A CNN reporter shared on air how “surreal” it has been for her to cowl the devastation at a “magical place” like Camp Mystic after attending the Texas camp herself as a younger lady.
Pamela Brown, CNN’s chief investigative correspondent, shared her fond reminiscences of the camp that was ravaged by Friday’s floods throughout a dwell broadcast in an emotional off-the-cuff second.
“It’s surreal coming back here 30 years later. I was a 10-year old little camper here filled with so much hope and joy,” Brown mentioned throughout a dialogue with an anchor. “I remember the excitement and anticipation of coming to Camp Mystic.”
She defined how exhausting it was to wrap her head round how a river that’s the supply of such fond reminiscences for her and different former campers could possibly be the supply of a lot unspeakable tragedy.
“It’s such a magical place, now all these girls – these sweet young campers – who had to evacuate and their families,” she mentioned. “So much innocence has now been lost.”
Brown, together with the press corps from across the nation and the world, have descended upon Texas Hill Nation after a once-in-a-generation catastrophic flood devastated the realm Friday, leaving a path of destruction in its wake, together with Camp Mystic, an historic all-girl Christian camp that catered to Texas’s elite.
No less than 5 women from the camp have been confirmed lifeless — all ages 8 and 9 — and 10 others are nonetheless lacking.
The demise toll from Friday morning’s calamitous flooding rose to at the very least 80 throughout Texas on Sunday night, with 68 of the deaths in Kerr County, the place Camp Mystic’s two campuses as soon as stood.
“For me coming back I’m overwhelmed with emotion and I’m overwhelmed with memories,” Brown mentioned. “I can’t get over looking at those cabins right next to the Guadalupe River, that river was the source of so much joy.”
She and her fellow campers cherished to play video games within the river.
“There was this thing called The Blob, which was like this inflated balloon type thing that we would jump on and then the person at the end would jump off into the water and it was so much fun,” she reminisced.
Brown recounted how she and her fellow campers spent a lot of their time frolicking within the river, and even hunted for dinosaur fossils.
“Thats what we loved. And to think that that same river is the source of this devastation,” she added.
Brown is a multi award-winning CNN anchor and chief investigative correspondent, who at present anchors The Scenario Room, in line with her bio on the CNN web site.
