Teen counselors and rookie rescue swimmers save dozens of Texas floods in Texas camp floods 2025

The U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer and his first rescue mission and the teen counselor who helps the shepherds with cold and wet young campers safe and in a flood– Christian summer camps farming on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Texas.

Their stories about heroism and perseverance – including counselors writing young campers’ names on their arms and legs so that they can be identified when necessary – are one of the first to appear, narrating the Mystic of the All-Gill Camp Mystic on Friday, where at least 27 campers and counselors are here, narrating the real reality of the torrent of water. Known death.

As of Tuesday morning, five other campers and one counselor have not been blamed.

Scott Ruskan, a 26-year-old Coast Guard officer in Oxford, New Jersey, said his helicopter crew flew through shocking weather early Friday afternoon to bring muddy kids to safety and arrive at a hunting campground.

He and his colleagues, Tell the Washington PostVandalized scenes, dozens of children, teenage camp consultants and staff eager to escape.

“That’s how fast this flood is rising,” he told the newspaper in a telephone interview. “They don’t have time to grab shoes.

“Some of them just talk to them and comfort them and try to make them feel comfortable.”

Ruskan joined the Coast Guard in 2021 and was only eligible to be the rescue swimmer last year, saving at least 165 lives in his three hours on ground triathletes and prioritizing the most needed cases, many of which were on board the Texas National Guard Blackhawk helicopter.

He said many counselors are no much older than the young girls they accompany, and their role in saving lives is commendable. He said some people told him to throw the children into windows and doors to escape the fast rising flood.

“Those camp counselors are something very heroic,” Ruscan said. “I really hope they get the recognition they deserve.”

Two camp mystery consultants, 19-year-old Silvana Garza Valdez and María Paula Zárate from Mexico, talk to the Mexican news network Televisa Regarding the ordeal, they said it started at 3 a.m. Friday when electricity went out to the camp.

But it wasn’t until noon that counselors learned that the consultant had been flooded with certain areas of the 725-acre camp and gathered survivors at the restaurant, they said. The urgency of the situation became clearer and they began to prepare the girls for what was about to happen, the two said.

“Where we start writing the girl’s name on their skin,” Zarat said.

“We told them to make a bag with all of their stuff, whatever it is most necessary…to be ready to evacuate. But we didn’t know if they were going to evacuate us, so we waited.”

They try to calm the frightened girl with songs and games by watching furniture and other camp equipment wash as the water rises.

“All the girls started crying crazy because they didn’t want to leave the camp – because they wanted to be with their parents,” said Garza Valdez. “It was a terrible situation. I don’t know to explain. It was a very terrible thing.”

She said she and the people with her initially did not realize that the others in the camp had died.

“What they were talking to us at the time was that 25 girls were missing – there were 25 girls in a nearby campground, alive and well.”

Garza Valdez said they didn’t have a phone to carry around and couldn’t learn more about what was going on (or call their family) because the devices were kept at the front desk of the camp.

Their team was eventually rescued by an army that arrived at the camp around the same time as the Coast Guard and National Guard.

“I feel like I’m in a dream – I don’t think it’s true,” Garza Valdez said.

“I don’t think I understand the severity of the situation until we saw the situation leaving the Army truck. It’s so scary. We were sleeping a week ago [hardest-hit cabins]So it’s hard to deal with them that they have moved and we are still alive”.

Ruscan talked about the frustration of not being able to reach Mystic Camp immediately. He told the Post that early reports of the flood were received as early as 6.30 a.m. on Friday, his crew aired by 7 a.m. but had to redirect to San Antonio due to zero visibility.

They finally landed in Hunter at 2.30 pm and hit an archery target in the field where the helicopter descended as it descended.

The former financial adviser recalled that his coach told him that his first rescue mission was different from anything they taught him to expect.

“That’s the point,” he said. “I hope everyone is looking for someone not to be a hero, but to help them get out of the situation.

“That’s what they need me to be, and in this case it’s that.”