Eight-year-old Sarah Marsh, one of the young campers caught in flash flooding in Texas, died on Friday.
She is the daughter of Patrick and Jill Marsh of Mountain Brook. Patrick is an assistant professor at Birmingham's Samford University.
Sarah was a student at Cherokee Bend Elementary School. She was one of 23 girls reported missing from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp located on the Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country. The river experienced unexpected and rapid flooding after receiving up to a month's worth of rain in a short period on Thursday. This area is northwest of San Antonio.
Sarah Marsh’s grandmother, Debbie Marsh Ford, posted on Facebook:
"Thank you for the outpouring of love and sympathy! We will always feel blessed to have had this beautiful spunky ray of light in our lives. She will live on in our hearts forever! We love you so much, sweet Sarah!"
Sarah would have entered third grade in August.
Camp Mystic is in Hunt, Texas, on the Guadalupe River, which swelled to its second-highest level on record Friday. Everyone at the 18 other camps along the river is accounted for.
Rescue workers continue trying to locate those left stranded or swept away by the catastrophic flooding that began early in the morning on the Fourth of July.
The floods have killed at least 24 people in Kerr County, Texas, authorities said in a news conference Friday night.
Twenty-two girls from the private Christian summer camp were still unaccounted for Friday night.
As of late Friday, 237 people had been evacuated or rescued, according to Major General Thomas M. Suelzer with the Texas Military Department. More than two-thirds of those rescues were conducted by helicopter.
At least 14 helicopters, 12 drones and over 500 people from various units were rescuing adults and children, some up in trees, in Kerr County. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says search and rescue teams will comb flooded areas “nonstop” through Saturday.
President Donald Trump said late Friday his administration is working with Gov. Abbott on the response to the deadly flooding. “We’ll take care of them,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One, calling the flooding terrible and shocking. Abbott has issued a disaster declaration.
Condolences and prayers for the Marsh family and friends exploded on Alabama social media on Saturday.
1819 News will continue to update this tragic story.
Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler’s beat is the colorful and positive about Alabama -- her people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at [email protected].
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