Terrified Girls, Helicopters and a Harrowing Scene: A Rescuer's Account at Camp Mystic

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Scott Ruskan, a Coast Guard swimmer, is credited with saving 165 people at the all-girls’ camp from deadly floods in Central Texas.

Video: https://nyti.ms/3TnjboH

It was his first rescue operation. Scott Ruskan, a 26-year-old Coast Guard rescue swimmer based in Corpus Christi, Texas, woke up to banging on his door in the early hours of July 4. There was flooding around San Antonio and he was being deployed, he was told. Did he have a chain saw?

Mr. Ruskan was part of a crew that was tasked with evacuating hundreds of people at Camp Mystic, an all-girls’ Christian summer camp along the Guadalupe River that has become a hub of loss in the catastrophic floods that killed more than 80 people across Central Texas. About 750 girls were at the camp this session, officials said. Mr. Ruskan and his team took off on a helicopter around 7 a.m. Central on Friday to the camp, near Hunt, Texas. It took them nearly six hours to reach San Antonio because of poor visibility and challenging weather conditions. “A white-knuckle experience,” he said.

By the end of their operations, Mr. Ruskan was credited with saving 165 people from Camp Mystic. Mr. Ruskan was part of the more than 1,700 emergency responders, bystanders, family members and others who used helicopters and drones, arrived on horseback and in trucks, and searched from boats and golf carts for those who remained unaccounted as search-and-rescue operations entered into a fourth day.

Many rescue stories over the past 48 hours have been harrowing. A 22-year-old woman was saved after clinging to a tree overnight. A young girl was found after floating on a mattress for hours. A mother and her 19-year-old son survived by clinging onto each other and a tree. A counselor at Camp Mystic helped evacuate her 14 young campers to safety.


Scott Ruskan, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer credited with saving 165 people at Camp Mystic.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/us/texas-floods-rescues.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Uk8.XocN.Fun-TPtHsSxA&smid=url-share