Camp Mystic camp counselor reveals how daughter was saved from Texas floods as she mourns other children

A Texas mother is recounting her family’s horrific ordeal after her three daughters barely escaped the deadly floodwaters that tore through Camp Mystic, killing dozens and turning an adored institution into rubble.

Lisa Miller, a former camper and counselor at Camp Mystic, was still in disbelief over the horror that occurred while she and her husband were overseas celebrating their anniversary.

According to People, sitting on the banks of the Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country, Camp Mystic has been a beloved summer tradition for generations of young girls, including Miller’s children.

Miller describes receiving an initial, vague report of “some flooding” at the camp, and she supposedly dismissed it as “not a big deal” because the area experiences small floods pretty regularly. But then she learned, from a friend, that two of her youngest daughter’s cabin mates had been found downriver. Panic set in as she tried desperately to get camp staff on the phone.

“It wasn't until a friend texted and let me know that two girls from her youngest daughter's cabin were found down river that I realized something very catastrophic had occurred," Lisa Miller told People.

Relieved that her daughters survived, Miller is consumed by grief for the victims. According to The Guardian, 27 campers and counselors were killed. 

"The layers of this loss are unfathomable — the absolute heartbreak of the loss of these little girls, and their families' sorrow, is of course paramount on all of our minds." Miller said.

The Camp Mystic counselors rescued Lisa Miller's kids

Lisa Miller's eldest daughter, Eliza, 14, was in a cabin higher up at the camp and managed to steer clear of the worst of the disaster. But her younger daughters, Genevieve, 12, and Birdie, 9, were in cabins closer to the ground, where floodwaters had come quickly (People).

Counselors acted heroically, waking campers in the predawn hours as water rose in their cabins, Miller says. In Birdie’s situation, the water outside her door grew so high that a counselor was forced to break a window and rescue the children through the window to evacuate them.

"The girls were scared, of course — I can't say enough about these heroic counselors who had them singing camp songs and praying to keep them calm until the water receded, which it finally did." Miller added.

27 bedrooms will be too quiet tonight.

27 backpacks that won't be unpacked with stories spilling out. Twenty-seven "Mom, you'll never guess what happened!" moments that won't come. Twenty-seven goodnight kisses that won't be given.

We sent our girls to Camp Mystic the way… pic.twitter.com/XYYAASjgf5

— Joe_S_Pure🩸 (@Joe_S_Pure) July 7, 2025

One of the victims of the flood included Richard “Dick” Eastland, the director of Camp Mystic and a member of the family that has run the camp for generations. Richard Eastland supposedly died trying to save five girls.

The nearly 100-year-old camp, long considered a rite of passage for generations of Texas families, is now partially destroyed. Tributes and support have poured in from across the world as search teams continue to search through debris for the missing individuals.