If so inclined, pls send up a prayer for Camp Mystic / TX Hill Country flood victims

Tragic and to think that one poor girl that was never found

Even more tragic when you think those counselors were told to go back to the cabins instead of just evacuating them at that time, common sense could have prevailed and saved most of those girls.

I was staying in an elevated camping area along the river there during that time. Early morning I went down towards the river and could not believe how high it was and how fast the water was moving. It really seemed like entire trees were floating down stream 50+mph. I was awestruck and amazed by nature.

But I had a disconnect from reality.

As the day progressed, helicopters were all over. Then emergency personnel in various bright colored uniforms were showing up and walking the shorelines. Searching.

When I realized the reason for the search. That's when it hit me. When I realized the dumb luck of how fortunate I was. And sadly, how unfortunate so many others were. Knowing they were searching for little girls from a camp. And for others. Difficult to even type this out now.

Prayers

This day, like several other days of tragedy, is when I learned how evil some of my former acquaintances were. Reading snippets on social media how many were happy that white christian kids were killed made this even more horrifying.

I'm not a religious person but I still hurt for those families and think about this event more than I should because I have kids that go to camps like this. Just picked one up today.

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Just thinking about this is gut wrenching. We knew some people with older girls at Mystic that were fine, but of course, their circle of friends has many families that weren't so lucky.

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We go to Pine Cove Family Camp and one of the families there lives in Highland Park and 2 of their neighbors lost girls there.

My son does Pine Cove City as a counselor and he was fairly close to there when it was all going on and they take phones up for the week, and we had no idea what was going on.

Truly horrific. I will give Texas credit that they did do a major overhaul and require all camps to get up to snuff on evacuation procedures this year as a result.

Done

Not to be a jerk…but I’ll hold my prayers for the family until I research this lawsuit they filed against the camp causing bankruptcy and closure. The fine line between acts of god, grief, blame, money, judgement, prayers…whatever. Ruining other people’s lives to place human blame on an act of god is not automatically prayer worthy.

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doesn't help that this was the exclusive camp where only kids of parents and grandparents got to go

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Serious question: what the frick does that have to do with it?

Let’s not forget Sadé (or Sade) Perkins. A former Houston mayoral appointee (to the city’s Food Insecurity Board) that insinuated they deserved it because it was a “white majority Christian group”.

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Ruining other people’s lives to place human blame on an act of god is not automatically prayer worthy.

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I find this to be ironic.

Here is why…

A long time ago, I used to be a counselor at one of these camps. It was a great Christian summer camp atmosphere for all the kids. Awesome. Been there for years. Ran by good friend of mine.

Safety protocol was near nil. No leader / counselor daily discussions of weather, no evacuation plan, no safety kits or discussion for counselors, no daily report of kids were sick, etc. Activities, singinging, cooking hot dogs, swimming…fun stuff. And keep an eye on rattle snakes. About it.

Looking back (after 30 subsequent yrs in an IOC where safety was paramount), it was luckier than good. Same Guadalupe River. Same elevations.

However, the little girls were not next to the river like Camp Mystic.

In complete honesty, I think the camp had a Christian God’s hands led the way mindset and not real safety mindset. Negligent! IMO via Godliness came blindness (to real safety risks, never happened before, no barriers in place for kids, etc)

How Camp Mystic could even think about opening after so many deaths of so many vulnerable kids is incomprehensible to me.

Imagine sending your 7yo daughter to that camp. Will never see her again. Because she was in a cabin next to river that had no proactive safety protocols for the risk she was under. Tragic. Heart breaking. We know parents who lost theirs. Devastating pain. Unfathomable.

Indeed, I believe an act of God was in play but it was not the weather that I am talking about. Moreso, Christian cavalier > real safety…negligence!