Mum-of-three details how daughter, 9, miraculously survived devastating floods after waters began reaching shoulder-height
A woman whose three daughters miraculously managed to make it out of the deadly Texas floods unscathed over the weekend has recounted the story of their survival.
Lisa Miller and her husband had dropped their girls - Eliza, 14, Genevieve, 12, and Birdie, nine - off at Camp Mystic, a Christian all-girls summer camp last week before jetting off to France to celebrate their anniversary.
Being born and bred in Texas, the trio had attended the camp several times before.
On Friday (4 Jul), however, alongside a plethora of other local properties, several of the educational facility's buildings and accommodation areas were tragically swept away after a storm saw the banks of the Guadalupe River burst.
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The waters had to a staggering 26 feet (eight metres) in just 45 minutes, unleashing floodwater onto the camp and killing over 100 residents of the area. Amongst them were 27 members - both young campers and counsellors - of Camp Mystic.
Despite catching wind of the floods from Europe, having been raised in the area, Miller thought nothing of the seriousness of the water levels.
It wasn't until a friend let her know that two young girls who were staying in the same cabin as her youngest, Birdie, had been found down the Guadalupe River that she realised how 'catastrophic' the storm had been.
Fearing her children dead, Miller eventually managed to get through to camp director Mary Liz Eastland, who confirmed that Eliza, Genevieve and Birdie had thankfully been accounted for. Eastland's husband Richard 'Dick' Eastland, 70, a father-of-four and the camp's owner, sadly died whilst heroically saving the lives of some young campers.
Miller later found out the ins and outs of her daughters' survival.
Her eldest, Eliza, had been residing in a cabin on 'Senior Hill', the 'highest point' of the facility.
"They were totally isolated from the rest of the camp," she told PEOPLE Magazine this week.
"Their impression was it was just a very bad storm they were weathering together — at the time, it was a bit more of an adventure, or a crazy camp memory, than anything tragic. They were taking pictures and had no idea what was happening below."
Her middle child, Genevieve was in an area known as 'the flats'. A camp counsellor had woken these residents up at around 2:00am to warn them that their cabin was starting to fill with water, and that they needed to be evacuated.
She was initially transferred to a recreational hall, before being moved to a balcony above when that became flooded.
Miller recalled: "Water began rising quickly, coming so close to the balcony that they could touch it, and the waves were lapping just beneath them against the balcony.
"The girls were scared, of course — I can't say enough about these heroic counsellors who had them singing camp songs and praying to keep them calm until the water receded, which it finally did."
When it came to her youngest, Birdie - who was situated in the collection of cabins closest to the river - Miller says she was woken up at 2:30am by the heavy sound of the rainwater.
Deciding to get up and use the bathroom, the youngster realised that her cabin had filled up quickly. She and her young roommates decided to place their belongings onto the bed to keep them safe.
Counsellors attempted to open to the door to these cabins to help the children escape, but the water levels were already too high. Thankfully, one was able to smash a window, and Birdie and several of her friends managed to wriggle out of the shoulder-high water.
The group were flown out of the area on a Black Hawk helicopter, where Birdie was reunited with her siblings.
"I am still reeling," Miller told press. "The layers of this loss are unfathomable — the absolute heartbreak of the loss of these little girls, and their families' sorrow, is of course paramount on all of our minds."
Rhianna Benson