A Lakeway woman shares her experience as both a flood survivor, and a former Camp Mystic camper.
AUSTIN, Texas — For Ashley Smith, her heart is tied to the Hill Country in many ways: she grew up in Kerrville, she went to Camp Mystic for eight years and served as a counselor at Heart O’ the Hills for two years.
This past Fourth of July weekend, she and her friends rented a cabin on the river which she lovingly calls the “Guad.”
“It wasn’t raining, there was … there weren’t even like dark clouds in the sky,” Smith recalled.
Early Friday morning, Smith woke up when her friend knocked on their door. Her husband went to open it.
“There was like six inches of water,” Smith said. “Like smelly, dark water on the floor.”
As water shattered the windows, and with Smith’s friend trapped in a bedroom, she called 911. She remembers the water rising so fast, they could no longer stand.
“Once I was in the attic, I gave 911 our names and our address so that they could identify our bodies,” Smith said.
After realizing there was no way out of the attic, the group pushed floating furniture and swam out the window. They eventually spent the next couple of hours on the roof in the rain, and she remembers hearing a woman screaming for help.
“I remember yelling at her to pray because that was all we had at that point,” Smith said.
Eventually, they got off the roof and were taken to a Methodist Church. But looking back, when she closes her eyes, Smith said she can envision those camp cabins, and grieve the deaths of Heart O’ the Hills director Jane Ragsdale and Camp Mystic’s leader Dick Eastland.
“I can see the flood waters and know how bad it was,” Smith said. “I can’t imagine what Dick and Jane’s last moments were like trying to save their campers.”
With knowledge that Camp Mystic will be forever changed, Smith holds faith that the heart, the spirit and the love will still be the same.
“There’s no other place on Earth I would want my little girl to be, where she’s loved so much that somebody else would die trying to save her,” Smith said.
Smith went on to emphasize her belief that the tragedy is no one’s fault, and if she had a daughter, she would still send her to Camp Mystic. Special green ribbons are being hung near Casis Elementary in Austin in honor of the victims, and she asks that people consider decorating their trees to show support for the camp.