These Mexican camp counselors put on 'brave faces' to protect girls during Texas floods

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Two 19-year-old Camp Mystic counselors knew tragedy had unfolded in other cabins early in the morning hours of July 4. But they were responsible for the girls in their own bunk, who knew enough to be upset and worried.

So the two teens hid their own fears and focused on distracting and entertaining the younger girls from the moment they awakened until they were evacuated by military vehicles around dinnertime.

“We had to put on brave faces so the girls wouldn’t know,” Silvana Garza told the Mexican news outlet NMás.

Garza and fellow counselor María Paula Zárate, both Mexican nationals at the camp for the summer, have been recognized for their heroism by Mexico's president. Their story has also gone viral on social media.

Their crisis began in the early hours of July 4, as heavy rainfall knocked out the camp's power. The storm sounded like a scary movie, Garza said later.

The camp, nestled between the banks of the Guadalupe River and its Cypress Creek tributary, had just begun its monthlong term for hundreds of girls.

Attending Camp Mystic is a summertime ritual for generations of Texas families. The Christian camp is remote, about 90 miles northwest of San Antonio.

Garza and Zárate were watching girls in the camp's newer site, up in the hills and away from the original campsite down by the Guadalupe River.

It wasn't until hours later that the teens realized the original campsite, where they had slept just the week before, had been destroyed.

At least 27 campers as young as 8 were swept away in the raging floodwaters. Nearly a dozen more remain missing.

For hours, as Garza and Zárate waited for more information, they sang songs and played games with the girls.

They instructed the girls to pack their belongings to prepare to evacuate. They had them put on name badgesand wrote their names on their skin where it was visible, Zárate said. If they had a favorite stuffed animal, counselors instructed them to bring it along with suitcases.

Though the counselors tried to remain positive, the girls were scared.

“They wanted to be with their parents,” Garza said.

Finally around 6 p.m., the counselors were alerted that more flooding was on the way. They had to evacuate.

They passed through the original campsite by the Guadalupe River. Mattresses and clothes hung in the trees, Garza recalled to Univision 41. Tables floated along the river.

“I felt like I was in a dream,” she said in Spanish. “I didn’t think it was real.”

In an evacuation center, 19 miles away in Kerrville, they saw similar damage of houses uprooted and turned aside. Cars were lodged in trees ‒ a sign of how high the water rose, Garza noted.

Eventually, their campers were reunited with their families. Garza and Zárate also saw parents whose children were missing.

"That was the worst part of the day," Garza told Univision 41.

She later added, "I couldn't explain the feeling of being a parent and not seeing your daughter not being there."

Garza had planned to stay for weeks at Camp Mystic, but she said she would return to Mexico early. From one day to the next, everything can change, Garza said.

On the morning of July 7, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo expressed condolences for the lives lost in the floods. She also recognized Garza and Zárate for their efforts helping save camp attendees.

“They make us proud,” she said.

Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Reach him by email at emcuevas1@usatoday.com or on Signal at emcuevas.01.