#flash flood

He's fine, I'm sure! :D

some photos I took at the el yunque national rainforest 👍

I went from starting the year with major physical health decline, to almost starting nomad life in spring rather than fall but it was delayed for various reasons after packing up my entire apartment and moving everything into storage, to dealing with major grief and shock, crying all day every single day for over a month, to the air conditioning in my empty apartment breaking during the hottest part of the year in one of the hottest parts of the US, to finally moving out and starting nomad life and being so happy living my trailer park princess dream life, to surviving a flash flood being saved by search & rescue and losing most of my gear, daily belongings, and potentially vehicle (but miraculously no people or dogs were injured)🫠

I guess since they're still looking for people in TX (and one of my LinkedIn friends lost a friend to the flooding, his wife and sons are still missing).

Based on when I went kayaking in sure water rapids.

Don't panic. I know that seems obvious but panicking wastes energy.

Float on your back. Arms and legs spread out. This conserves energy and makes it easier to stay breathing. Most people actually float relatively easily on their back.

Use your feet to push off obstacles. Try to keep your feet downstream, your head up to look out for obstacles, and use your feet to push off obstacles so you don't get seriously hurt.

Keep parallel to the current while you try to swim towards the side. Currents will be weaker and therefore less dangerous near the side of the current.

Try to find high ground. Obviously you want to find somewhere out of the water to safely wait for rescue. But remember that while you're pulling yourself out you'll be fighting the current. Don't pick a spot where you can't reasonably pull yourself out and you'll end up wasting energy and drowning.

Find something floating to hold onto. Remember that conserving energy thing. Since you'll not reasonably have a life jacket, find something that you can hold onto in order to keep your head above water.

I pray that no one needs to know this, but if you do get swept up by sudden flooding, there's 3 things to keep in mind.

Keep calm. You need to be able to asses the situation and not waste energy.

Keep your head above water. This is obvious but what isn't obvious is there's easier ways to do this than swimming. Floating on your back. Grabbing debris.

Don't let yourself bump into things. Again sounds obvious but again there's a lot that isn't obvious. Currents are slower towards the edge of the stream. You can use your legs to push off of things.

Amid the catastrophic flooding that devastated Central Texas and swept through Camp Mystic, two young Mexican women—Silvana Garza Valdez and Maria Paula Zárate, both 19—are being hailed as heroes after risking their lives to protect and rescue young campers under their care.

The two women, serving as counselors at Camp Mystic near the Guadalupe River, sprang into action as flash floods overwhelmed the campgrounds early on July 4.

According to firsthand accounts and family confirmations, the counselors were responsible for saving at least 20 young girls—calming them, sheltering them, and keeping them safe until emergency crews could arrive.

During the flooding, the camp lost power and communications. Garza, recounting the experience to Channel2 NOW, said, “We went to sleep, and around midnight, it started to rain like nothing I’d ever experienced. The thunder rattled the windows, and lightning lit up the cabins. No one could sleep. The little girls were crying, saying, ‘We’re going to die.’ I had to stay strong, even though I was scared, too.”

By early morning, the Guadalupe River had surged violently, rising over 15 feet and sweeping away parts of the camp.

Entire cabins disappeared under water and debris. Garza and Zárate gathered the girls, reassured them, and even wrote each child’s name on her arm in case they became separated.

They sang songs, distracted the girls from the chaos, and waited in the highest cabin area for help to arrive.

Eventually, food and other rescued girls began arriving at their cabin from other parts of the camp that had been destroyed. Garza said, “We were told 25 girls were missing.

They had found two survivors who had floated downstream, but 23 were still unaccounted for.” Conditions quickly worsened, prompting an urgent evacuation as helicopters and military personnel arrived to extract the remaining children.

The emotional toll was evident as Garza described seeing mattresses in trees, children’s clothes hanging from branches, and wreckage scattered across the floodplain. “It’s something I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” she said tearfully. “Two days before the flood, we were scheduled to be in one of the cabins that was washed away.”

The bravery of Garza and Zárate has resonated widely across social media, where they’ve been described as “guardian angels” and praised for their extraordinary courage and quick thinking during the deadliest U.S. weather disaster of 2025.