At least 27 people died at Camp Mystic, but survivors credit a US Coast Guard rescue swimmer on his first mission and teenage counselors with saving dozens of lives at the flood-ravaged Christian summer camp on the Guadalupe River in Texas.
Coast Guard petty officer Scott Ruskan, 26, of Oxford, New Jersey, described plucking mud-covered children to safety after his helicopter crew flew through appalling weather to reach the campsite in rural Hunt early Friday afternoon. He and his colleagues were greeted with scenes of devastation, with dozens of children, teenage counselors and staff desperate to escape.
“That’s how quickly this floodwater rose,” Ruskan told the Washington Post. “They didn’t have time to grab shoes. You’re just carrying kids that don’t have shoes on, they’re covered in mud, and you’re trying to get them out of there.” Ruskan, who joined the Coast Guard in 2021 and qualified as a rescue swimmer last year, is credited with saving at least 165 lives during three hours on the ground.
Many of the counselors were not much older than the young girls they were chaperoning, Ruskan said, and deserved credit for their role. He said some told him of throwing children through windows and doorways to escape the fast-rising floodwater. “It was some really heroic stuff by those camp counselors,” he said. “I really hope they get the recognition they deserve.”
Two Camp Mystic counselors, 19-year-olds Silvana Garza Valdez and María Paula Zárate from Mexico, told Televisa that they began writing the girls’ names on their skin with Sharpies so authorities could identify them if necessary. They attempted to calm the frightened girls with songs and games as they watched furniture washing by and the water rising. “All the girls started going crazy and crying because they didn’t want to leave the camp – because they wanted to be with their parents,” Garza Valdez said. “It was a terrible situation.”
Their group was eventually rescued by a military team. As of Tuesday morning, five campers and one counselor remained unaccounted for.
