The flash floods in the wee hours of Friday, July 4, in Texas, has claimed at least 100 lives. The first responders immediately conducted search and rescue operations as people who had gathered to celebrate the Independence day were swept away in the tragedy. The floodwater rose up to 26 feet in affected areas in the middle of the night, leaving no chance for people to escape as they were asleep.
100 people have been confirmed dead, including dozens of children at the Christian all-girls summer camp located on the banks of the Guadalupe River. Meanwhile, nearly 160 people still remain missing as search and rescue teams are trying to locate the unaccounted people. Families of missing people are clinging onto the hope of finding their loved ones. Meanwhile, families of those dead in the floods are expressing their monumental losses.
One such grieving family opened up about losing their 21-year-old daughter last weekend. Joyce Catherine Badon, 21, was staying with her college friends at a house along the river when the tragedy struck Texas. As she went missing, Joyce’s mother Kellye Badon posted details about her daughter on Facebook with a hope that she would be found alive.
Kellye wrote, “Our daughter, Joyce Catherine, went to Hunt, TX for the 4th with friends. They were staying in a home on a hill along the river. At 4am this morning, a flash flood came through and washed their cars away. It happened so quickly with so much water, they could not get in the attic. The owner’s son, Aidan Heartfield, called his dad as it happened. Then, he & 2 others got washed away by debris. Joyce Catherine was the last person Thad Heartfield spoke to before the phone went dead.”
“We are going to believe that we will pick up my daughter & her friends ALIVE in Hunt, TX today,” she concluded in her post on July 4.
During the search operation, Joyce was eventually located, but sadly, she had not survived the tragedy. On July 7, Kellye remembered her daughter in a heartfelt post that reads: “God showed us the way we should go this morning! We found our lovely daughter who blessed us for 21 years! We pray to be able to find her three friends soon. Thanks to EVERYONE for the prayers and support. God is good!”
As per Joyce’s Facebook profile, she was studying at Savannah College Of Art And Design.
Louis Deppe, the leader of a group of volunteers of a search team, told Agence France-Presse that the house where Joyce and her friends were staying ‘collapsed’ around 4am local time on Friday. Deppe further revealed that she sent a text to her family before being swept away in flash floods. Deppe told, “On her cellphone, the last message [her family] got was ‘we’re being washed away’ and the phone went dead.”
As the family is still coping with the sudden loss, Kellye shared a picture on rainbow and captioned it as, “Joyce Catherine telling us from heaven ‘all is well with my soul.'”
27 campers and counselors from Camp Mystic died during Texas floods while 10 girls and one counselor remain missing. Camp’s director Dick Eastland also died while trying to save lives. The 70-year-old’s body was found alongside three girls he was trying to save from rising water.
Search teams continue to work tirelessly, recovering bodies and providing assistance to affected families. The challenges faced by rescuers highlight the extent of the disaster, compounded by the difficult conditions of the floodwaters.
