Mother, son tell how historic floods swept through La Junta boys camp

HUNT, Texas — More harrowing stories of survival are being told in the wake of historic flash flooding in central Texas that claimed at least 120 lives, including dozens of children who were at Camp Mystic, a historic summer camp nestled along the Guadalupe River.

Camp La Junta in Hunt is another of the summer camps that was ripped apart by the floods. The Rabon family had sent their two sons, 7-year-old Brock and 9-year-old Braeden, to that camp just two days before the tragedy took place.

Their mother, Keli, was reunited with her sons after they thankfully survived.

Braeden told FOX Weather he was awakened around 4 a.m. by kids screaming outside.

“And I’m like, what’s going on out there, is this a prank?” he said. “So, I look outside and I see the rain, lightning everywhere, and really loud thunder. So I thought maybe this is a real situation, because around 6 in the morning, I saw 75 campers at least walking in this back lane behind my cabin and a couple other cabins.”

Braeden said he was in a more elevated cabin, but his little brother was in one of the cabins that flooded the worst.

Photo shows damage to Camp La Junta in Kerr County after flooding. 

(Nearmap / FOX Weather)

“It was a very terrifying situation for both of the boys,” Keli Rabon said. “I mean, for Braeden, he didn’t know what was going on with his brother, Brock.”

She said Brock had just graduated from kindergarten, it was his first time at camp, and they had only been there a full day at that point.

“But in Brock’s cabin, which was one of the most low-lying cabins at Camp La Junta, they took on a dramatic amount of water,” Kelly said. “So much so that the boys, thanks to the counselors who acted very quickly and heroically, moved from lower bunk to upper bunk to then ultimately into the rafters of the cabin.”  The camp owner got them all to safety, but the cabin began to break apart and sustain heavy damage.

Kelly said she first knew something was wrong when she received a text message from the camp early that morning.

“It didn’t really explain the gravity of the situation, and I’m sure they were trying to keep all of the parents calm because it said that all the boys were OK,” she said. “But still immediately, I’m four hours away at that point, your mind starts to race and wonder what is going on and how bad could the situation be? And once I saw the news of Camp Mystic and the message that they had sent out to parents, even indicating that if your daughter was missing, we’ve been in contact with you, that immediately alerted me to how devastating this situation could possibly be.”

She said she jumped into her car and drove to the scene as fast as she could. As she was heading there, she was getting messages that the National Guard would be doing a drop of food and water into the camp.

“It’s a message that as a parent, you would never expect to get, given that you just dropped your kids off at camp two days before,” she said. “We’re just thankful that things turned out, you know, turned out OK… Our hearts and thoughts and prayers are with the Hill Country, and we hope that the rest of the nation keeps them top of mind for a long time to come.”

While all kids survived at Camp La Junta, Camp Mystic said 27 children and a counselor died in the floods. Five remain missing.