The confirmed death toll following the devastating floods that swept across central Texas last week has now reached at least 100.

Search and rescue missions are continuing to unfold as emergency services try to locate those still unaccounted for after floodwater rose 26 feet (eight metres) in just 45 minutes in the early hours of Friday (July 4), causing destruction to everything in its path.

Among the dead are 27 campers and counsellors from Camp Mystic, the Christian all-girls summer camp located on the banks of the Guadalupe River.
Many friends, family members and loved ones have since come forward to open up about their monumental losses, with a pair of grieving parents now sharing the devastating final text from their 21-year-old daughter before she was tragically taken away by the flash floods.

The body of Joyce Catherine Badon, who sent the final text message to her family before she was washed away, has now been found.

According to a leader of a search team, the woman in question, Joyce was staying with college friends when the flood struck in Hunt, Texas, and became trapped at a house along the Guadalupe River.

On Monday (July 7), Joyce’s father, Ty, told NBC News that she had been found dead with her mother, Kellye, taking to Facebook to share a tribute following the heartbreaking loss of their ‘lovely’ daughter.

“God showed us the way we should go this morning!” Kellye wrote. “We found our lovely daughter who blessed us for 21 years! We pray to be able to find her three friends soon. Thanks to EVERYONE for the prayers and support. God is good!”

Louis Deppe, the leader of a group of volunteers who were searching for Joyce, told Agence France-Presse that the house where she was staying ‘collapsed’ around 4am local time on Friday.

Deppe added: “On her cellphone, the last message [her family] got was ‘we’re being washed away’ and the phone went dead.”

The official death toll following the floods has now exceeded 100, with at least 104 confirmed fatalities in total.

In Kerr County alone, there have now been 84 deaths, which is a significant increase from the previously reported 68.

There are also seven confirmed casualties in Travis County, four in Burnet County, two in Williamson County, six in Kendall County and one in Tom Green County.

Camp Mystic has seen 27 deaths and 11 people are still missing (10 campers and one counsellor).

A 13-year-old girl is sharing her experience being evacuated from Camp Mystic following the deadly flash floods in Texas on Friday (4 July).

81 people have been confirmed dead throughout the state. In Kerr County, which is where Camp Mystic and other youth camps in the Texas Hill Country are based, searchers have found the bodies of 68 people, including 28 children, Sheriff Larry Leitha said.

Camp Mystic confirmed to NBC News that 27 people had died at the camp.

Stella Thompson arrived there last week. It was her sixth year at the Christian girls’ summer camp located in Texas Hill Country, but the trip took an unexpected turn when she and her fellow campers woke up to the sounds of the weather outside their cabin.

The cabin Thompson was staying in was on higher ground on the Cypress Lake side of the camping ground, while other campers were sleeping closer to the Guadalupe River.

Thompson and her fellow campers noticed that the power in their cabin had dropped overnight and camp leaders told them to stay indoors. On the morning of 4 July they heard helicopters flying overhead and realised they were in a serious situation.
“I think it’s the uncertainty that really shook up our cabin,” she told NBC affiliate KXAS.

They soon learned that their fellow campers on the Guadalupe River side had to be evacuated.

“Eventually when we got that news we were all kind of hysterical and the whole cabin was praying a lot and terrified — but not for ourselves.”

Emergency vehicles arrived hours later and rescued Thompson and her campmates in the cabin. The camp where she had spent so many summers previously was left in a ‘horrific’ state after the flash flood.

“You’d see kayaks in trees and it was kind of horrific because we had no idea.”

She added: “It didn’t look like Camp Mystic anymore.”