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Girls Summer Camp In Texas To Open Despite Recent Flooding

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

A different kind of disaster struck in Texas last week - massive flooding. This morning, a snapshot from one community that's recovering, the city of Wimberley in Texas Hill Country. From the Texas Standard, a statewide public radio collaboration, here's Brenda Salinas.

BRENDA SALINAS, BYLINE: This Sunday, 150 girls ages 6 to 16 will move into their summer cabins at Rocky River Ranch. The 50-year-old camp on the Blanco River is a place preserved in time. But this year, the once-green river bank is stripped of its trees. Camp director Shana Watson says the view isn't the only thing the camp lost in the flood.

SHANA WATSON: We had moved all of our kayaks up here because that's usually what we do when it's going to flood, and they're usually safe up here on this hill. And we had, like, a storage shed right here that had our paddles and our life jackets and all of our rappelling equipment, and like the whole shed is gone.

SALINAS: Ex-campers like Bailey Rainey have volunteered to chop up the debris and clear the way for a new campfire.

BAILEY RAINEY: It's always just been the perfect view of the river and the rocks and it's almost a sacred place on camp, so I feel blessed to be able to clean out the area that is going to be that place again because the old one is not so much there anymore.

SALINAS: Director Shana Watson says even though the river is now swollen, dangerous and will be off-limits, so far, they've had no cancellations.

WATSON: The activities are a tool for what's the bigger part about camp. That's what we're going to focus on - the relationships and growing independent girls, and we feel confident we can do that even without the river activities.

SALINAS: Watson hopes the girls will love camp enough to come back next year and experience the river, just like the thousands of girls that came before them. For NPR News, I'm Brenda Salinas. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Brenda Salinas