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Camp La Junta parents from Houston area head to Hunt to pick up son after deadly flooding
Amy and Joe Etheridge haven’t spoken with their son, but they know he and other campers are safe.
CAT SPRING, Texas — Kerr County is home to several youth camps along the Guadalupe River.
Camp Mystic reported that 23 campers are unaccounted for after the area was hit by catastrophic flooding in the middle of the night.
Rescue crews raced to the area to search for the missing as parents from the Houston area headed to the area to reunite with their campers.
Amy and Joe Etheridge say they dropped off their son, Windom, at Camp La Junta in Hunt, about 13 miles west of Kerrville, last week.
After the camp was swept away by the flooding, parents were alerted through text messages on Friday morning.
“We haven’t heard from our son directly, but Campbell Hunter has been doing a great job with keeping us updated. We found out that he’s OK,” Amy told KHOU 11.
Online, the camp confirmed that everyone is safe and accounted for.
“I just can’t imagine in the dark, in the middle of the night, those kids,” Amy said.
The parents decided to head to Hunt to pick up Windom.
“We didn’t realize that camp had been impacted as bad as it had,” Amy said. “So, we feel like he might be upset, so we’re going to go pick them up now.”
The family has deep ties to Camp La Junta. Relatives previously owned it and several members, including Joe, attended as campers.
He said they’re usually prepared for flooding since they’re on the river.
“It flooded several times,” Joe said. “But there is a certain amount of preparedness that they, I mean, they understand, that that river can flood and there’s always contingencies.”
Now, they hope other children and parents can also be reunited.
“We are thinking about and praying for all the other camps and people in the area,” Amy said.
What to do if your loved one is missing
The Kerr County Sheriff’s Office says people can call the Red Cross at 800-733-2767.
And public reunification centers are set up at Ingram Elementary School in Ingram and the Arcadia Live Theater in Kerrville.