During the Summer of 2025, Texas went through their biggest flood since 1987. On July 2nd, counties surrounding the Guadalupe River went through a big rain storm that caused power outages, land damage, building damage, and devastating floods. In just 45 minutes, part of the river went from 3 ft to 30ft. The duration of the storm and flooding went from July 2nd to July 18th. On July 6th, the flooding was declared as a disaster by the President. A big question that is asked often is “how do disasters get declared?” and “what is the process to get a disaster declared?” When it comes to getting declarations for disasters, it isn’t as lengthy of a process as one might think. Disasters that occur in the United States of America get declared solely by the President. Requests for a declaration are made by the governor of the state that was affected. The request gets sent in and after the President reviews what is happening in that state, the declaration is made.
During the night, the storm hit its worst point, rainfall so heavy that you couldn’t see. Those in the counties affected by the storm described it as a “hurricane that wasn’t moving.” The storm was getting worse by the minute, people were getting woken up in the middle of the night. Many calls were made to emergency services by people stuck in their homes, houses falling apart, and other disasters happening around their properties. Camp Mystic, a private all girls non-denominational christian summer camp in Kerr County, Texas, campers and staff were woken up by rushing water and leaks in their cabins. The camp is located directly next to the Guadalupe River, but since the weather gauges were offline at the time of the flooding, the night staff was not alerted to any flash flood warnings. In less than an hour, the camp was completely under water. Most of the staff and campers were in the Rec Hall on the second floor trying to stay safe from the “river tsunami” rushing through the camp. Cabins that weren’t close enough to the Rec Hall were stuck at their cabins trying to get away from the rapid currents sweeping away their cabins. The owner of the camp, Dick Eastland, was at those cabins trying to save the girls, but sadly he passed away in the process. The water was rapidly rising and the currents were strong, brutal, and unforgiving. One of the working gauges at the camp recorded 264 gallons of water per second at 3 am, and 30 minutes later it was at 125,000. It then reached 950,000 gallons per second around 4 am. Once everything had calmed down and searches were happening, the final count of the campers was made, and 23 girls were missing.
The floods washed through neighborhoods, cities, fields, and forests destroying everything in its path. Houses and buildings were gone. Families torn apart. Memories washed away. Boats were sent out to help rescue people from their homes or anywhere they found shelter at. Fortunately, many people were found and are now safe. Although others were not found. Searches were conducted after the racing waters were now safe to travel through and areas cleared up, sadly once the searches had been concluded, the death toll had reached over 130.
This is a devastating time for all of Texas, family and friends were lost, homes and memories gone. Our hearts go out to everyone affected by this tragedy, and Sylvan Hills sends their thoughts and prayers out to all of them