By News Editor 
As more and more tales of unprepared minors being swept away by brutal Texas floods, more other stories of relentless courage are surfacing – this time from two 19 year old Mexican counselors who were present to work with the girls for the summer. Two young Mexican women rescue 20 girls amidst Texas floods The floods in Kerville, Texas, have claimed the lives of around 51 people, including 14 minors. The frequency of these intense weather events in Texas is starting to signal a more volatile environment.
Amidst the disaster, the statements of two young Mexican women, who were instructors at the Guadalupe camp and managed to rescue 20 girls, came to light. Silvana Garza and María Paula Zárate, both 19 years old, spoke in a Spanish language interview with Foro TV N+ about their experience. In the interview, the pair recalled some of the more harrowing moments; they stated, [On Friday] “At 3 in the morning, the power went out in all the cabins, the fans stopped working, and the first thing we did was secure the youngest girls.” They subsequently moved the girls to high ground and wrote their names on their arms and provided them with laniards with ID cards.
“We told them to pack a bag with the most important things to evacuate. To write their names on their arms. “
Silvana Garza and Maria Paula Zarate on prepping the girls for rescue in Texas floods.
Silvana Garza mentioned that “the storm started very intensely. We were being told it was really bad and that evacuations would begin. So, we went into the cabin and had to put on a brave face so the girls wouldn’t notice.” She added that “some were looking out the windows, watching what was happening. Some started crying because no one is prepared for this. We had to distract them. The plan was to bring the girls into our cabins.” “We told them to pack a bag with the most important things to evacuate,” she said. María Paula Zárate also commented, “The windows were shaking. We wrote their names on their arms to identify them in case of a tragedy.” “Our area of the river collapsed. It was filled with dirt, all brown. Full of furniture that had come from other camps. It was full of branches,” the young women recalled. They added, “We woke up in the morning and were told they were bringing us food because there was no power in the entire camp.”
Garza noted, “What they told us at the time was that there were 25 missing girls, that they had found two at a nearby camp, and they were safe and alive.” “In the end, they started evacuating the girls by helicopter,” she said. “It’s a horrible situation. We later found out that there are more than 20 missing girls. We pray for them,” the young women said. “Thank God we and our girls are safe. We never imagined the severity of what was happening,” they concluded.
Authorities Face Scrutiny
Many locals question why no real time alerts were sent prior to the flooding event. The sheer size of the flooding on Fourth of July seems to imply that some advanced indication could have been possible. Texas officials are denying that they could be made aware of early indication, but just hours before the event, the National Weather Service issued an emergency flood warning. Early warning systems were considered in Republican Red (and tax averse) Kerr County, but the cost proved daunting to local authorities and voters.