In the early morning hours of July 4, as the river raged outside her window, Davis Kirk said she made two calls to 911, and dispatchers eventually told her to evacuate her home. The storm had knocked out power in the area, and she was unable to open the garage door to get her car out. Davis Kirk leaned into her faith and set out on foot.
“I believe that people want to help each other, and I just trusted that,” she said.
Ella Webb hugs another camper during a devotional service at Camp Mystic in 2023. (Courtesy photo)
Within minutes a passerby picked her up and drove her to a friend’s house on higher ground. Davis Kirk was much luckier than some of her neighbors. The water never reached her house but did considerable damage to those pecan and cypress trees and left a lot of debris in her yard.
While the future of the camp that fostered her religious life is uncertain, Davis Kirk said tragedies like this don’t challenge her faith.
“My faith doesn’t get weaker,” Davis Kirk said, “because I wonder how people go through things like this without the Lord.”
Davis Kirk said the outpouring of people offering to help with the cleanup has been overwhelming. She does not downplay the intense tragedy of these floods, but she does see a silver lining.
“It’s really built a lot of relationships that probably couldn’t have been built any other way,” Davis Kirk said.
While officials try to determine why alerts were not sent and crews dig through mountains of uprooted trees, Christi is focused on the people of Kerr County and the power of her Camp Mystic community.
“The faith I have is really in the bonds I’ve created with these people,” she said. “There is strength and something that ties the campers together, and that’s Jesus.”
A Camp Mystic sign is seen near the entrance to the establishment along the banks of the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area in Hunt, Texas, Saturday, July 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
This article originally appeared here.
