On a pitch-black night, locals just five miles upriver from Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas watched the ominous approach of a deadly flood wall, illuminated only by flashes of lightning, as it surged toward the all-girls Christian camp.
More than 100 people lost their lives and nearly twice as many others went missing in the Hill Country surge that struck in the early hours of July Fourth. Camp Mystic confirmed 27 fatalities among its campers and counselors, as of Tuesday.
A woman who wished only to be identified as Shelby told Fox News Digital she was visiting a home on the Guadalupe River in Hunt.
"We were really high up, but there was water coming into the garage," Shelby said. "At about 3 a.m., my sister-in-law said that we needed to go outside and look at the river, and we couldn't see it outside of the flashes of lightning. Hunt kind of prides itself on having low upward lighting so that you can see the stars. Only through the lightning flashes could we see how high the water was, which makes sense as to why it happened so fast."
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By the time the family got to their back porch, the water was all the way up the cliffside.
"Not knowing at the time, that was the wall of water that was headed toward Mystic," she said. "You couldn't see our dam, you couldn't see any of the trees, even the tops of them that were down by the water. There were massive cypress trees folded over because the water was rushing so fast, and it was so high."
The family stood watching the water rise, fearing it could take their home.
"It was loud, and there was a lot of thunder, but this is the night before the Fourth of July, at four in the morning," Shelby said. "People were probably partying and having fun the night before, maybe sleeping a little extra hard because of it. We have neighbors that lost their lives and were found deceased in their beds because it all rose too fast, and they didn't wake up."
She added another neighbor was saved after being woken up by a friend who heard water gushing through her window.
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"Water was pouring into their living room, and within 45 minutes, it was already on the second floor," Shelby said. "She got on her roof and then had to hop to the carport, and was just waving a flashlight. Luckily, someone next door was in their canoe, and praise God, pulled her off her roof and was able to get her out."
The woman's home was completely submerged within an hour, Shelby said. Nothing remains.
Hours after the flood, locals reported seeing rescue helicopters and the American Red Cross arrive.
Shelby and her husband realized things were likely worse than they thought when he spotted Black Hawk helicopters above.
"We knew something was bad, and we didn't have cell phone service or internet," she said. "We have a Polaris Ranger vehicle, so we were able to get out on the main highway, and we could quickly see that cars wouldn't be able to drive… It was basically pieces of asphalt that looked like paper plates just thrown everywhere. There were chunks of them missing. The road to Mystic was completely destroyed. There was no highway, it was just dirt next to a river that had no trees anymore."
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Shelby, whose family was trapped until Saturday, described the scene as "unbelievable."
Once the water receded, local residents used tractors and other farming machinery to pull trees out of the way and move dirt, so transportation was possible.
"We gathered boards to lay down on the asphalt to use as a ramp, because it was seven to eight inches, which would pop a tire if you just went directly onto it," Shelby said. "That was the only way we were able to get out of Hunt. We couldn't go south, down toward Mystic and through Hunt. That's why so many more people were stuck."
Still, Shelby said locals were grateful for the amount of lives that were saved amid the disaster.
"It's kind of a consensus around the town that it's amazing they were able to get over 700 kids out in that amount of time," she said. "It's a camp director looking at alerts at 4 a.m., and deciding we need to get the suburban and go get these girls. In order, they started evacuating the cabins closest to the water. By then, they had loaded half of the cabin up in the suburban, and they were washed out. It just all happened too fast.
"They ran out of time. They had the protocol in place, but it was just unheard of, how fast all of this was."
Something Shelby said a lot of people might not realize is the stench left behind after a massive flood like the one that happened on the Guadalupe.
"People were trying not to throw up because there's washed-up fish everywhere. [Her husband] said it's vile, the smell. There's so much search and recovery going on, but the cleanup is going to be such a massive piece of this," Shelby said.
Just like many others who live in or frequent Hunt, Shelby said she has faith the town will rebuild. However, she acknowledged it would be forever changed by the disaster.
"Hunt definitely prides itself on being a remote location. It is a very special little area on the Guadalupe River, but there's not a lot of cell service or signal, so I think that will change," she said. "I think improvements will be made so that this never happens again."
"Everyone is like a family in that town," Shelby added. "There wasn't a single property along the river in Hunt that wasn't flying a Texas flag. People are very, very resilient, and that's just kind of the Texas way. I know that it'll be built back, better and safer. Sometimes it takes tragedy to make you realize how vulnerable something is. No one's going to give up on this area, and I hope they don't give up on the camps either, because they really are formative for a lot of people."
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