The flooding that overwhelmed Texas’ Guadalupe River on Friday and stranded members of an all-girls Christian camp is proving to be worse than a 1987 disaster triggered by a near-identical deluge that drowned 10 teenagers attending a church camp.
The 1987 Guadalupe River flood caught campers by surprise on the evening of July 16 after an unexpected thunderstorm strengthened by a cold front dumped nearly 12 inches of rainfall over Hunt, Texas.
Ten of the teenagers swept away died in the flood, including a girl named Melanie Finley who fell to her death during a rescue attempt, KSAT reported.
The remaining 33 children and adults clung to treetops until they were rescued via helicopter by the Texas Department of Safety, members of the US Army and a local television station.
In the years since the devastating flood, few additional safety measures have been put in place.
On Friday, Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said at a news conference that the area doesn’t “have a warning system” and that they “didn’t know [Friday’s] flood was coming.”
Around 23 girls with Camp Mystic are unaccounted for after their cabins fled the area on Friday. Hundreds of rescue personnel are scouring the area for them and any other survivors.
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