“`html
The devastating flash floods in Texas have claimed the lives of at least 51 individuals, including 15 children, among them an eight-year-old girl and the director of an all-girls’ summer camp.
Authorities report that the majority of victims have been identified, though names have not yet been officially released to the public.
Here’s what we know thus far about some of those who perished in the floods.
Renee Smajstrla, an eight-year-old, was attending Camp Mystic when the deluge swept through the girls’ summer camp, according to a Facebook post by her uncle.
“Renee has been found, and while the outcome is not what we prayed for, the social media outreach likely aided first responders in identifying her so quickly,” wrote Shawn Salta, of Maryland.
He added, “We are thankful she was with her friends and enjoying the time of her life, as evidenced by this picture from yesterday. She will forever be living her best life at Camp Mystic.”
Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp for girls located on the banks of the Guadalupe River near Hunt, Texas, has been in operation for nearly a century. Authorities continue to search for 27 children still missing from the camp.
The camp’s website describes itself as a place where girls can grow “spiritually” in a “wholesome” Christian atmosphere and “develop outstanding personal qualities and self-esteem.” The camp has been operated by generations of the same family since the 1930s.
Heart O’ the Hills, another all-girls’ camp situated along the Guadalupe River, was directly impacted by Friday’s flood.
A statement shared on the camp’s official website on Saturday announced that Jane Ragsdale, described as the “heart and soul” of Heart O’Hills, “did not make it.”
Ragsdale, who began as a camper and later a counselor, 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 indicated 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, was scheduled to enter the third grade in August.
She was also attending Camp Mystic, and her grandmother, Debbie Ford Marsh, requested prayers in a Facebook post on Friday.
Hours later, she shared online that her granddaughter was among the girls who died.
“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 heartbreak over the loss of Sarah Marsh, stating, “We are keeping her family in our thoughts and prayers during this unimaginable time.”
Nine-year-old Janie Hunt from Dallas also perished in the floods while attending Camp Mystic.
Her grandmother, Margaret Hunt, told The New York Times that Janie went to 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 a great-granddaughter of the oil baron William Herbert Hunt.
As floodwaters surged through their trailer in Ingram, Texas, Julian Ryan turned to his fiancée, Christina Wilson, and said, “I’m sorry, I’m not going to make it. I love y’all,” Christina told Houston television station KHOU.
His body was recovered hours later, after the waters had receded.
Julian had just finished 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 told the station their bedroom door stuck shut and with water rushing in, Ryan punched through a window to get his family out. He severely cut his arm in the process.
Their 13-month-old and 6-year-old sons and his mother survived by floating on a mattress until help could arrive.
“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, passed away while being transported to a hospital in Houston.
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.
According to Texas Public Radio, Dick’s wife, Tweety, was found safe at their riverside home.
The Eastlands had been running Camp Mystic, a girls’ summer camp on the banks of 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 the extended family is involved in the camp’s 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 surged around them, Brian told The New York Times.
Another camper offered them a ride, and they made it across 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 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, CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, has reported.
Their parents were in a separate cabin and were unharmed.
Their grandparents are still unaccounted for.
The deaths of Blair and Brooke were confirmed by St Rita Catholic Community, where Brooke was scheduled 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 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.”
Video shows raging floodwaters after the San Gabriel River burst its banks, partially submerging buildings.
The US Supreme Court had overturned a judge’s decision that the men be allowed to contest their removal.
The world’s richest man says he is setting up a new political organisation called the America Party.
Political scientists have a term for the tactic, that has been used by some leaders including Nixon, to persuade adversaries that they are temperamentally capable of anything, to extract concessions. But can it work in the long term?
At least 32 people have been killed, including 14 children, officials said, after flash floods hit Kerr County.
“`