Talking Dateline: After the Flood

Dateline NBC - NBC News

Dateline explores the tragic July 4, 2025 flood in Texas' Hill Country that killed 27 girls at Camp Mystic. The episode examines failed warnings, inadequate planning, and ongoing community grief and division.

Key takeaways

• Flood warning system was proposed but never funded

Transcript preview

Hi everyone I'm NBC News National Correspondent Morgansky. Today on Talking Dateline, we're joined by Lester Holtz on his latest episode after the flood, which really digs into the devastating flood on July 4th 2025 that ravaged the Texas Hill Country as well as Camp Mystic and all girls camp where 27 young girls lost their lives. If you haven't seen it, you can watch the episode on Peacock or on the Dateline podcast feed and then come right back here. Later, we'll have an extra clip from Lester's interview with the former county commissioner about his efforts to get a flood warning system in the county years ago. Okay, let's talk Dateline. Lester, always good to be with you, but particularly on a story that I know we've both had a chance to kind of cover extensively. Yeah, this was a tough one. This was a tough one. I know that in your date This feels markedly different. You're coming off of a seller coverage of the Luigi Manjoni case out of New York, but then you have this tragedy in Texas that I feel like the whole world has been watching to some degree. How did you kind of prepare for that going in? Well, you know, many of the stories we cover, of course, are tragic. The story, chief among them was the sense of loss, the fact that there were small children involved. You know, we're talking eight, nine, ten year olds, who were no way to escape the rising waters around them. We profile one of the counselors, Ainsley, who was helping to rustle a group of kids under her charge and get them to safety. We also discovered things that went wrong there in terms of planning or lack of planning. So we on Earth a lot during our time in Texas covering this story. Yeah, this episode I felt like really introduced people to the Hill Country. that I grew up in, swimming in the Guadalupe River every summer as a kid. You followed this story from the moment it began. I'm curious, what struck you when you arrived yourself to Texas and drove that highway that parallels the river when you arrived at Camp Mystic? It's funny, you talk about that highway paralleling the river. People told us they could normally not even see the river because the vegetation was so lush, but when we drove through there. you know after all this had happened the trees were torn and twisted there were belongings that were stuck in trees and bushes and you could clearly see the river and everyone you talked to would use their hands to show you how high the water was and you'd be like wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait, that again how high? And now you're imagining you know eight nine ten year olds trying to escape in this rushing water. It was really just shock that this water could overtake this area so quickly. Now our focus of course is on camp mystic however there were there were other places that were struck by the rising waters along the Guadalupe River in this case it was a it was a girls camp there were other camps that were affected by the water but none had the loss of light that we saw at camp mistake right camp la junta a boy's camp just downriver from mystic had you know the boys clinging to rafters inside their cabins there to escape the water but when you you see these mystic cabins, it was just a ceiling. There were no rafters for them to cling to. Lester, as we kind of talk about the camps that you mentioned here, I think for a lot of people, you know, you say summer camp is something that, you know, many kids are a part of all across the nation, but in this particular pocket of Texas, Camp mystic has a history, a lineage that has drawn generations of young women there. kind of find as you looked into the history of this particular camp and the impact that it has? There is a clearly a strong tie between that camp and the community. You know it better than I do, but it's a lovely area. I was there just a few weeks ago as part of our follow-up reporting and we could look across the river and the green grass, the cabins, we were able to actually get on the property at one point and see the cabins now that have been... really kind of signs of life standing still. You can still see the mud along the windows. There were crosses that have been erected around the cabins. We got a glimpse at the hill that some of the kids were able to successfully make their way to to get above the water. So it was, you know, it's one thing to tell the story and to hear from people, but it's another thing to get up close and really understand what these kids and their counselors are going through. I think to really understand. understanding the layout of the camp is crucial. This episode really does a great job in showing people exactly where these girls were and when as that water started to rise. The footage that you've included over the course of that night, it's tough to watch, especially when you hear the screams there. How important was it to you to kind of marry those two elements together? and you also want to you know be mindful of our viewers and you know how much anyone can take but that yeah you mentioned the video the cell phone video of the screams of help and you know when I first heard that my only thought was what would I do how would I how would I as an adult you know how would I try to get out of there and and I think that is really the central question to all this was it even possible I think that some people are going to live with the rest of their lives to some degree and a question that the parents of these young girls can't help but ask, you know, every day they wake up. I know that you sat down with eight mothers who lost daughters and seeing them introduce themselves and then share the name of their daughters or something that I think I'll carry with me a real long time. I'm sure you had an idea as to how that interview was going to go, but then to sit there in that space and speak to them, what struck you? I so admired those women and their strengths and their determination to fight on behalf of their children. You know, what they're going through, frankly, none of us can imagine. There's another story that was shared with me during this story. One of the mothers was hoping for her daughter, this would be a moment of here. healing. This mother had lost her husband. She lost her brother and then her daughter all within a six month period of time. Oh my. Can't imagine carrying that kind of burden around, but she did. Yeah, I think that mother was the mother of eight-year-old Blakely and I was struck by just how incredibly composed she was with a world of grief. at hand. Did she share anything with you at all just about how she's getting by day to day? I know she mentioned that she still goes into Blakely's room, even sleeps in her bed. I can't even imagine the healing process there. She wants to make sure that she's talking