Camp Mystic survivor says counselors told them younger girls in lower cabins were safe: 'Makes me sick'
KERRVILLE, TEXAS: The flash floods in Central Texas on July 4 caused havoc, killing more than 120 people, including campers from Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian camp. However, around 27 campers managed to escape the devastating flash floods.
A survivor, 14-year-old Amelia Moore, revealed the disconnect and said that girls were told their friends were safe. She added that Camp Mystic counselors told the girls the younger children were playing games while, in reality, floodwaters were sweeping them away.
Amelia Moore says girls were unware of their friends' condition amid flash floods
Amelia Moore told the Wall Street Journal that she was first jolted awake by thunder at 2 am and heard screams from younger girls below soon after.
However, instead of being told to run, Amelia said they were informed that the noise was nothing to worry about and to stay put.
She said, "A lot of counselors had been here for so long they thought it was nothing. So they were like, 'Just stay in the cabin'."
Meanwhile, as more girls flooded into their cabin, soaking wet and terrified, the reality of the situation was harder to ignore. Amelia added that she eventually fell back asleep, but woke at 7 am to find their hilltop cabin cut off by water and fallen trees.
The campers were stranded for hours with no food or phones, which are banned under camp rules.
Amelia said that they were starving.
"We were like, ‘Does anyone have food that they smuggled in? You won’t get in trouble. We just need food’," she added.
She further mentioned that throughout the morning, they were told the younger campers were fine.
"This is the part that makes me sick. The whole time we were told the flats were safe and accounted for… playing games in Rec Hall and that they were perfectly fine," Amelia added.
Moreover, campers from cabins like "Chatterbox" were climbing barefoot through windows and rocky paths in pajamas as water rose behind them.
The 14-year-old said, "We should have been a lot more panicked. But we genuinely didn’t know that anything was wrong."
Camper reveals there was no adult leadership during evacuation
Camp Mystic was one of the areas hit the worst by the flash floods on July 4, as it was located close to the flooding shores. Due to this, the water rose 26 feet in 45 minutes at the camp.
Meanwhile, the first helicopter didn't land until 3 pm, more than 12 hours after the flood had started.
Amelia mentioned that there was no adult leadership and the evacuation was painfully slow.
She said, "No one on that hill was over 21 years old."
Meanwhile, another camper, Callie McAlary, 16, recalled the moment she knew it was not a normal thunderstorm.
She told Fox News, "One minute you see lightning strike next to your cabin, and next to you, you hear water's coming up. It was really bad thunder. We heard one of the campers run in and say, 'Hey, our cabin is flooding.'"
"I knew some girls slept on trunks that night, some girls had to share beds, some girls slept on floors because they couldn't go back to their cabin because it was so flooded in three cabins," McAlary added.
At another cabin, "Giggle Box," Ainslie Bashara, 19, was going through the same realization. She and two co-counselors were in charge of 16 young girls, all between eight and 10.
As water started to fill the cabin, they had the children put on their shoes and coats, moved belongings to the top bunks, and blocked the door with trunks.
The 19-year-old climbed out of a window first and stepped into the rising floodwaters. The counselors then helped each girl out and led them through the water to a pavilion roughly 30 feet away.
