CNN anchor Pamela Brown was moved to tears during a broadcast Monday night when reporting on the devastating deaths in Kerr County summer camp Camp Mystic.
“It’s been really hard to come back here,” Brown, who attended the all-girls Christian camp when she was a young girl, told fellow CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. “My heart hurts, frankly, because Camp Mystic has left a special place in my heart. I had the privilege of going there I should say, and I recognize that, but I have so many fond memories.”
Situated along the Guadalupe River in central Texas, the camp typically hosts activities like canoeing, horseback riding, and fishing across a four-week tenure in the summer.
In a harrowing statement Monday, the camp announced that at least 27 of its campers and counselors had died because of catastrophic floods that roared throughout the area on the Fourth of July. Local officials additionally indicated that 10 of the campers and one counselor remained unaccounted for by Monday afternoon.
“As a kid, I went there to escape everything,” Brown continued. “Parents dropped their kids off to give them that experience away from the news and social media and everything else, so that they can have an experience of a lifetime for four weeks.”
“I had that experience. I had so many joyous memories on the Guadalupe River,” she added, before slowly being brought to tears while recalling the grief the campers’ parents must be feeling.
“I’ve been going back and looking at, you know, through the archives, finding old letters I wrote as a camper at Mystic, and I just can’t stop thinking about these parents—” Brown said, taking an emotional pause. “Who could be getting letters from their little girls in the mail. Little girls that are no longer alive. It‘s just too much to bear.”
Following a short pause, a solemn Cooper responded, “Pamela Brown, thank you for being there,” before cutting to a commercial break.
Flooding struck central Texas on July 4 after torrential downpour caused the Guadalupe River to rise around 26 feet within just 45 minutes. The death toll surpassed 100 Monday, with at least 104 individuals across six counties being confirmed dead.
84 notably died in Kerr County, where Camp Mystic was located, which saw the highest number of fatalities.
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