The Guadalupe River rose to 26 ft within 45 minutes on early Friday morning, submerging its flood gauge.

AP Kerrville (US)

Texas parents frantically post­ed photos of young daughters on social media with pleas for information as at least 23 campers from an all-girls summer camp were unaccounted for on Friday after floods tore through the US state’s south-central region overnight.

At least 27 people, including 9 children, were dead and many missing after a storm unleashed nearly a foot of rain just before dawn on Friday and sent floodwaters gushing out of the Guadalupe River, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said on Friday evening. The flood-prone region known as Hill Country is dotted with century-old su­mmer camps that draw thousands of kids annually from across the Lone Star State.

State officials said 23 to 25 girls from Camp Mystic, a riverside Christian camp in Hunt, Texas, still were unaccounted for. They declined to estimate how many people were missing across the region but said a massive search was underway, with 237 rescued so far. “I’m asking the people of Texas, do some serious praying,” Lt Gov Dan Patrick said. “On-your-knees kind of praying that we find these young girls.”

Rescuers evacuate campers by chopper

Texas Game Wardens said on Friday afternoon they had arrived at Camp Mystic and were starting to evacuate campers who had sheltered on higher ground. Elinor Lester, 13, said she was evacuated with her cabinmates by helicopter after wading through floodwaters. She recalled startling awake around 1.30 am as thunder crackled and water pelted the cabin windows. Lester was among the older girls housed on elevated ground known as Senior Hill. Cabins housing the younger campers, who can start attending at age 8, are situated along the riverbanks and were the first to flood, she said.

Campers in lower cabins sought shelter up the hill. By morning, they had no food, power or running water, she said. When rescuers arrived, Lester said they tied a rope for the girls to hold as they walked across a bridge with floodwaters whipping up around their calves and knees. “The camp was completely destroyed,” she said. “It was really scary. Everyone I know personally is accounted for, but there are people missing that I know of and we don’t know where they are.”

Her mother, Elizabeth Lester, said her son was nearby at Camp La Junta and also escaped. A counsellor there woke up to find water rising in the cabin, opened a window and helped the boys swim out. Camp La Junta and another camp on the river, Camp Waldemar, said in Instagram posts all campers and staff there were safe.

Elizabeth Lester sobbed when she finally saw her daughter, who was clutching a small teddy bear and a book. She said a friend’s daughter, who was a counsellor for the younger kids at Camp Mystic, was among the missing. “My kids are safe, but knowing others are still missing is just eating me alive,” she said. 

Families of missing campers worry

Dozens of families shared in local Facebook groups they received devastating phone calls from safety officials informing them their daughters had not yet been located among the washed-away camp cabins and downed trees. Camp Mystic said in an email to parents of the roughly 750 campers that if they have not been contacted directly, their child is accounted for. 

At an elementary school in nearby Ingram that was being used as a reunification centre, more than a hundred people stood around a courtyard Friday afternoon with hopes of seeing their loved ones emerge from buses dropping off those who had been evacuated. One young girl wearing a Camp Mystic T-shirt stood in a puddle in her white socks, sobbing in her mother’s arms.

Many families hoped to see loved ones who had been at campgrounds and mobile home parks in the area. State officials began warning of potential deadly weather a day earlier. The National Weather Service had predicted 3-6 inches of rain in the region, but 10 inches fell.

Decades prior, floodwaters engulfed a bus of teenage campers from another Christian camp along the Guadalupe River during devastating summer storms in 1987. Total 10 campers from Pot O’ Gold Christian camp drowned after their bus was unable to evacuate in time.