The flooding that overwhelmed Texas’ Guadalupe River on Friday and stranded members of an all-girls Christian camp is proving to be worse than a 1987 disaster triggered by a near-identical deluge that drowned 10 teenagers attending a church camp.
The 1987 Guadalupe River flood caught campers by surprise on the evening of July 16 after an unexpected thunderstorm strengthened by a cold front dumped nearly 12 inches of rainfall over Hunt, Texas.
The camps located along the river quickly started to evacuate early the next morning as water levels swelled to 29-feet high — after rising a frightening 25 feet in just 45 minutes, according to the National Weather Service.
More than 300 campers from multiple churches were staying overnight at the Pot O’ Gold Ranch, including one group of 43 from a Seagoville Road Baptist Church and Balch Springs Christian Academy, according to a memorial plaque erected at the entrance to the ranch.
The campers were loaded onto their buses and caravans around 7:45 a.m. on July 17, according to the National Weather Service as water levels continued to surge, stretching from Ingram to Comfort, Texas and extending almost a mile beyond its typical bank.
As the fleet was leaving the ranch, the flood reached the camp gate, forcing them to try an alternate route. But not every vehicle managed to escape.
The final bus in the caravan, carrying members of the Seagoville Road Baptist Church, and a small van behind them slammed into the backwash and became stranded, according to the NWS.
Church leaders rushed the teenagers out of the vehicles, but encountered a wall of water nearly half a mile wide while they were trying to wade through the flood to dry ground.
The group formed a human chain to try and best the current, but were quickly scattered.
Ten of the teenagers swept away died in the flood, including a girl named Melanie Finley who fell to her death during a rescue attempt, KSAT reported.
The remaining 33 children and adults clung to treetops until they were rescued via helicopter by the Texas Department of Safety, members of the US Army and a local television station.
In the years since the devastating flood, few additional safety measures have been put in place.
On Friday, Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said at a news conference that the area doesn’t “have a warning system” and that they “didn’t know [Friday’s] flood was coming.”
Around 23 girls with Camp Mystic are unaccounted for after their cabins fled the area on Friday. Hundreds of rescue personnel are scouring the area for them and any other survivors.
Thirteen people are reported to have died in the flood so far, local authorities said.
