The death toll keeps rising. It has been nine days since the dreadful torrential rain of over 30 inches in one hour and the Guadalupe River rising 30 feet, causing a horrifying flood leading to the deaths of 103 people (according to current official counts) with at least 161 people still unaccounted for. The storm garnered national attention because the epicenter in Kerr County, Texas, is an area with several summer youth camps in session, particularly Camp Mystic, a Christian youth camp for girls. There were over 900 kids and adults at this one camp. By the Grace of God, by July 6, Sunday, 850 of the campers were saved from the onslaught of the flooding by first responders. But by Sunday afternoon, the fate of 27 missing girls and camp counselors and workers had gripped the nation. Governor Gregg Abbott activated several police, fire, and ambulance units from around central Texas, as well as the Texas National Guard and State Trooper units. When the gravity of the situation became known, President Trump ordered federal services and U.S. Coast Guard units into service. Homeland Security Secretary, Krist Noem, was on the ground in Texas directing the Federal resources to provide all possible assistance to state and local authorities.
While praising God for the hundreds of lives who were rescued, by Friday evening, hopes of finding anyone else alive began to dwindle, especially as further rain began to inundate the area. The destruction around the Guadalupe River was shocking. The valley is strewn with debris from washed out highways and bridges and broken tree trunks. The ruins of cars, trucks, and 18-wheelers are twisted and impaled on trees all throughout the area. Along with the camp sites, several cabins in the area have either completely or in sections been washed away.
According to one survivor in Camp Mystic the water level rose to the ceiling of the cabin she was in, trapping several of the children who ultimately drowned. One boy who camped by the river for the Independence Day celebrations woke up in the night floating on the torrents of the river but by a miracle managed to cling to a tree on the riverbank for safety.
One can only imagine the terror that those children and adults experienced in that late night and early morning hours. On Saturday morning, as the news of the missing children began to echo through the media, the sight of terrified parents gathering at Camp Mystic looking for their children was agonizing. While many parents received their children back alive and safe, one grieved at the news that emergency personnel had found the remains of children who drowned.
This area is not a big population center. Kerr County has a population of around 50,000 people. About half of that population lives in the city of Kerrville. The deaths of possibly 300 people in this small county will mentally and spiritually shake this area, especially as many of the victims are little children. And yet I hope the main story in the coming days will be about the resilience of this community. As best as they can, they are rising up, looking for survivors or victims, and beginning cleanup operations.
We pray for the people in Kerr County and the surrounding area as they continue search and rescue operations. As the days go by, this will not get any easier. Officials expect the worse, and the safety and sanity of emergency crews will be severely tested. Victims are being found in the mud as well as in vehicles, and many in the most deplorable conditions. May God give these people His peace during these days, and afterwards.
As with any disaster, natural or otherwise, it is inevitable that politics will be injected into it, and/or worse, vile vitriol. There was talk about early warning systems, and or the lack thereof. Initial reporting by some in the media was that these could have prevented this tragedy, and the absence of these tools was the fault of President Trump’s DOGE cuts. The imbecility of this point was revealed in the briefing given by Governor Abbott and his team, most notably the fact that the rise of the water to over 30 feet in an hour would negate any warning system and in fact could have caused mass panic which could have made matters worse.
For over 100 years, people have come to Kerr County to camp or for youth outreach. This storm was one of those freak occurrences which no one could predict or control. According to one video footage which circulated in the media, the Guadlupe River rose almost 40 feet (the vantage point was from a bridge over the river) and wreaked the kind of destruction that is usually seen on the coast in a hurricane or tropical storm. There was very little time to escape such an onslaught.
There are some who celebrated the death of these children and adults for the fact that Kerr County is a Republican area and the children who died were at a Christian camp. Those people do not deserve a second thought.
To those who mock the Christian faith of the people in this area of central Texas, I can only answer you like this: our Faith in Jesus Christ allows us to be vulnerable. It is possible for each of us to face our own metaphorical Cross at some point in our lives. For the people in Kerr County and the surrounding area, that moment is now. There is nothing good about death, sudden or otherwise. But the focus of our Faith is Jesus Christ. We remember that God gave His Son, while we were yet sinners, to die for us on that Cross of Calvary. That dreadful price is revealed in all four Gospels. That night in the Garden of Gethsemane, when the Lord Jesus cried out to the Father, asking if there was a possibility for that Cup, that receptacle of everything that Sin is, what it represents, what its ultimate consequences are, to pass away from Him, there was no response from Heaven. But I believe He saw the plight of sinful humanity, me, you, all of us, and assented to the Father to say, “nevertheless not My will, but Thine.”
“He became Sin, who knew no Sin, so that the righteousness of God would be revealed in us” (2 Corinthians 5:21). All our sins, all our griefs, are upon Him. By His stripes, we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).
And therein is our Hope. Jesus Christ died on that Cross and was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. But on the third day, He rose again. This is not a myth. It is a fact of history. He promised that whosever believes in Him will have eternal life.
He told Martha and Mary at the tomb of their brother Lazarus, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. He that believes in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (John 11:25). The day is coming, Jesus said, when the dead shall hear His voice. Some will rise to eternal life while others will wake up to eternal judgement (John 5:25).
The Cross and the Empty Tomb. We can and will go through trouble. But we have Hope. O atheist! O unbeliever! O cynic! O infidel! You have nothing else to offer but cynical mockery while ignoring the fact that your body will one day lie in a casket, no more or less than the victims of this flood. There will be other tragedies and accidents, other uncontrollable situations that will take away human life, perhaps even your life. What will your response be on that day? It will be too late to wonder at the deeper questions of life and eternity, but ask yourself one question now: Will you have Hope? Do you have Hope?
We grieve the deaths of the children and adults, particularly those who were at Camp Mystic. But I pray that all of them will be comforted by the greatest privilege a person can have in this life - the privilege of coming to know Jesus Christ as one’s Lord and Savior.
May God comfort broken hearted people today.
Remember the promise in 1 Corinthians 15: “This corruptible mortal body will be changed to incorruptible, immortality on the day of Jesus Christ’ return, and that day we will resurrect in Him and cry out, “O Death where is your sting?! O Grave where is your victory?! The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the Law. But thanks be to God, who give us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding the work of the Lord, knowing that your work in the Lord is not in vain” 1 Corinthians 15:54-58.