Two San Diego boys survived the Texas flash floods that swept through various youth summer camps early Friday morning.
11-year-old Kaelan Kubena was staying in a summer camp in Central Texas called Camp La Junta. It’s about five miles north of Camp Mystic, where many girls are still missing. He is among 400 campers impacted by the intense flooding in the area.
Kaelan is grateful to be safe and reunited with his family, but he’s still very worried for the others who have not been found.
He has been going to Camp La Junta for more than four years.
The all-boys summer program focuses on outdoor activities, but this year, his experience was cut short due to the floods. He said the heavy rain kept most of the boys in his cabin awake early Friday morning.
“It was kind of all night; it was just heavy rain and thunder,” Kaelan said.
At one point, camp counselors rushed into his cabin to get them to higher ground when the campground started to flood around 4 a.m. That’s when he quickly realized the seriousness of the situation.
“We looked outside, and we just saw like an ocean out there. It’s just like completely destroying everything so you went on to the back lane, which is like just more elevation after that, and we sat there like safely for about two hours,” Kaelan said.
He never imagined the rain would turn his camp experience into a life-threatening situation.
“Honestly, we saw a whole cabin just floating down enough to where we knew things were getting actually real out there. We started to realize this was a real natural disaster crisis,” Kaelan said.
Their camp is located on the banks of the Guadalupe River, which surged by nearly 30 feet in less than two hours, sweeping everything along its path.
He said at one point, counselors swam back to save younger campers in more flooded cabins.
Nearby at Camp Mystic, images show cabins washed out, with multiple beds, pillows, and blankets covered in mud.
“The way we get into our camp, it’s like three different ways, but mostly we go through on top of dam and that dam was completely flooded at the moment,” he said.
Kaelan said his group was safely evacuated after the flood water receded. He said one of his friend’s sister was attending Camp Mystic and was fortunately saved. But, he said another friend’s relative is still missing.