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The devastating flash floods in Texas have claimed at least 51 lives, including 15 children, among them an eight-year-old girl and the director of an all-girls’ summer camp.
Authorities have stated that most of the victims have been identified, though official names have not yet been publicly released.
Here is what we currently know about some of those who perished.
Renee Smajstrla, an eight-year-old, was attending Camp Mystic when the floods swept through the girls’ summer camp, according to a Facebook post by her uncle.
“Renee has been found, and while this is not the outcome we prayed for, the outreach on social media likely assisted first responders in quickly identifying her,” wrote Shawn Salta, of Maryland.
“We are grateful she was with her friends and enjoying her time, as this picture from yesterday demonstrates,” he added. “She will forever be living her best life at Camp Mystic.”
Camp Mystic, a nearly century-old Christian summer camp for girls situated on the banks of the Guadalupe River near Hunt, Texas, has 27 children still missing.
The camp, operated by generations of the same family since the 1930s, describes itself on its website as a place for girls to grow “spiritually” within a “wholesome” Christian atmosphere, fostering “outstanding personal qualities and self-esteem.”
Heart O’ the Hills, another all-girls’ camp located along the Guadalupe River, was also directly impacted by Friday’s flood.
Jane Ragsdale, described as the “heart and soul” of Heart O’Hills, “did not make it,” according to a statement released on the camp’s official website on Saturday.
Ragsdale began as a camper, then a counselor, and eventually became the director and co-owner of the camp in 1976.
“We are mourning the loss of a woman who influenced countless lives and was the definition of strong and powerful,” the statement read.
The statement also confirmed that no campers were present at the site when the floods occurred, and most of those who were there have been accounted for.
Sarah Marsh, a student at Cherokee Bend Elementary School in Alabama, who would have been entering third grade in August, also perished in the floods.
She was also attending Camp Mystic. Her grandmother, Debbie Ford Marsh, requested prayers in a Facebook post on Friday.
Hours later, she shared online that her granddaughter was among those killed.
“We will always feel blessed to have had this beautiful spunky ray of light in our lives. She will live on in our hearts forever!” she wrote.
In a Facebook post, Alabama Senator Katie Britt expressed her condolences: “I’m heartbroken over the loss of Sarah Marsh, and we are keeping her family in our thoughts and prayers during this unimaginable time.”
Nine-year-old Janie Hunt from Dallas, another Camp Mystic attendee, also died in the floods.
Her grandmother, Margaret Hunt, told The New York Times that Janie was at the camp with six of her cousins, all of whom are safe.
Margaret said Janie’s parents had to visit a funeral home to identify their daughter.
Janie is the great-granddaughter of oil magnate William Herbert Hunt.
As floodwaters surged through their trailer in Ingram, Texas, Julian Ryan reportedly turned to his fiancée, Christina Wilson, and said: “I’m sorry, I’m not going to make it. I love y’all,” according to Christina’s account to Houston television station KHOU.
His body was recovered hours later, after the waters had receded.
Julian had just completed a late dishwashing shift at a restaurant when the Guadalupe River overflowed early Friday.
He and Christina awoke to ankle-deep water that quickly rose to their waists. She recounted that their bedroom door jammed shut, and with water rushing in, Ryan punched through a window to evacuate his family, severely cutting his arm in the process.
Their 13-month-old and 6-year-old sons, along with his mother, survived by floating on a mattress until rescue arrived.
“He died a hero, and that will never go unnoticed,” Connie Salas, Ryan’s sister, told KHOU.
Richard “Dick” Eastland, the longtime co-owner and co-director of Camp Mystic, died while being transported to a Houston hospital.
His death was confirmed by Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, who attended Bible study with Dick and described him as a pillar of the local community.
Dick’s wife, Tweety, was found safe at their riverside home, according to Texas Public Radio.
The Eastlands had operated Camp Mystic, a girls’ summer camp on the Guadalupe River, since 1974, marking the third generation of their family to do so.
According to The Washington Post, the couple have 11 grandchildren, and much of their extended family is actively involved in camp operations.
Their eldest son, Richard, manages the camp kitchen, while their youngest, Edward, and his wife oversee operations at Camp Mystic Guadalupe River.
Katheryn Eads, 52, was swept away by floodwaters in the Kerrville area of Texas early Friday morning after she and her husband, Brian, fled their campervan as rising water engulfed them, Brian told The New York Times.
Another camper offered them a ride, and they managed to cross the street before the vehicle stalled in the flood.
Moments later, both were pulled into the current. Brian said he lost sight of his wife after being struck by debris. He survived by clinging to a tree until he reached dry land.
Katheryn’s body was later recovered.
“God has her now,” her mother, Elizabeth Moss Grover, wrote on Facebook.
Amy Hutchinson, director of Olive Branch Counselling in Texas, where Katheryn had worked, told The Washington Post that she was “a hope and a light to all who knew her… a stellar counsellor and professor.”
Two sisters from Dallas – 13-year-old Blair Harber and 11-year-old Brooke Harber – were staying with their grandparents along the Guadalupe River when their cabin was washed away, according to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.
Their parents were in a separate cabin and were unharmed.
Their grandparents are still unaccounted for.
The deaths were confirmed by St Rita Catholic Community, where Brooke was due to start sixth grade. Blair was preparing to enter eighth grade.
“Please keep the Harber family in your prayers during this time of profound grief. May our faith, our love, and our St. Rita community be a source of strength and comfort in the days ahead,” said Father Joshua J Whitfield in correspondence with church members.
Nine-year-old Lila Bonner, a Dallas native, was found dead after the flooding near Camp Mystic, according to NBC News.
“In the midst of our unimaginable grief, we ask for privacy and are unable to confirm any details at this time,” her family said in a statement to the news outlet.
“We ache with all who loved her and are praying endlessly.”
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At least 32 people have been killed, including 14 children, officials said, after flash floods hit Kerr County.
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