CNN’s Pamela Brown is reporting on the devastating floods in Texas — three decades after spending her summers as a camper at Camp Mystic, where 27 children and counselors have died.
Both CNN’s Pamela Brown and TODAY’s Jenna Bush Hager are sharing their personal connections to the devastating floods in Texas over the Fourth of July weekend..
Brown has been reporting from the ground in Hunt, Texas all weekend, 30 years after she was a camper herself at Camp Mystic. The all-girls summer camp was hit hard by the flood, with 27 children and counselors confirmed dead and more still missing.
Calling it a “magical place” as she reminisced on her time there as a young girl, Brown remarked on how the Guadalupe River — once a “source of so much fun and joy” — is now “the source of that devastation.” She added, “it’s hard to wrap my head around.”
“It’s surreal coming back here 30 years later. I was a 10-year-old little camper here, full of so much hope and joy. It’s a magical place and I remember the excitement and anticipation of coming to Camp Mystic,” Brown shared.
“For me, coming back, I’m overwhelmed with emotion and I’m overwhelmed with memories,” she continued. “It’s such a magical place that now all these girls, these sweet young campers who had to evacuate and their families, so much innocence has now been lost. And you just can’t help but think about them and pray for them and just hope that more are found alive.”
Getty/Instagram
Camp Mystic Director Dies Trying to Save Young Campers from Floods as Death Toll Surpasses 50
View Story
Waiting for your permission to load the Instagram Media.
As she continued her report, Brown also shared accounts from parents about how their children were saved thanks to the heroism of camp counselors — who led them out of their cabins to higher ground.
“It gives you chills,” said Brown.
Monday morning on TODAY, Jenna Bush Hager also shared her personal connection to the camp — saying her mother, Laura Bush, was once a counselor there.
“My mom was a counselor there, but also so many of my friends were raised at this camp,” Hager said. “Texas camps are institutions, as you just heard, where were many family members — generations. This camp was 100 years old, so grandmothers, mothers, kids have all gone there.”
“My mom was a drama counselor there. Many of my friends were there, had their kids there last week,” she emotionally added. “The stories that I heard over the last couple days were beautiful and heartbreaking. Texas has a type of resilience where they’re generous people, where people want to reach out and help.”
She also said she knew the late Richard “Dick” Eastland, the camp director who died trying to save others in the flood — calling him “Texas royalty.”
“They raised so many girls,” Hager said of the Eastland family. “So many of my friends said he was their summer father. He looked out for his campers. He raised girls to be brave, loving and his legacy will live on.”
As of Monday morning, at least 82 people are believed to be dead across Texas.
Content shared from www.toofab.com.