NEED TO KNOW
- A retired Houston police officer who worked as a security guard at Camp Mystic is sharing his account of the deadly flooding on July 4
- “I’m a big crier, a big crier. And I’m too numb to cry,” Glenn Juenke told The New York Times
- As a result of the flooding, 27 campers and counselors died at the all-girls Christian summer camp
A Texas security guard who was trapped inside a cabin at a Texas summer camp amid rising floodwaters is speaking out about surviving the deadly ordeal.
Glenn Juenke, a security guard at Camp Mystic, a girls-only Christian summer camp where 27 campers and counselors died as a result of the July 4 flooding, told The New York Times that in the hours before the camp was overwhelmed, he didn’t have cell service and missed the National Weather Service’s first flash flood warning.
However, the severity of the storm soon became obvious.
After calling his wife to tell her that he would be staying the night, Juenke, 57, was initially in the office with other staff members, keeping an eye on the storm.
Then, around 2:30 a.m., Juenke went with his boss, Camp Mystic director Dick Eastland — who died while helping campers — and Eastland’s son to begin evacuating campers by car. As the floodwaters kept rising, it became unsafe to continue driving to more cabins, so Juenke eventually went to another, called the Wiggle Inn, on foot.
A view inside of a cabin at Camp Mystic, July 2025.
RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty
Juenke quickly realized the safest course of action would be to stay put and ride out the storm together with the campers inside the cabin.
As the retired Houston Police Department officer told the newspaper, he “just started thinking what I would always tell my kids,” which was that, “I’m coming home at the end of my shift.”
Although he “was terrified,” he tried not to let that show, explaining, “If I show that I am scared to death, that’s not going to do any good for the 9-year-old girls who were terrified.”
Juenke wasn’t the only one who tried to keep the young girls calm, telling the outlet that one of the Camp Mystic counselors led them in prayer.
“We’re not going anywhere,” he yelled above the raging water, according toThe Times. “We’re going to be OK.”
A view inside of a cabin at Camp Mystic, July 2025.
RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty
Juenke said that the deaths of the children, counselors and staff members he knew has weighed heavily on him.
“I’m a big crier, a big crier,” Juenke said. “And I’m too numb to cry.”
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He previously told CNN in a July interview that while at the Wiggle Inn, he placed some of the girls on mattresses to help them float.
“Each of those sweet girls [were] cold, wet, and frightened — but they were also incredibly brave,” he added, per WSVN. “They trusted me, and we leaned on each other through a long, harrowing night together inside their cabin.”
