Vigil for flood victims to be held at UT Tower Tuesday evening
AUSTIN (KXAN) — A candlelight vigil will be held Tuesday night at the University of Texas at Austin, in honor of the victims of the deadly Texas floods.
The vigil, hosted by the University Panhellenic Council and the Kappa chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha sorority, will begin at the UT Tower at 8:15 p.m. The vigil will honor the multiple victims of the floods who were UT students.
That includes Chloe Childress and Katherine Ferruzzo, who were set to begin at UT in the fall. Childress is a confirmed victims of the floods while Ferruzzo is still missing. Both were counselors at Camp Mystic at the time.
One speaker at the vigil is UT Student Seth Hendricks, who grew up in Kerrville, and was present for the Independence Day Floods. As someone from the area, he said it now looks nothing like home.
“You’re smelling the smell of just rotting wood and trash and all the things that are in all this debris. And so it all kind of combines to make a pretty grisly scene out there,” Hendricks said. “This is our home, and a home that we pride on being very, very beautiful and homey, and it is. It couldn’t be farther from that right now.”
Hendricks’ father is the director of Laity Lodge Youth Camp, another Christian summer camp near Camp Mystic. He said as someone familiar with Hill Country camp life, seeing debris — including children’s clothing and camp canoes — was a shock.
“You’re shocked because typically, these [camps] represent home away from home, a place for kids to go out and be very carefree,” Hendricks said. “For it to be strewn about with these items from children, items from cabins, it’s surreal in the worst way possible.”
Hendricks said Tuesday’s vigil will be entirely student-run and will include student speakers who were campers at Camp Mystic.
