTERS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
The Camp Mystic that was destroyed by the floods has two sets of cabins. The right set, housing junior campers, is in the lowlands, and as little as 225 feet from the left is called \u201cSenior Hill\u201d and set of higher ground.
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the confirmed dead is Dick Eastland, the longtime owner of the Christian getaway \u2014 which has a storied history in Texas and counts ex First Lady Laura Bush as a former counselor.<\/p>\n

Cabins at the site housing the youngest campers are situated on low-lying \u201cflats\u201d less than one football field away from the banks of the Guadalupe River, according to the New York Times and satellite analysis of the camp.<\/p>\n

Most of the missing girls are from those cabins, the Times reported.<\/p>\n

Older girls were in cabins on higher ground \u2014 some 600 feet from the water.<\/p>\n

The flood gauge at Hunt, Texas \u2014 about five miles up stream \u2014 shows that the water level rose 20 feet \u2014 from normal to major flooding \u2014 between about 4 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. on July 4.<\/p>\n

The floods, caused by a month\u2019s worth of rain dropping in a matter of minutes, would have happened even earlier at Camp Mystic.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Eloise Peck and Lila Bonner, two pals from Dallas, were reported missing after devastating floods struck Camp Mystic, with Lila now found dead.
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Survivor Elinor Lester, 13, was among the older girls housed on elevated ground known as Senior Hill at the camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe camp was completely destroyed. It was really scary,\u201d she told the newspaper.<\/p>\n

Camp Mystic, a century-old Christian summer camp, has two sites, one at the Guadalupe River, and a Cypress Creek site to the south.<\/p>\n

The five girls killed in the flooding at Camp Mystic have been named as Lila Bonner, 9, Janie Hunt, 9, Sarah Marsh, 8, Eloise Peck, 8, and Renee Smajstrla, 9.<\/p>\n

Chloe Childress, 18, a counselor at Camp Mystic, was also killed when floodwaters tore through the camp while trying to save the younger girls.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Janie Hunt was one of the campers killed in the flooding.
CNN Weather<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She died upholding a \u201cselfless and fierce commitment to others,\u201d Jonathan Eades, head of school at Kinkaid School in Houston, from where Chloe had just graduated, wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n

Lila\u2019s body was found on Saturday, the family said in a statement. She was staying in the same cabin as fellow camper Eloise Peck, who also tragically lost her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ache with all who loved her and are praying endlessly for others to be spared from this tragic loss,\u201d Bonner\u2019s family said in a statement to PEOPLE.<\/p>\n

Little Eloise and Lila were best friends, who had just finished second grade at Bradfield Elementary School in Dallas.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Renee Smajstrla was among the dead from the catastrophic flooding in Texas.
Shawn Salta \/Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEloise was literally friends with everyone. She loved spaghetti but not more than she loved dogs and animals. She passed away with her cabinmate and best friend Lila Bonner who also died,\u201d Eloise\u2019s family said in a statement to Fox 4.<\/p>\n

Janie Hunt\u2019s family confirmed the tragic news on Saturday. Janie, who is a young relative in the Hunt family that owns the Kansas City Chiefs, was attending camp for the first time, along with six of her cousins, all of whom survived, the girl\u2019s grandmother told an interview, the New York Times reported.<\/p>\n

Sarah Marsh, from Mountain Brook, Alabama, was mourned by those in her small suburb of Birmingham.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sarah Marsh was confirmed dead.
Debbie Marsh \/Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis is an unimaginable loss for her family, her school and our entire community,\u201d Stewart Welch, the Mayor of Mountain Brook, said in a statement posted on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cSarah\u2019s passing is a sorrow shared by all of us, and our hearts are with those who knew her and loved her,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Renee\u2019s death was confirmed by her uncle, Shawn Salta.<\/p>\n

\u201cRenee has been found and while not the outcome we prayed for, the social media outreach likely assisted the first responders in helping to identify her so quickly,\u201d he said on social media. \u201cWe are thankful she was with her friends and having the time of her life, as evidenced by this picture from yesterday. She will forever be living her best life at Camp Mystic.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 750 girls were attending the camp this week when record flooding swept through the campsite, with floodwaters rising to almost 30 feet on Friday morning, the second-worst flooding on record, exceeding even the devastating 1987 floods.<\/p>\n

Forty-three people have been reported dead so far in Kerr County, including 15 children. The overall death toll is now 59, and officials said, that figure is likely to rise.<\/p>\n

A mom of two girls at Camp Mystic has claimed staff \u201cshould have been on top\u201d of the crisis, after warnings were issued on Thursday morning about the risk of flash flooding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were posting stuff yesterday morning. They should have been on top of it,\u201d Serena Hanor Aldrich, whose two daughters, ages 9 and 12, were both rescued from the camp, told the Times.<\/p>\n

Her younger daughter was staying closer to the riverbank but was able to make it \u201cto one of the buildings that wasn\u2019t flooded anymore. They were up there for a couple of hours,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The youngest girls at Camp Mystic in Texas were asleep in cabins as little as 225 feet from the river when flash flooding suddenly surged \u2014 causing the water to rise 20 feet above flood stage in just 90 minutes, starting around 4 a.m. on July 4. At least five girls from the camp have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-articles"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nYoungest girls at Camp Mystic were sleeping just feet from the river before horrific Texas floods \u2014 with 5 kids dead, 12 missing -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/inhealthyzone.com\/?p=8136\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Youngest girls at Camp Mystic were sleeping just feet from the river before horrific Texas floods \u2014 with 5 kids dead, 12 missing -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The youngest girls at Camp Mystic in Texas were asleep in cabins as little as 225 feet from the river when flash flooding suddenly surged \u2014 causing the water to rise 20 feet above flood stage in just 90 minutes, starting around 4 a.m. on July 4. 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