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Texas flood victims embrace younger women, Camp Mystic employees, lecturers, grandparents: “Unimaginable grief”


Two 8-year-old sisters from Dallas who had simply accomplished second grade. A beloved soccer coach and instructor. An Alabama elementary faculty pupil away from residence. These are just a few of the dozens of victims misplaced in devastating flash floods in Central Texas.

The flooding from the fast-moving waters of the Guadalupe River on Friday, July 4, killed at the very least 110 folks. Authorities say search efforts are nonetheless underway, together with for campers lacking from Camp Mystic, a summer season camp for ladies. 

Hanna and Rebecca Lawrence

Hanna and Rebecca Lawrence have been 8-year-old sisters from Dallas who have been among the many victims killed by the flooding at Camp Mystic. The women had simply completed second grade, their mother and father stated.

“Hanna and Rebecca introduced a lot pleasure to us, to their massive sister Harper, and to so many others,” John and Lacy Lawrence stated in a press release. “We’ll discover methods to maintain that pleasure, and to proceed to unfold it for them. However we’re devastated that the bond we shared with them, and that they shared with one another, is now frozen in time.”

David Lawrence, the women’ grandfather and former writer of the Miami Herald, stated, “it has been an unimaginable time for all of us.” He stated the women gave their household, together with their sister, pleasure.

“They and that pleasure can by no means be forgotten,” he stated in a press release.

Hanna Lawrence (left) and Rebecca Lawrence (proper), twin 8-year-old women who died when flooding hit Camp Mystic in Texas on July 4, 2025.

John Lawrence


College Park Elementary Faculty, the place Hanna and Rebecca attended, stated on its web site that “quite a few” college students have been within the Texas Hill Nation throughout the flooding and needed to evacuate. The college didn’t instantly reply to a message left Monday morning.

“We’re deeply saddened to report the lack of a number of college students, and our ideas and prayers are with the entire households deeply affected by this unimaginable tragedy,” the college stated on its website.

Lila Bonner

One other sufferer of the flooding at Camp Mystic was 9-year-old Lila Bonner, from Dallas.  

“The household of Lila James Bonner is heartbroken to verify the information of her loss,” her household stated in a press release to CBS Information Texas. “Within the midst of our unimaginable grief, we ask for privateness and are unable to verify any particulars right now. We ache with all who beloved her and are praying endlessly for others to be spared from this tragic loss.” 

Eloise Peck 

Eloise Peck, 8, additionally died within the flooding at Camp Mystic, CBS Information Texas confirmed. An undated photograph shared with CBS Information reveals Eloise and Lila Bonner standing collectively. 

An indication posted exterior Eloise’s household residence in Dallas states that the lady “misplaced her life within the tragic flooding.” 

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Eloise Peck (left), Lila Bonner, 9 (proper), each of Dallas, have been confirmed lifeless after being reported lacking from Camp Mystic following the Central Texas flash floods.

Hadley Hanna

One other Dallas lady, 8-year-old Hadley Hanna, was among the many victims at Camp Mystic. A consultant for the household confirmed her dying to CBS Information Texas

“Candy Hadley, I am unable to consider it,” Hadley’s father, Cody Crossman, wrote on Fb. “The enjoyment you introduced everybody together with your smile and laughter cannot be changed.” 

Crossman wrote that Hadley had been “nervous” earlier than heading to camp. He remembered reassuring her and giving her a “double excessive 5 and hug” earlier than her departure. 

“As I walked away, I by no means thought that will be the final time I’d see you,” Crossman wrote. “I’ll cherish all of our time collectively. There’s an angel smiling down on all of us.” 

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Hadley Hanna of Dallas is among the many women reported deceased from Camp Mystic following the Central Texas flash floods.

Virginia Wynne Naylor 

Virginia Wynne Naylor, of Dallas, was additionally among the many victims at Camp Mystic, her great-aunt Cheryl Olsen confirmed to CBS Information. Her household additionally confirmed her dying in a press release, and stated the eight-year-old glided by Wynne. 

Wynne had a “nice love of the outside, a love of God, and love for her group,” her household stated. The household has established a fund in her identify to “honor Wynne’s life and guarantee her legacy continues.” 

“In case you take away the grief, the stress, the tears of despair and the cries of horror from the times since this tragedy started, you can see how God intends for us to stay,” the Naylor household stated. “Exchange grief with hope. Exchange stress with servitude. Exchange tears of despair with joyful recollection. Exchange cries of horror with phrases of endearment. That is how our women danced by way of this world. That is how they are going to be remembered. That is how God intends we stay.”

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Wynne Naylor.

The Naylor household


Mary Grace Baker

Mary Grace Baker, who had not too long ago celebrated her first Holy Communion, was among the many victims at Camp Mystic from the flash meals, her Texas faculty introduced.

“Mary Grace was a vibrant gentle in our close-knit faculty household, recognized for her kindness and friendship to all, her joyful spirit and her love for her religion and household,” St. Anne Catholic Faculty in Beaumont stated on its Fb web page. “Her giggle was contagious, as was her spirit.”

Mary Grace had simply accomplished second grade. The college’s publish described her as a “women’ lady who beloved pink sparkles and bows in her signature angelic ringlet curls.” The college requested its group to position pink ribbons in bushes in honor of Mary Grace after she went lacking following the floods.

Lainey Landry

9-year-old Lainey Landry, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, died at Camp Mystic, her household and church stated on social media. Lainey’s cousin Laynie Weaver stated that “Lainey is in heaven,” and that it was “considerably of a miracle in itself” that her stays had been discovered after the flooding. 

“Prayers for the lacking, deceased, first responders, and for Lainey’s grieving household … are nonetheless very a lot wanted,” Weaver wrote

St. George Catholic Church in Baton Rouge additionally confirmed Lainey’s dying. The church stated she made her first communion in Could 2025. 

Sarah Marsh

Eight-year-old Sarah Marsh, from Alabama, had additionally been attending Camp Mystic. Marsh was a pupil at Cherokee Bend Elementary in suburban Birmingham.

“That is an unimaginable loss for her household, her faculty, and our whole group,” Mountain Brook Mayor Stewart Welch stated in a Fb publish. “Sarah’s passing is a sorrow shared by all of us, and our hearts are with those that knew and beloved her.”

He stated the group — the place about 20,000 folks reside — would rally behind the Marsh household as they grieved.

Her mother and father declined an interview request Sunday “as they mourn this insufferable loss,” the lady’s grandmother, Debbie Ford Marsh, informed The Related Press in an e mail.

“We’ll at all times really feel blessed to have had this stunning spunky ray of sunshine in our lives. She is going to stay on in our hearts eternally!” Marsh wrote on Fb. “We love you a lot, candy Sarah!”

She declined additional remark.

U.S. Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama additionally famous the lady’s tragic dying.

“We proceed to wish for the victims’ family members, the survivors, those that are nonetheless lacking, and our courageous first responders as search and rescue efforts proceed in Texas,” she stated in a publish on social media platform X.

Chloe Childress

Chloe Childress was among the many counselors at Camp Mystic who died. Childress, 18, “lived a phenomenal life that saturated these round her with contagious pleasure, endless grace, and abiding religion,” her household stated in a press release.

“Returning as a counselor to the place she beloved so dearly, Chloe was wanting ahead to dedicating her summer season days to loving and mentoring younger women at Camp Mystic,” her household stated.

Texas Flooding Victims

This photograph supplied by Debra Alexander Images, reveals Chloe Childress, 18, who was a counselor at Camp Mystic.

Debbie Psifidis / AP


Childress had simply graduated from the Kinkaid Faculty in Houston, which praised her as deeply invested in her group.

“Chloe had a exceptional means of creating folks really feel seen. She was clever past her years, with a gentle compassion that settled a room,” Jonathan Eads, the top of the college, stated in a letter to the college’s group on Sunday. “Whether or not it was sharing her personal challenges to ease somebody’s burden or quietly cheering a teammate or classmate by way of a troublesome day, Chloe made house for others to really feel protected, valued, and courageous.”

Dick Eastland

Among the many lifeless is Dick Eastland, the Camp Mystic director. Native media reported that Eastland was attempting to avoid wasting women on the camp when he died. 

Eastland’s grandson, George Eastland, wrote in an Instagram publish that his grandfather confirmed him what a powerful Christian man appears like. 

“If he wasn’t going to die of pure causes, this was the one different means, saving the women that he so beloved and cared for,” he wrote.

Paige Sumner, a former camper, described him in a column within the native paper, The Kerrville Each day Instances, as “the daddy determine to all of us whereas we have been away from residence.” Sumner spent one summer season working within the camp workplace, she stated, balancing accounts for the commissary, the place campers purchased snacks and different necessities like stamps. She wrote that her desk was exterior Eastland’s workplace.

“He nonetheless put campers first in each scenario,” wrote Sumner, who’s now the top of philanthropy at a group heart in Kerrville. “If a problem of any type that wanted consideration came visiting the walkie-talkie, even a camper with a minor damage or the dreaded snake within the river, he would bolt out of the workplace and bounce in a golf cart to get there as quick as he might.”

In her column, Sumner famous that the camp had plans for rain.

“Often,” she defined, “it means they ship a particular breakfast of candy rolls to every cabin or singing songs within the Rec Corridor. This stage of flooding was unprecedented.”

In a short phone name as she grappled with the flood’s aftermath at her personal workplace, Sumner was reluctant so as to add greater than she wrote within the column, saying the camp wished privateness for the households.

“We’re nonetheless holding out hope,” she stated. “They’re damaged; they’re in shock.”

Jane Ragsdale

Jane Ragsdale, 68, devoted her life to the Coronary heart O’ the Hills Camp, a summer season camp for ladies in Texas Hill Nation. She was a camper and counselor there herself within the Nineteen Seventies earlier than turning into a co-owner. By the Eighties, she was director of the camp in Hunt.

“She was the center of The Coronary heart,” the camp stated in a press release. “She was our guiding gentle, our instance, and our protected place. She had the uncommon present of creating each individual really feel seen, beloved, and essential.”

Because the camp was between classes, no kids have been staying there when the floodwaters rose. The camp’s amenities, immediately within the path of the flood, have been extensively broken and entry to the location remained tough, based on camp officers. The camp has been in existence because the Fifties.

Camp officers stated Ragsdale could be remembered for her power and knowledge.

“We’re heartbroken. However above all, we’re grateful,” the camp stated. “Grateful to have recognized her, to have realized from her, and to hold her gentle ahead.”

In a 2015 oral historical past for the Kerr County Historic Fee, Ragsdale, whose first identify was Cynthie, however glided by her center identify Jane, talked about how her father was additionally a camp director and the way a lot she loved her experiences.

“I beloved each minute of camp from the primary time I stepped foot in a single,” she recalled.

Movies of Ragsdale strumming a guitar and singing to campers throughout a current session have been posted in a memorial on the camp’s Fb web page: “Life is nice right this moment. So preserve singing ’til we meet, once more.”

Blair and Brooke Harber

Sisters Blair and Brooke Harber, each college students at St. Rita Catholic Faculty in Dallas, had been staying alongside the Guadalupe River when their cabin was swept away, based on the college. The sister’s our bodies have been discovered collectively 15 miles downriver, CBS Texas reported

Pastor Joshua J. Whitfield of St. Rita Catholic Group, which shares a campus with the college, stated the women’ mother and father, Annie and RJ Harber, have been staying in a unique cabin and have been protected. Nevertheless, their grandparents have been unaccounted for. Annie Harber has been a longtime instructor on the faculty.

“This tragedy has touched each nook of our hearts,” the church stated in a press release Sunday.

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Blair Harber, 13, and Brooke Harber, 11, have been among the many dozens who misplaced their lives within the catastrophic floods that swept by way of Central Texas early Friday.  

Blair, who was enrolled in superior courses, was concerned in quite a few faculty actions from volleyball and basketball to speech and drama. Brooke was a rising sixth grader and a pupil athlete in volleyball and lacrosse, amongst different sports activities. She additionally participated in speech and drama, based on the church.

Each have been remembered for his or her type hearts and heat personalities.

“We’ll honor Blair and Brooke’s lives, the sunshine they shared, and the enjoyment they delivered to everybody who knew them,” Whitfield wrote in a Saturday letter to parishioners. “And we are going to encompass Annie, RJ, and their prolonged household with the power and assist of our St. Rita group.”

The church held a particular prayer service Saturday afternoon and provided counseling.

“Please preserve the Harber household in your prayers throughout this time of profound grief,” Whitfield wrote. “Could our religion, our love, and our St. Rita group be a supply of power and luxury within the days forward.”

Cleanup and recovery underway in Hunt, TX

A coronary heart manufactured from stones on a slab that was the location of the cabin by which two sisters, 13-year-old Blair and 11-year-old Brooke Harber, have been staying at Casa Bonita in Hunt, Texas on July 7, 2025.

Danielle Villasana for The Washington Put up by way of Getty Photos


Reece and Paula Zunker

Reece Zunker was described as “a passionate educator and a beloved soccer coach” by Tivy Excessive Faculty in Kerrville, Texas.

“His unwavering dedication to our college students, athletes, and the Tivy group touched numerous lives and can by no means be forgotten,” the college posted on-line Sunday.

Paula Zunker was a former instructor on the faculty. “The care and influence she shared along with her college students proceed to be felt, even years later,” the publish stated.

The couple’s younger kids, Lyle and Holland, have been nonetheless lacking, the college stated.

The household had been staying at a river home in Hunt.

Tanya Burwick

The final time Tanya Burwick’s household heard from her was a frantic telephone name in regards to the floodwaters as she headed to work at a Walmart early Friday within the San Angelo space. When Burwick did not present up for work, her employer filed a lacking individuals report and despatched a colleague to search for her.

Police investigating the 62-year-old’s disappearance discovered Burwick’s unoccupied SUV totally submerged later that day. Her physique was discovered the subsequent morning blocks from the car.

“She lit up the room and had amusing that made different folks chuckle,” stated Lindsey Burwick, who added that her mother was a beloved father or mother, grandparent and colleague to many.

Texas Flooding Victims

This undated photograph launched by Rhea Burwick reveals her mom Tanya Burwick, April 2025, in San Angelo, Texas. 

Rhae Brunswick by way of AP


She and her brother Zac stated the day was particularly tough as a result of it occurred on July Fourth as they have been working at a fireworks stand that is been within the household for generations. As phrase of Tanya Burwick’s disappearance unfold, folks from Blackwell, a small group of about 250 folks, confirmed as much as the stand that is run out of a trailer painted orange.

“Folks got here to our help,” Lindsey Burwick stated.

Police in San Angelo stated greater than 12,000 homes, barns and different buildings have been affected by the floods in the neighborhood of roughly 100,000 folks.

“We ask that the general public proceed to maintain the Burwick household of their ideas and prayers as they navigate this heartbreaking tragedy,” the San Angelo Police Division stated in a Fb publish.



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