Two Republican members of Congress said family members were rescued from the flooding that has hammered Central Texas since Friday, killing dozens.
Texas Rep. August Pfluger wrote on X Saturday that his daughters were saved from Camp Mystic, a famous girls-only Christian camp that sits near the Guadalupe River in Texas’s Kerr County, and had been reunited with the family.
“The last day has brought unimaginable grief to many families and we mourn with them as well as holding out hope for survivors,” he wrote. “We want to thank the first responders who have come from far and wide to save lives.”
The floods have killed at least 69 people throughout the region (some sources indicate 70 were known dead), including at least 21 children. Eleven campers and one counselor from Camp Mystic were still missing, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said in a news conference Sunday.
While not identifying the camp by name, Georgia Rep. Buddy Carter announced Sunday that his granddaughters had also been saved from the flooding. But their cousin was killed, he said.
“As you may have heard, my granddaughters were at the summer camp in Texas that flooded,” Carter wrote on X. “They are safe, and I thank you for your well-wishes and prayers during this time. Unfortunately, not everyone was as lucky. My granddaughters lost their cousin, Janie, and many other families are grieving loved ones.”
Camp Mystic has long been favored ground for the state’s political elite. According to Texas Monthly, future first lady Laura Bush was a counselor at Camp Mystic when she was in college, and the daughters, granddaughters and great-grandfathers of President Lyndon B. Johnson attended camp there.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott visited the camp’s wreckage on Sunday. The rescue and recovery mission is ongoing, he said in a post on X.
“We won’t stop until we find every girl who was in those cabins,” Abbott wrote.
