‘Oh my God, we’re floating’: What survivors – and those still missing – faced in terrifying Texas floods

(CNN) —& With the holiday weekend ahead of them, some 750 girls bunked in last Thursday night at& Camp Mystic. Just a few miles away in Central Texas, boys did the same at& Camp La Junta. The 18 or so youth summer camps along the Guadalupe River long had been “the& lifeblood& of this community,” a birthplace of core summer memories. And now, kids like 9-year-old Janie Hunt and 8-year-old Renee Smajstrla and Braeden Davis and his brother Brock, 9 and 7, were ready to make more. The area’s river valleys also were known to nature lovers who frequented its campgrounds, RV parks and the sort of Airbnb that Ricky Gonzalez and his friends had rented for the July Fourth weekend. But this river basin also had& been prone& to flash flooding,& given& its rugged, limestone bed. It once had been named “one of the& three most dangerous& regions” in the country for flash flooding. And people here still talked about the 1987 “flood wave” downstream that& killed& 10 teenagers and injured 33 people. Early Thursday afternoon, the National Weather Service& issued& a flood watch highlighting Kerr County as at high risk of flash flooding. And by& Thursday evening, an...