Texas flood anniversary recalls Camp Mystic tragedy and Coast Guard hero

A wall of water tore through Camp Mystic in the July 4, 2025 flood, killing 25 campers, two counselors and the camp’s executive director. Scott Ruskan, the U.S. Coast Guard aviation survival technician who helped rescue more than 165 people from the Texas floods, is looking back on the disaster nearly a year later.

Camp Mystic was established in 1926 by E. J. “Doc” Stewart, the former head football coach at the University of Texas. The private Christian summer camp for girls sits on the South Fork of the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, near Hunt, Texas, and had long been a fixture in the Hill Country. During the July 4, 2025 flood, it was among the first places inundated as the Guadalupe rose 26 feet in about 45 minutes.

The Associated Press put the number of dead at at least 136, while CBS News put the toll at more than 130 deaths across the Hill Country region. The storm triggered a major disaster declaration for Texas and FEMA aid for Kerr County. Questions remained about warning systems, evacuation decisions and whether the camp could reopen at all.

Ruskan was on his first mission when he helped pull people from the floodwaters, many of them girls from Camp Mystic. President Donald Trump later honored him during his February 24, 2026 State of the Union address, saying Ruskan saved 164 others and awarding him the Legion of Merit.

Investigators found the camp lacked emergency plans and delayed evacuation before the flood. Families and state officials pushed back against any reopening, and the camp withdrew its application to reopen this summer.