Many of the 650 campers and staffers at Camp Mystic were asleep when, at 1:14 a.m., a flash-flood warning for Kerr County, Texas, with “catastrophic” potential for loss of life was issued by the National Weather Service.

As floodwaters rose in Texas, camp counselors hoisted children onto rafters, carried them to dry ground and sang with them to keep them calm.

People gather outside St. Sebastian’s Catholic Church in Kentfield, Calif., on July 8, 2025, to pray for members of a Kentfield family missing in the Texas flood zone. (Sherry LaVars/Marin Independent Journal)

Katherine Ferruzzo had been accepted to the University of Texas at Austin for the fall semester and planned to become a Special Education teacher, her family said.

Experts say camps offer the opportunity to try skills and social situations while developing a stronger sense of self in the safety of communities that share values.

Camp officials across the country said they had heard from worried parents after the Texas floods. As they try to reassure them, some camps are adding more safety procedures.

The deadly Texas floods have brought the state's approach to land approvals, especially in flood-prone areas, under more scrutiny.

At least 27 campers and counselors at Camp Mystic perished in Friday's floods, with the total death toll in the floods now surpassing 100.