Fifteen minutes north of the devastation at Kerr County’s Camp Mystic, all 380 campers and counselors escaped floodwaters at Camp LaJunta.
KERR COUNTY, Texas — When Katie and Scott Fineske saw a table from their summer camp’s dining hall float past their window, they knew they had a problem.
In the early morning hours of the Fourth of July, the Guadalupe River flooded through Camp La Junta and forced the Fineskes into action to save all 380 campers and staff from an increasingly dire situation.
Just 15 minutes south, a similar emergency was playing out at Camp Mystic with a catastrophic outcome; dozens of campers died in the floods, officials say.
In an interview with ABC News, the Fineske’s credited their counselors with leaping into action to save lives at the boys’ camp– in some cases putting children in the rafters above their bunk beds to escape the rising water.
Video from counselors shared with WFAA showed the wall of water pushing one cabin off its foundation — with people inside.
“It was truly traumatic and a terrible experience and it just doesn’t quite feel real yet,” Katie Fineske said.
As they moved campers to higher ground, there were some cabins they could not reach because of the rushing water. Katie Fineske said they prayed until the water receded and Scott could reach the worst-hit locations to rescue the kids.
“We kind of made a chain,” she said. “Scott would get them from the rafters, and we would pass them along.”
Some of the 295 children rescued from the camp said they were awoken by people screaming about a flood.
“We had bunk beds in our cabins, and it was going up to the top bunk, and we had one choice and we had to swim out of our cabins,” said Piers Boyett.
He said the campers were bused to safety later in the day and reunited with their families.
“We are thankful,” said his brother Ruffin. “We saw all of the other camps destroyed, like obliterated.”
Katie Fineske gave credit to the counselors, most of whom are former campers themselves.
“They were amazing, they kept their cool, they kept the kids calm and safe and comfortable through it all, and we could not be more proud of our staff,” she said.
Scott Fineske added: “We lost stuff, we knew we were losing stuff, but we weren’t going to lose kids.”
The search for victims continued Monday after flash floods in Central Texas killed at least 104 people over the Fourth of July holiday weekend and left others still missing, including several North Texans. As rain continues to fall in the region, crews continue to urgently search for the missing while help pours in from across the state and the country.
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