(AP) — A small-town grandmother who disappeared on her technique to work. A beloved director of a Texas summer time camp for women. An Alabama elementary pupil away from residence. These are a couple of of the handfuls of victims misplaced in devastating flooding in Texas.
The flooding in central Texas originated from the fast-moving waters on the Guadalupe River on Friday, killing a minimum of 82 individuals. Authorities say search and rescue efforts are nonetheless underway, together with for campers lacking from a summer time camp for women.
Tanya Burwick
The final time Tanya Burwick’s household heard from her was a frantic telephone name concerning the floodwaters as she headed to work at a Walmart early Friday within the San Angelo space. When Burwick didn’t present up for work, her employer filed a lacking individuals report and despatched a colleague to search for her.
Police investigating the 62-year-old’s disappearance discovered Burwick’s unoccupied SUV totally submerged later that day. Her physique was discovered the subsequent morning blocks from the automobile.
“She lit up the room and had amusing that made different individuals snort,” stated Lindsey Burwick, who added that her mother was a beloved dad or mum, grandparent and colleague to many.
She and her brother Zac stated the day was particularly troublesome as a result of it occurred on July Fourth as they had been working at a fireworks stand that’s been within the household for generations. As phrase of Tanya Burwick’s disappearance unfold, individuals from from Blackwell, a small group of about 250 individuals, confirmed as much as the stand that’s run out of a trailer painted orange.
“Individuals got here to our help,” Lindsey Burwick stated.
Police in San Angelo stated greater than 12,000 homes, barns and different buildings have been affected by the floods in the neighborhood of roughly 100,000 individuals.
“We ask that the general public proceed to maintain the Burwick household of their ideas and prayers as they navigate this heartbreaking tragedy,” the San Angelo Police Division stated in a Fb submit.
Jane Ragsdale
Jane Ragsdale, 68, devoted her life to the Coronary heart O’the Hills Camp, a summer time camp for women in Texas Hill Nation. She was a camper and counselor there herself within the Seventies earlier than turning into a co-owner. By the Nineteen Eighties, she was director of the camp in Hunt.
“She was the center of The Coronary heart,” the camp stated in an announcement. “She was our guiding mild, our instance, and our secure place. She had the uncommon present of creating each particular person really feel seen, liked, and essential.”
For the reason that camp was between periods, no youngsters had been staying there when the floodwaters rose. The camp’s amenities, instantly within the path of the flood, had been extensively broken and entry to the location remained troublesome, in accordance with camp officers. The camp has been in existence for the reason that Fifties.
Camp officers stated Ragsdale can be remembered for her power and knowledge.
“We’re heartbroken. However above all, we’re grateful,” the camp stated. “Grateful to have identified her, to have realized from her, and to hold her mild ahead.”
In a 2015 oral historical past for the Kerr County Historic Fee, Ragsdale, whose first title was Cynthie, however glided by her center title Jane, talked about how her father was additionally a camp director and the way a lot she loved her experiences.
“I liked each minute of camp from the primary time I stepped foot in a single,” she recalled.
Movies of Ragsdale strumming a guitar and singing to campers throughout a current session had been posted in a memorial on the camp’s Fb web page: “Life is nice in the present day. So preserve singing ’til we meet, once more.”
Sarah Marsh
Eight-year-old Sarah Marsh from Alabama had been attending Camp Mystic in Texas, a longtime Christian women camp in Hunt the place a number of others had been killed within the floods. As of Sunday, afternoon, 11 youngsters had been nonetheless lacking.
Marsh was a pupil at Cherokee Bend Elementary in suburban Birmingham.
“That is an unimaginable loss for her household, her college, and our complete group,” Mountain Brook Mayor Stewart Welch stated in a Fb submit. “Sarah’s passing is a sorrow shared by all of us, and our hearts are with those that knew and liked her.”
He stated the group — the place about 20,000 individuals reside — would rally behind the Marsh household as they grieved.
Her mother and father declined an interview request Sunday “as they mourn this insufferable loss,” the woman’s grandmother, Debbie Ford Marsh, informed The Related Press in an e-mail.
“We’ll all the time really feel blessed to have had this lovely spunky ray of sunshine in our lives. She is going to reside on in our hearts eternally!” Marsh wrote on Fb. “We love you a lot, candy Sarah!”
She declined additional remark.
U.S. Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama additionally famous the woman’s tragic demise.
“We proceed to hope for the victims’ family members, the survivors, those that are nonetheless lacking, and our courageous first responders as search and rescue efforts proceed in Texas,” she stated in a submit on social media platform X.
Blair and Brooke Harber
Sisters Blair and Brooke Harber, each college students at St. Rita Catholic College in Dallas, had been staying alongside the Guadalupe River when their cabin was swept away, in accordance with the college.
Pastor Joshua J. Whitfield of St. Rita Catholic Neighborhood, which shares a campus with the college, stated the women’ mother and father, Annie and RJ Harber, had been staying in a special cabin and had been secure. Nevertheless, their grandparents had been unaccounted for. Annie Harber has been a longtime trainer on the college.
“This tragedy has touched each nook of our hearts,” the church stated in an announcement Sunday.
Blair, who was enrolled in superior courses, was concerned in quite a few college actions from volleyball and basketball to speech and drama. Brooke was a rising sixth grader and a pupil athlete in volleyball and lacrosse, amongst different sports activities. She additionally participated in speech and drama, in accordance with the church.
Each had been remembered for his or her type hearts and heat personalities.
“We’ll honor Blair and Brooke’s lives, the sunshine they shared, and the enjoyment they delivered to everybody who knew them,” Whitfield wrote in a Saturday letter to parishioners. “And we’ll encompass Annie, RJ, and their prolonged household with the power and assist of our St. Rita group.”
The church held a particular prayer service Saturday afternoon and supplied counseling.
“Please preserve the Harber household in your prayers throughout this time of profound grief,” Whitfield wrote. “Could our religion, our love, and our St. Rita group be a supply of power and luxury within the days forward.”
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