Camp Mystic Flood Kills 27; Child’s Letters Arrive After Her Death

A sudden flash flood along the Guadalupe River swept through Camp Mystic, a Christian girls’ summer camp near Hunt, Texas, in the early hours of 4 July. Authorities said the water level climbed roughly 26 feet in 45 minutes, submerging the camp’s lowest cabins and killing 27 people—21 campers and six counselors. The Hill Country disaster is one of the deadliest U.S. camp incidents in decades and has prompted reviews of emergency protocols at youth facilities situated near flood-prone rivers. Among the victims was eight-year-old Blakely McCrory of Bellaire, who had started her first session at Camp Mystic on 29 June. Her mother, Lindsey McLeod McCrory, learned of the flood while traveling abroad and returned to Houston as search teams worked to locate missing campers. Blakely’s body was identified on 7 July. Days after the confirmation, two of Blakely’s handwritten letters from camp arrived at the family’s home. In the notes, dated before the flood, she wrote that “camp is amazing,” listed activities such as tennis and horseback riding, and asked that her Barbie Dream House not be given away. The correspondence has become a poignant emblem of the tragedy as families prepare funerals and state officials examine how quickly the river rose and whether additional safeguards could have prevented the loss of life.