Parents of Camp Mystic counselor speak out after her death in Texas floods: “She gave her life trying to save those little girls
February 16, 2026 – By Karen Hua CBS News
In their first television interview, the parents of 19-year-old Katherine Ferruzzo are demanding changes from Camp Mystic, where their daughter died in last summer’s devastating floods. Katherine had attended Camp Mystic for 10 years and was the last counselor to be found after the flooding that killed 27 at the camp and more than 135 people across the Texas Hill Country.
“Katherine died a hero. She gave her life trying to save those little girls,” her mother, Andrea Ferruzzo, told CBS News.
The Ferruzzos, who live in Houston, say the tragedy was preventable. Katherine, her co-counselor Chloe Childress, and 25 campers were among those swept away as the flood waters rose during a torrential storm last Fourth of July weekend.
Less than a year later, Camp Mystic is enrolling children with plans to reopen one of its two campuses, farther from the river, this summer. In early February, the all-girls Christian summer camp was slapped with its fifth lawsuit — this one from the family of 8-year-old Cile Steward, a camper who has yet to be found.
