Flash flooding in central Texas on July 4 has claimed at least 87 lives, including 27 children and counselors from a summer camp, with many others still unaccounted for.
Amid the tragedy, extraordinary acts of bravery have emerged as rescuers and civilians risked their own lives to save others.
Scott Ruskan
Scott Ruskan, a 26-year-old Coast Guard rescue swimmer, reportedly rescued over 165 flood victims from Camp Mystic, a Christian girls’ camp situated along the Guadalupe River, after a downpour caused the river to overflow its banks.
From the air, Ruskan spotted a crowd of more than 200 children stranded below, according to the New York Post. With roads submerged and currents too strong for boats, the helicopter crew made the call to drop Ruskan on the ground to coordinate rescue operations.
“I was like, sweet, sounds great, I’ll be more helpful on the ground than I will be in the air right now, so that’s kind of what we went with,” Ruskan told the Post.
On the ground, Ruskan tended to the campers and helped direct helicopters to other survivors.
“So we basically got the majority of the people out of Camp Mystic, which is awesome. And I feel like we did a lot of good that day, but obviously it’s still super sad. There’s still a lot of people missing and unaccounted for, so the mission’s not over yet. It’s not over for us,” Ruskan told the outlet.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem hailed Ruskan as an “American hero.”
“This was the first rescue mission of his career and he was the only triage coordinator at the scene,” Noem posted on X. “Scott [Ruskan] is an American hero. His selfless courage embodies the spirit and mission of the [United States Coast Guard].”
Julian Ryan
Julian Ryan, 27, tragically lost his life while attempting to save his fiancée, mother and two young children as floodwaters surged into their trailer home in Ingram, Texas, The New York Times reported. In a desperate bid to escape, Ryan sustained severe cuts to his arm while trying to break through a window, after rising water pressure jammed the bedroom door shut.
“He had lost so much blood and knew he wasn’t going to make it,” his fiancée, Christina Wilson, told the NYT. “He said, ‘I love you. I’m so sorry.’ In minutes, he was gone.”
Remarkably, everyone else in the family — including his 13-month-old and 6-year-old children — managed to survive.
“He was the best father, and was always such a happy person who was never above helping people, no matter what it cost,” she said. “He died trying to save us.”
Richard “Dick” Eastland
Dick Eastland, co-owner of Camp Mystic, died while attempting to save his campers from the rising floodwaters, his son told The Washington Post. Eastland had been operating the camp since 1974 and was hosting 750 campers at the time of the disaster.
His son, Richard Eastland Jr., told The Washington Post that his father was attempting to rescue some of the youngest campers sleeping in a cabin near the river’s edge, but the floodwaters rose too quickly for him to reach them.
“Dick was the father figure to all of us while we were away from home at Camp Mystic for six weeks. He was the father of four amazing boys, but he had hundreds of girls each term who looked up to him like a dad,” Paige Sumner, former Camp Mystic counselor and friend of Eastland, wrote in The Kerrville Daily Times. “It doesn’t surprise me at all that his last act of kindness and sacrifice was working to save the lives of campers.”
As of Monday, 10 girls and one camp counselor are still missing, according to The Associated Press.
Emma Foltz
Emma Foltz, a counselor at Camp Mystic, received praise from Republican Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry for her bravery in evacuating 14 campers during the flood. A rising senior at Louisiana Tech University, Foltz has been a counselor at the camp for three years.
“She played an instrumental role in helping evacuate 14 of her campers to safety. Please join me in thanking Emma for all her hard work and bravery under immense pressure,” Landry posted on X.
At the nearby Camp La Junta for boys, counselors were commended for moving all campers to higher ground as water levels rose rapidly, The New York Post reported.
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