There is an awful tragedy unfolding in Texas. It is a nightmare.
If you listened to Monday’s AM Update, you know that five young campers were confirmed dead over the weekend after flooding hit Camp Mystic, a Christian camp for girls on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Texas Hill Country.
Around 9 o’clock this morning, the camp put out a statement that read, in part, “Camp Mystic is grieving the loss of 27 campers and counselors following the catastrophic flooding on the Guadalupe River.” The counselors were just high schoolers, and the campers were eight- and nine-year-old little girls. None of these victims were even adults.
The Victims
We have 27 lost with almost no chance to live the way this river moved in. Think of the terror those sweet souls felt as this happened overnight. One minute, they were tucked in their beds at sleep-away camp, completely joyful by all accounts. The next, a wall of rushing, cold water in the total darkness of night. The cabins for the youngest campers sat less than a football field away from the Guadalupe River, which rose several feet in just minutes.
Among the girls lost was eight-year-old Renee Smajstrla. Her uncle wrote on social media: “We are thankful she was with her friends and having the time of her life, as evidenced by this picture from yesterday. She will forever be living her best life at Camp Mystic. Please continue to pray for the other families in Kerrville.”
Lila Bonner, 9, and Eloise Peck, 8, were best friends and campmates, too. There is a picture of the two of them hugging with arms around each other’s shoulders. Eloise’s mother, Missy Peck, shared a heartbreaking message about her daughter. “Eloise was literally friends with everyone. She loved spaghetti but not more than she loved dogs and animals,” she wrote on Facebook. “Eloise had a family who loved her fiercely for the 8 years she was with us. Especially her Mommy.”
It is just so awful. The loss of life was not just at Camp Mystic. As of 12pm ET on Monday, the death toll stands at 82 and is expected to climb. Sisters Blair and Brooke Harber also lost their lives. They were just 11 and 13 and staying with their grandparents in a cabin along the same river. Their grandparents remain unaccounted for, but a family member said the bodies of the sisters were found 15 miles away from the campsite with their hands locked together.
Media Meltdown
In a matter of just a few hours, the Guadalupe River rose from one to 34 feet, knocking homes off their foundations, uprooting trees, and sweeping away everything in its path. President Trump is expected to survey the damage on Friday. He said he would go today if he could, but he doesn’t want to get in the way of rescue operations.
Some absolute ghouls in the media and all over the internet, however, are trying to blame the president and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for the tragedy, claiming cuts to the National Weather Service are to blame because they left the agency unprepared.
There is a long list of disgusting ghouls who are doing this. These are insane people. They are literally saying that these victims – these sweet little eight-year-old girls, the 11- and 13-year-old girls with their arms around each other – deserved it because Texas is a red state and they must have voted for Trump and Elon Musk. It is absolutely disgusting.
ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, fresh off of settling a $15 million defamation lawsuit for lies he told over and over and over, is still finding ways to lie about Donald Trump. “We’re also learning that there were significant staffing shortfalls at the National Weather Services offices in the region,” he said while speaking with a reporter live on the scene who refused to speculate.
What is the relevant question? Were there shortages in the office that was responsible for this region? Did anybody involved at that office say the problem was they were understaffed or needed more bodies?
To the contrary, reports indicate they had extra staff in the office going into this weather event. They understood that they were in a very precarious situation. They brought on more than double the normal expected staff that night, and not one of them is saying that this was the result of DOGE cuts. I missed that in George’s toss to his reporter on the scene. Great job informing your ABC News audience.
The media is so focused on bringing down “Orange Man bad,” they are finding a way to blame it on Trump or one of their other pet projects like climate change. CNN’s Dana Bash went there, asking a guest: “How much do you think the changing climate is part of what we are seeing go on here?”
What Happened
I am going to walk you through what we know so far. The National Weather Service provided over 12 hours of advance notice via a “flood watch” and over three hours of lead time for “flash flood warnings” with escalated alerts as the storm intensified. The main problem seems to have been that it all happened overnight, and most people were asleep and really not paying that close attention.
On the morning of July 3, the National Weather Center issued the “flood hazard outlook,” identifying flash flooding potential for Kerrville and surrounding areas. At 1:18pm that afternoon, they issued a flood watch for Kerr County effective through Friday. At 6:22pm, the National Weather Center warned of considerable flooding risks north and west of San Antonio, including Kerrville. At 11:41pm, the first flash flood warning was issued for Bandera County.
At 1:14am on July 4, a flash flood warning with a “considerable” tag was issued for Bandera and Kerr counties, triggering Wireless Emergency Alerts and NOAA Weather Radio notifications. Now, a lot of the phones didn’t have service. In this area, it is apparently tough to get cell phone service, so the locals who really care will get a NOAA Weather Radio.
I don’t know what happened at Camp Mystic, but I would argue they had an obligation to have that radio and to have somebody awake listening. And I’m sorry, I know I’ve only heard lovely things about the people who ran the camp, but those eight-year-old girls should have been removed from that obviously endangered cabin when there was the first notification and moved to higher ground.
I realize hindsight is 20/20. I am not saying it in a nasty way. I am saying that these are things we need to look into in due time. You have to listen to the alerts, even if it is a pain in the ass to move the kids.
At 4:03am on July 4, the flash flood warning was upgraded to flash flood emergency for Kerr County. By 5am, the National Weather Center was warning of widespread, considerable, and catastrophic flooding. On top of all that, the Associated Press reported, the National Weather Service office in New Braunfels, which delivers forecasts for this region, had extra staff on duty during the storms.
Social Media Depravity
None of that stopped the cretins. They won’t respect the dead, some of which are still floating in the Guadalupe River. These are sick people we are dealing with as evidenced by the just abject celebrations of this on social media.
In a since-deleted Facebook post, Texas pediatrician Dr. Christina Propst said the more than 80 victims were Trump supporters who got “what they voted for.” The New York Post reported that her employer, Blue Fish Pediatrics, initially said she had been suspended before announcing “the individual is no longer employed” there.
And then there was a woman by the name of Sadé Perkins, who is a non-resident fellow at Princeton University (previously one of our most respected institutions). She went viral for her rant about adding racial “context” in the aftermath of the floods. Calling Camp Mystic “a whites-only girls Christian camp,” she claimed the reaction would be different if the victims had a different background:
“If this were a group of Hispanic girls… this would not be getting this type of coverage that they’re getting. No one would give a f-ck. And all these white people, the parents of these little girls, would be saying things like, ‘They need to be deported.’ They want you to get out of your bed, and to come out of your home, and to go find these people and donate your money to go find these people. Meanwhile, they’re deporting your family members; meanwhile, they’re setting up concentration camps and prisons for your family members. And I need y’all to keep that in mind before y’all get out there and put on the rain boots and go find these little girls.”
She is truly depraved. Princeton University must do something. There are little girls dead, and this is the reaction.
Good vs. Evil
But among all these stories of awful, soulless people, you also find the great ones. It really is a juxtaposition of good and evil in moments like this.
There is Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer and Petty Officer Scott Ruskin, who is credited with saving 165 people on the first rescue mission of his career. He is a true hero, and there are many more like him who risked their lives. There are videos of volunteers and neighbors putting themselves in serious danger to save one another.
I know this is a weird possible non sequitur, but I went to mass on Sunday with my family and it ended this year as it did last year and the year prior. As they finished the final hymn – which happened to be a moving rendition of “Be Not Afraid” – the whole congregation, led by the cantor, burst into “God Bless America.”
It just makes you feel something from deep within. And when I look at those Texans risking their lives, that is what I think: God bless America. God bless the helpers. I have almost no use for these cretins online who don’t know what we are really about or the goodness of this country at its heart and soul, irrespective of partisan politics.
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 1,102 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.