{"id":9115,"date":"2025-07-11T00:02:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T06:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/?p=9115"},"modified":"2025-07-11T00:02:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T06:02:20","slug":"flood-that-swept-away-10-teens-still-haunts-survivors-30-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/2025\/07\/11\/flood-that-swept-away-10-teens-still-haunts-survivors-30-years-later\/","title":{"rendered":"Flood That Swept Away 10 Teens Still Haunts Survivors 30 Years Later"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>The Tragic Flood of 1987: A Summer Camp Disaster<\/h1>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">Editor\u2019s note: This story was originally published on 2017. We\u2019re bringing it back following another round of historic flooding in July 2025 and the deaths of more young campers along the Guadalupe River in Central Texas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">When the water started rising, no one was worried.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">Despite nearly a foot of rain the night before, campers at the Pot O\u2019 Gold Ranch in the Hill Country town of Comfort were leaving as scheduled the morning of July 17, 1987.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">\u201cThere was no urgency,\u201d said Richard Koons, then 26, who was driving a bus carrying 33 people from Seagoville Road Baptist Church in Balch Springs.<\/p>\n<p>Breaking News<\/p>\n<p class=\"dmnc_features-cta-social-cta-social-module__zWZy- mb-4\">Get the latest breaking news from North Texas and beyond.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">That bus and a van \u2014 with 10 more passengers from the church \u2014 were following several other buses on a road along the Guadalupe River when they stalled out in about a foot of water.<\/p>\n<h2>The Flood<\/h2>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">Related: Texas\u2019 \u2018Flash Flood Alley\u2019 is one of the most flood-prone areas in North America<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re just sitting there, kidding around,\u201d Chip Asberry, now 45, told the San Antonio Express-News. \u201cWater began coming in and they said everyone get out and walk. No big deal. Boys kidding with girls.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">The 43 campers had formed a human chain and were heading to higher ground when a wall of water came screaming toward them.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"L24W1dmlUAg\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How the 1987 Comfort, TX flood tragedy unfolded\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/L24W1dmlUAg?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">A bus driver farther back on the road, Wesley Edwards, said the first wave was 10 feet high, and it was followed by four more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">\u201cThe river came to them in a hurry,\u201d said the Rev. Claude Bonam Sr., director of the summer camp.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">The bus and the van were swept away \u2014 along with the campers, many of whom were able to grab onto pecan trees in the raging floodwater.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">\u201cAll of a sudden a wall of water hit, and I\u2019m trucking down the river,\u201d Asberry told the Express-News. \u201cI was in the same area as Jason Hernandez and Scott Chatham. I pulled myself into a tree with them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">\u201cWe saw people and friends passing the tree. We tried to reach out to them but we really couldn\u2019t do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>The Rescue Efforts<\/h2>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">Related: Death toll climbs to 43 after \u2018catastrophic\u2019 floods sweep through Guadalupe River<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">Terrified and soaking wet, campers clung to the trees for hours, singing hymns and praying, until rescuers arrived.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">Steve Bohnert, a 32-year-old volunteer firefighter at the time, told the Express-News that he and others didn\u2019t have swift-water training and felt helpless.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">\u201cWe couldn\u2019t do anything,\u201d he said. \u201cWe saw kids in trees. We were trying to point them out to the choppers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">A helicopter hovers over the Seagoville Road Baptist Church bus swept away by floodwater on July 17, 1987.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">Helicopters belong to the Army, the Texas Department of Public Safety and a San Antonio TV station spent hours swooping down perilously close to the water drop harnesses and pluck up survivors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">In one case, a girl grabbed onto a rope instead of tying it around herself. As the helicopter lifted her out of the tree, she lost her grip and fell 100 feet to her death.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">Thirty-three people were eventually pulled to safety.<\/p>\n<h2>The Aftermath<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"aspect-ratio:5533 \/ 3506\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1300px) 1660px, (min-width: 768px) 66.66vw, (min-width: 480px) 100vw, 100vw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com\/resizer\/v2\/EKYYXNIFRAPLO2KAJGVND7NX7E.jpg?auth=94102ed3a5aeb29f25b55eb657e7efa07bca2446a1c3ab9b5f2ffcf10f065e63&#038;quality=80&#038;height=241 430w, https:\/\/dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com\/resizer\/v2\/EKYYXNIFRAPLO2KAJGVND7NX7E.jpg?auth=94102ed3a5aeb29f25b55eb657e7efa07bca2446a1c3ab9b5f2ffcf10f065e63&#038;quality=80&#038;height=416 740w, https:\/\/dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com\/resizer\/v2\/EKYYXNIFRAPLO2KAJGVND7NX7E.jpg?auth=94102ed3a5aeb29f25b55eb657e7efa07bca2446a1c3ab9b5f2ffcf10f065e63&#038;quality=80&#038;height=934 1660w\" class=\"dmnc_generic-gallery-swiper-module__Kyr7i w-full h-full object-cover absolute left-1\/2 dmnc_images-modern-image-module__QFaG- max-w-full h-auto text-white dmnc_images-modern-image-module__9Zlll bg-gray-light object-contain dmnc_images-modern-image-module__P3kZ4 w-full\" width=\"5533\" height=\"3506\" src=\"https:\/\/dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com\/resizer\/v2\/EKYYXNIFRAPLO2KAJGVND7NX7E.jpg?auth=94102ed3a5aeb29f25b55eb657e7efa07bca2446a1c3ab9b5f2ffcf10f065e63&#038;quality=80&#038;height=934\" alt=\"Workers inspect the bus after pulling it from the water.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"body-text-paragraph\">Ten campers died in the flood: John Bankston Jr., 17, of Dallas; Melanie Finley, 14, of Mesquite; Leslie Gossett, 14, of Balch Springs; Lagenia Keenum, 15, of Balch Springs; Michael Lane, 18, of Dallas; Michael O\u2019Neal, 16, of Balch Springs; Cindy Sewell, 16, of Dallas; William Sewell, 13, of Dallas; Stacey Smith, 16, of Scurry; and Tonya Smith<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Tragic Flood of 1987: A Summer Camp Disaster Editor\u2019s note: This story was originally published on 2017. We\u2019re bringing it back following another round of historic flooding in July 2025 and the deaths of more young campers along the Guadalupe River in Central Texas. When the water started rising, no one was worried. Despite [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":9117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-weather"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com\/resizer\/v2\/MKYLLD7O42AOOHW5L4UZCW7RTA.jpg?auth=7ec3b7c6b3a08e4f97f6b2c598826c1008b14dfc72284fb82d113fa91926f140&quality=80&width=1200&height=630&smart=true","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9118,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9115\/revisions\/9118"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}