By GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO and MARIAM FAM Texas’ catastrophic flooding hit faith-based summer camps especially hard, and the heartbreak is sweeping across the country where similar camps

Brooklyn and Bailey McKnight's little sister, Paisley, was at a camp on a smaller arm of the Guadalupe River. The 14-year-old was "just miles" away from Camp Mystic in Central Texas, which has been devastated by the deadly floodwaters spurred by extreme rainfall on July 4.

Camp Mystic has deep roots with Texas politicians, including former first lady Laura Bush, who worked as a counselor there, and former President Lyndon B. Johnson, who sent his daughters there.

As floodwaters rose in Texas, camp counselors hoisted children onto rafters, carried them to dry ground and sang with them to keep them calm.

Malaya Hammond, 17, was traveling to a Christian summer camp with her family at 5 a.m. Saturday when they drove off a bridge covered by flooding — sweeping their van into Marble Falls, according to a Facebook post from a family friend, Mikki Willis.

Follow for live updates in the Texas flooding as more than 173 are missing as rescuers continue a desperate search

One local summer camp in the path of the disastrous flooding in central Texas was able to avoid any loss of life by closely monitoring weather reports.