myST+MenuChoose editionSingaporeInternationalMother of two campers rescued from Texas floods shares her story Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inboxEdgar SandovalFollow topic:FloodsPublished Jul 05, 2025, 10:55 AMUpdated Jul 05, 2025, 06:30 PMKERRVILLE, Texas – Her children appeared lively and happy when they hopped on a large white pick-up truck on the evening of July 4, outside an elementary school used as a reunification centre for parents whose children had been rescued from a camp . But their mother, Ms Serena Hanor Aldrich, cautioned that there was no telling how they would be affected by what might be a tragedy enveloping Camp Mystic, a Christian retreat in Central Texas.Ms Aldrich, a lawyer from San Antonio, said her two daughters, aged nine and 12, have not said much about what they had endured, and she did not want to press them just yet. But she had a few choice words for the people running the camp, where about 20 of 750 children remained missing on the night of July 4.“They should have been watching the Texas Division of Emergency Management and Kerr County,” she said, referring to the authorities who had been warning of potential flash floods. “They were posting stuff yesterday morning. They should have been on top of it.”Ms Aldrich’s older daughter was in a section of the camp called Senior Hill, and her younger daughter in a section she called the flats, when campers and a counsellor were forced to find higher ground to escape rising waters that were overtaking the camp grounds.“They came down when the water receded,” Ms Aldrich said. “And then they made it to one of the buildings that wasn’t flooded anymore. They were up there for a couple of hours.”The girls were eventually taken by bus to another camp and then brought to the reunification centre at an elementary school in Ingram.Ms Aldrich said she was notified that her two daughters were accounted for earlier on July 4, but she was desperate to see them in person.Her good news was tempered by the uncertainty around her. “There still are campers missing,” she said., Mother of 2 Rescued Campers in Texas Relays Their Story Serena Hanor Aldrich said her daughters were trapped by floodwaters for a couple of hours at Camp Mystic, where as many as 25 girls are missing., KERRVILLE, Texas – Her children appeared lively and happy when they hopped on a large white pickup truck on the evening of July 4 outside an elementary school used as a reunification center for .