Clinging to rafters: How staff at all-boys camp in Texas saved hundreds from floodwaters

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00:01Clinging to rafters. How staff at All Boys Camp in Texas saved hundreds from floodwaters.

00:07Parents say counselors at Camp La Junta saved their children from being swept away by floodwaters

00:12that tore through the Texas hill country on Independence Day.

00:16Portrait of Christopher...

00:19Christopher Can, Christopher Can. USA Today.

00:23After a sun-filled day at Camp La Junta, 11-year-old Beau Brown was roused awake by a counselor on July 4th

00:31and led outside into the early morning darkness.

00:35From the doorway, Beau could see floodwaters beginning to engulf cabins closer to the Guadalupe River,

00:40where the younger boys slept.

00:42With a group of other campers, he reached a high point on a nearby hillside

00:46and watched as counselors rushed into the raging floodwaters.

00:50The torrent of water blew out the walls of at least one cabin

00:53and forced counselors to move children into the rafters above their bunk beds.

00:58When the water slowed, counselors formed a line and pulled some of the boys to safety.

01:03Several counselors slung children over their shoulders and swam them to higher ground.

01:09Within a few hours, each of the nearly 400 children and counselors at the All Boys Camp

01:13were determined safe and accounted for.

01:16Acting on their own, staff had taken decisive action,

01:19rushing the children into cabins up the hill from the racing river,

01:22which had risen over 20 feet in less than an hour.

01:25Parents who spoke with USA Today credit them for saving their children's lives.

01:30If it hadn't have been for them,

01:32it would have been a very different scenario with our boys,

01:35said Beau's mother, Georgie Brown.

01:37They didn't have anyone telling them what to do.

01:39They just did it and saved a lot of our boys.

01:43Beau Brown, right, poses with his friend, Elton Farr,

01:46before boarding a bus to Camp La Junta in Kerr County, Texas.

01:51The pair were among hundreds of boys and counselors who narrowly escaped raging floodwaters

01:55that tore across the camp on July 4, 2025.

02:00At other camps, the flood took lives.

02:04About five miles down the Guadalupe, floodwaters tore through Camp Mystic,

02:08a beloved all-girls Christian summer camp,

02:11killing at least 27 children and counselors, officials said.

02:15As of Tuesday, rescue teams were desperately searching for five girls still missing

02:20after the river overwhelmed the campgrounds in the early morning hours of July 4.

02:25And while there were no children on the grounds at Heart of the Hills Camp,

02:29the flood killed the camp's longtime owner, Jane Ragsdale,

02:33a matriarch who led the summer program for decades.

02:35Other camps, dotting the river's edge, reported damage some quite significant but no loss of life.

02:45The parents of the children rescued from Camp La Junta said,

02:50while they're grateful to have their children at home,

02:52they're also overwhelmed with grief at the loss of life at Camp Mystic,

02:56where many of them know the victims and their families.

02:59It's unbelievable that something so terrible can happen in such a happy place, Brown said.

03:06They were heroes.

03:08Colton Taylor, 12, had only one full day at camp

03:11before screams woke him up around 4 a.m. that Friday.

03:15When he climbed out of bed, the floodwaters were up to his knees and soon his waist.

03:19In the dark, he felt for his tennis shoes floating nearby,

03:22put them on and hurried out the door.

03:24He ended up on the hillside for about two hours in the rain.

03:27Terrified, his mother, Janet Davis, told USA Today.

03:32He said he heard sounds he won't ever forget.

03:35Nearby, 9-year-old Everett Higgins and several other boys sat on their beds as the flood raged outside.

03:41Water seeped into their cabin under the doors and through gaps in the walls.

03:45But the cabin was at a higher point than those closest to the river,

03:49allowing them to shelter inside.

03:51The children in the cabins near the river's edge were told to climb onto the top bunks

03:55and then as water poured in the rafters.

03:58Some parents said their children were there for about an hour

04:01before counselors waded into the water and whisked the children to safety.

04:06They were heroes, Everett's father, Sean Higgins, said.

04:09All of the children were moved into several cabins a safe distance from the floodwaters,

04:14where counselors tried to keep the boys occupied,

04:17passing around a football as the sun came up.

04:20Camp leaders took headcounts and kept parents updated through emails,

04:24text messages, and social media posts.

04:28Toward evening, trucks and buses drove the campers to First Presbyterian Church in Caraville,

04:33where they reunited with their families.

04:35While on the drive, the boys saw further evidence of the devastation wrought by the flood.

04:40Uprooted trees, cars washed away, and a field where they could see several dead horses.

04:45Janet Davis, who has generational ties to camps in the Texas Hill Country,

04:50said Colton was traumatized.

04:53It's heartbreaking because it was one of my favorite places to go as a kid,

04:56she said.

04:57Now my son never wants to go back.

04:59A miracle.

05:01Brown said the hours she spent waiting to hear about Bo

05:04were the longest of her life.

05:06The children were not allowed to have phones at camp,

05:09and power outages made communication with counselors nearly impossible.

05:12Until she saw her son in person, she clung to the brief messages the camp sent out,

05:17reiterating that everyone had been found safe.

05:20I was in pure panic mode, she said.

05:23After Bo and the hundreds of other boys were bused to Caraville,

05:27he boarded a helicopter flight with a close friend to Monroe, Louisiana, where they live.

05:31It was close to midnight when Brown met him at the local airport.

05:35I held him so tight, Brown said through tears.

05:38Similar scenes unfolded at the church in Caraville.

05:40Everett sat in the crowded church gymnasium with scores of other children waiting for their parents.

05:46When he spotted his father walking through the door,

05:49he ran up to him and nearly tackled him to the ground.

05:53After a long hug, Higgins looked at his son and noticed he was in his pajamas,

05:57a borrowed t-shirt, and was missing a shoe.

06:00In the days since, that image has lingered in Higgins' mind,

06:03as he's tried to grapple with how close his son came to being swept away in the flood.

06:07What happened was a miracle, he said.

06:10What happened was a miracle, he said.

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