An eight-year-old girl from Alabama is among the victims of the deadly flood that swept through a summer camp along the Guadalupe River in central Texas early Friday.
Sarah Marsh of Mountain Brook was attending Camp Mystic,
a Christian retreat
near Hunt in Kerr County.
A relative, Debbie Ford Marsh,
confirmed on Facebook on Friday night
that Sarah had been lost in the flood. The news was first reported by the Kerrville Daily Times, which noted that Marsh is her grandmother.
“We will always feel blessed to have had this beautiful spunky ray of light in our lives,” Marsh said in a
Facebook post
on Saturday morning. “She will live on in our hearts forever!”
The Marsh family asked for privacy and said they were grateful for the love and support in a statement via ABC 33/40 chief meteorologist James Spann.
“Our family is completely devastated by the loss of Sarah and her dear friends at Camp Mystic,” the family said. “This is a tragedy that no parent can prepare for and it will never be right this side of Heaven.”
Spann said
in the post on X
that Marsh was a student at Cherokee Bend Elementary School in Mountain Brook.
Samford University
President Beck Taylor said
that Marsh is the daughter of an
assistant professor
at the Baptist university in Homewood, Patrick Marsh. Marsh teaches in Samford’s School of Health Professions’ kinesiology department, per the university’s website.
“Please join the Samford community as we pray for the Marsh family,” Taylor wrote in a
post on X
on Saturday afternoon.
Torrential rain and storms that started late Thursday provoked the river to swell from seven feet to 29 feet
in less than two hours
.
As of Saturday morning, the death toll has reached
at least 24 people
, and as many as 25 girls are still missing from the camp.
Mountain Brook Mayor Stewart Welch
said in a statement
that the city was “heartbroken” over the loss.
“Sarah’s passing is a sorrow shared by all of us, and our hearts are with those who knew and loved her,” Welch said. “In the days ahead, I know Mountain Brook will do what it always does which is come together with compassion, strength, and unwavering support for the Marsh Family.”
Alabama Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth thanked first responders in a
post on X
for their work to recover people from the flood, calling for prayer for Marsh’s family.
U.S. Sen. Katie Britt posted about the tragedy Saturday.
U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer wrote that he and his wife are “filled with grief” over Marsh’s passing.
Vice President J.D. Vance also offered condolences to the victims of the flood and their families in a post on X Saturday morning.
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