Catherine Wendlandt, a freelance writer in Texas who has written stories for Chron, attended Camp Mystic as a camper from 2004 to '13, then served as a counselor from 2014 to '16. Wendlandt shared this tribute to camp counselors, some of whom lost their lives in catastrophic Guadalupe River flooding on July 4.

Many of the 650 campers and staffers at Camp Mystic were asleep when, at 1:14 a.m., a flash-flood warning for Kerr County, Texas, with “catastrophic” potential for loss of life was issued by the National Weather Service.

First lady Melania Trump donned a bracelet to honor the “the young souls who now watch over us from heaven” after several girls died in the Texas floods. A flood from last week led to the deaths of at least 129 people as of Saturday night.

Betty Matteson’s four children, nine grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren have squeezed into her Texas Hill Country home countless times since 1968.

Texas Rangers have identified Kellyanne Elizabeth Lytal, 8, as a victim of Camp Mystic after 27 girls went missing after the Guadalupe River flooded the Christian retreat.

Katherine Ferruzzo, a Camp Mystic counselor who had been unaccounted for a week after the deadly Hill Country floods, was confirmed dead, her family announced.

The family of Dick and Tweety Eastland, the owners of Camp Mystic, where at least 27 died during the devastating Texas floods, is focusing on helping the families of campers and counselors while trying to process their own grief.

Bubble Inn saw generations of 8-year-olds enter as strangers and emerge as confident young ladies equipped with new skills from the great outdoors and lifelong friends – bonds that would one day prove vital in the face of unfathomable tragedy.