Roads vanished overnight in southeastern Missouri. By early Friday, more than 200 children and staff at Camp Taum Sauk in Reynolds County had no way to walk out — the water had taken care of that.
A storm system parked itself over the Ozarks and dumped close to a foot of rain in hours, sending the Black River to a crest of nearly 29 feet. The National Weather Service described it as a once-in-a-thousand-years event. Sounds like hyperbole. It wasn't — the numbers backed it up.
Gov. Mike Kehoe declared a state of emergency before dawn Friday and activated the Missouri National Guard. Eight UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, crewed by roughly 35 Guard members, lifted 202 campers and counselors off the flooded grounds and flew them to a nearby elementary school, where families were waiting.
"Missouri's first responders once again answered the call with extraordinary bravery, professionalism and compassion.
— Gov. Mike Kehoe
Camp Taum Sauk sits along the Black River in Lesterville, about 120 miles south of St. Louis. It has run there since 1946, hosting children ages 8 to 16 through the summer.
The rain that hit Friday didn't build gradually. Overnight, floodwater surrounded low-lying cabins near the river, and staff moved dozens of half-asleep campers to sleep on the cafeteria floor before daylight even made the scale of the problem clear.
By morning, the access roads were gone. There was no driving out. Getting the campers to safety meant going up.
How the Airlift Came Together
Word reached the Missouri State Highway Patrol early Friday that Camp Taum Sauk was cut off. Sgt. Eddie Young, a patrol spokesperson, said the surrounding roads had simply washed away, leaving no ground route in or out.
The Guard's Black Hawks began lifting campers out that afternoon, group by group, ferrying them to an elementary school where parents had already started gathering. Eleven-year-old camper Everett Box, on his third summer at Taum Sauk, admitted the moment was nerve-racking before it became exciting.
"When I first heard we were getting on helicopters, I was kind of scared," Box said.
A Statewide Emergency, Not Just a Camp
Camp Taum Sauk wasn't the only flashpoint. Local crews across the region carried out at least 351 swift-water rescues as the same storm system pushed east into the Ohio and Tennessee river valleys, with forecasters warning of another two to four inches of rain on already saturated ground.
At the nearby Bearcat Getaway campground, roughly 20 people climbed onto a building to escape rising water near the Black River. The structure gave out under the combined weight of people and current, according to Young, though everyone on it was pulled to safety. Three others clinging to trees along the river were also rescued. In Reynolds County, two rescue boats capsized mid-operation; crews recovered those responders without further injury.
By the Numbers
The scope of Friday's flooding, as tallied by state officials:
✓ 202 campers and counselors airlifted from Camp Taum Sauk
✓ 8 Black Hawk helicopters, about 35 Guard members deployed
✓ 351+ swift-water rescues statewide
✓ Black River crested near 29 feet, a record
One person, a woman in neighboring Crawford County, was found dead Saturday after the flooding — the storm's only confirmed fatality so far.
A Different Outcome Than Last Summer
The images out of Reynolds County inevitably drew comparisons to last July, when catastrophic flooding on the Guadalupe River in Texas killed 25 campers, two counselors and the executive director at Camp Mystic — a disaster state investigators later tied to inadequate emergency planning.
This time, the response looked different. A state of emergency came fast, the Guard mobilized within hours, and the evacuation moved in an organized sequence rather than a scramble, according to accounts from officials on the ground.
Camp Taum Sauk publicly thanked the responders once the last helicopter left.
We are beyond thankful for your help keeping our camp community safe.— Camp Taum Sauk, via Instagram
The rain hasn't fully stopped. State officials are still urging residents in flood-prone stretches of Missouri to stay alert, keep multiple ways of receiving weather alerts, and be ready to move — quickly, if it comes to that again.
