1987 — July 17, Flash Flood, Church Youth Bus & Van swept into river ~Comfort, TX– 10
— 10 LA Times. “10…Feared Dead at Texas River: 2 Youths Killed, 8…Missing….” 7-18-1987.
— 10 National Climatic Data Center. Storm Data, Vol. 29, No. 7, July 1987, p. 2.
Narrative Information
NCDC: “Only one month after the extensive floods of late May and early June 1987, flash flooding returned to the South Texas Hill Country on July 17th after overnight rains of as much as 11.50 inches. This time, 10 persons drowned when a bus and van carrying 4 adults and 39 teenagers were swept into the Guadalupe River by the floodwaters….” [p. 2]
“During the evening of July 16th and the early morning of the 17th, moisture-laden thunderstorms moved slowly eastward through the hill Country of South-Central Texas, producing flash flooding across seven counties north and northwest of San Antonio. The train-effect storms, one following another, dumped as much as 11.50 inches of rain 9 miles west of Hunt, and 5 to 10 inch amounts were common throughout the area. The resulting flooding was mainly concentrated along the Guadalupe River and its tributaries, the same area that was heavily affected by flooding in late May and early June 1987…However, this flooding resulted in a tragic loss of life when a bus and van leaving a summer camp became stranded in floodwaters along the Guadalupe River just west of Comfort. As the vehicles were being evacuated, a surge of water rushing downstream swept 39 teenagers and 4 adults into the raging river. Ten persons drowned and the remaining 33 were rescued by helicopter, mostly from tree tops to which they were clinging.” [p. 13] (National Climatic Data Center. Storm Data, Vol. 29, No. 7, July 1987.)
July 18, LA Times: “Comfort, Tex. — two teen-agers died and eight others were missing and believed drowned Friday when a bus and a van carrying them from a church campground were swamped by an 8-foot wall of water during an attempted crossing of the storm-swollen Guadalupe River.
“A 14-year-old Mesquite, Tex., girl was killed when she apparently lost her grip on a helicopter rescue line and dropped an estimated 100 feet into a field while being lifted from the raging river. The body of the other known fatality, a 13-year-old girl from Scurry, Tex., was found about three miles downstream.
“Texas Department of Public Safety officers said at least 19 of the 33 survivors were treated for injuries. Only two were hospitalized overnight, one in guarded condition and the other in stable condition….
“Some teen-agers clung to trees singing hymns for up to three hours as the floodwaters slowly subsided and Army helicopters from Ft. Sam Houston at nearby San Antonio crisscrossed the area, lifting them to safety one by one. Men and dogs combed the banks until nightfall, but found no more survivors or bodies. The effort was to resume at daybreak today….
“All of the missing were teen-agers. The two drivers and two other adults accompanying the campers were able to reach the shore.
“The bus, which was swept about 150 yards downstream, was not found until 10 hours after the 7:30 a.m. accident. The van had not been found by evening.
“The teen-agers were from Seagoville Road Baptist Church in the Dallas suburb of Balch Springs. They had been on retreat with youngsters from nine other Dallas area churches at the Pot o’ Gold campground, just west of Comfort. Seale said there were 32 people on the bus and 11 aboard the van. The two vehicles had left the campground with other buses after authorities ordered an evacuation because it had been raining heavily all night and the river was rising far beyond its banks.
“Kendall County Sheriff Lee D’ Spain Jr. said camp officials had been called between 3 and 4 a.m. and warned not to try crossing the bridge. He said he thought the accident would not have happened if “they would have taken notice of the warning.”
“Public Safety Trooper Tom Mobley said that other buses managed to cross the bridge safely, although it was awash with at least one foot of water. But the bus driven by Richard (Whitey) Koons, 26, a youth pastor of the group, stalled out in the wake of the others. Mobley said Koons saw the wall of water rushing toward his bus. Koons ordered his passengers to get out of the bus and onto the bridge, where they formed a hand-to-hand chain, Mobley said. Just then, however, the water hit and swept them and the bus from the submerged bridge.
“The unidentified driver of the van just behind them also got his passengers off, but the water was quickly up to the steering wheel.
“Melissa Henderson, 17, of Mesquite, the daughter of a Baptist minister, was aboard the bus. She said many of the teen-agers screamed in horror as the bus stalled on the flooded bridge. “When we got off, everybody tried to get over to the side,” she said. “Everybody went under water. We were in trees across from each other.”
“Jeremy Morris, 13, of Balch Springs, was in the van when the bus stalled ahead of it and the van driver tried to back to safety. “The van began floating and then we got out and it started sinking,” he said. “We got out of there and the kids were holding hands in a line.”…
“Melanie Finley, 14, of Mesquite, was rescued twice–only to die in a horrifying plunge. Seale said she was pulled from the water initially by a San Antonio television camera helicopter crew, but she fell back into the river and was swept away. She then tried to seize a tree branch, but a large log struck her in the back as it shot down the river on the powerful current. In panic, she grabbed a cypress limb but, said Seale, who was in a Department of Public Safety helicopter, “we could see she was not holding on well. We dropped a line to her and she put it around her shoulder. She waved to us and we pulled her up.” She was dangling below the helicopter as it rose from the river’s surface and swung toward an open field. She slipped from the rope and fell to the ground as her would-be rescuers watched….
“The other teen-ager, whose body was found downriver, was identified as Tonya Smith, a church school cheerleader.
“It was the worst flooding on the Guadalupe River in more than a half century, officials said….”
July 18, UPI: “Balch Springs, Texas….About a dozen people gathered at Seagoville Road Baptist Church in the Dallas suburb to share their grief and await word on the search for passengers aboard a church bus and van swept Friday off a low-water crossing into the flooded Guadalupe River. Eight people were killed and 33 injured. Two passengers were missing Saturday. Six of the dead were identified as Melanie Finley, 13, of Mesquite; Stacy Smith, 16, and Tonya Smith, 13, of Scurry; Lagenia Keenum, 15, and Michael O’Neal, 16, of Balch Springs; and Michael Lane, 18, of Dallas. Lagenia Keenum celebrated her 15th birthday Friday…” (UPI. “Family, friends and survivors of a church bus accident…” 7-18-1987.)
July 19, AP: “Balch Springs (AP) — Residents said Saturday they’re feeling helpless rage and frustration as the close-knit community grapples with the deaths of at least six teen-agers swept into Guadalupe River on their last day of Bible camp….Six bodies were recovered from the steely gray waters by midday Saturday [July 18] and four others were missing as searchers scoured the river’s banks and helicopters hovered above….” (Associated Press, Balch Springs. “Grief-stricken town encounters rage, frustration.” Big Spring Herald, TX, 7-19-1987, p. 3A.)
July 19, LA Times: “Comfort, Tex. — Searchers found six more bodies in the churning Guadalupe River on Saturday, bringing the death toll to eight and leaving two missing after a bus and van from a church camp were swamped by floodwaters.
“About 500 people, backed by helicopters, National Guardsmen, scuba divers and specially trained dogs, fanned out along the river, which had returned to its normal level but was a rushing torrent when the accident occurred Friday….
“Late Saturday [July 18], searchers found a body 18 miles downstream from the accident. Earlier, they had pulled the bodies of two 16-year-olds, a boy and a girl, from the slate-gray waters. They also found three bodies about six miles from the accident, authorities said. The bodies of two teen-age girls, also among the 43 people on the vehicles from the Seagoville Road Baptist Church in Balch Springs, were recovered Friday.
“Meanwhile, authorities said they had brought the drivers of the two vehicles to the scene of the tragedy and determined that the two were not attempting to cross the river as authorities had believed. Troopers said at a news conference that the bus was 182 feet from the low-water crossing when it attempted to turn left, parallel to the river, and follow three other buses to a higher paved road, through water that had washed up onto the river’s bank. But the vehicles stalled in the rapidly rising water and passengers got out and tried to scramble to land. Pounding waves of water scattered the group and washed the bus and van away….
“The vehicles were bound from Camp Pot o’ Gold, a children’s camp, to a rafting expedition, said Richard Koons, 26, the church’s youth minister who was driving the bus. He said the youngsters were not being evacuated….” (Los Angeles Times. “Six More Bodies Found in River Tragedy.” 7-19-1987.)
July 20, AP: “Balch Springs, Tex., July 19…. Eight bodies had been recovered and a ninth was found after noon two miles downstream from the accident site, said a Department of Public Safety trooper, Mark Riordan. One victim was still missing…. The missing victim, John Bankston Jr., 17 years old, was seen at the bus assisting a friend whose broken leg was encased in a plaster cast. According to the friend, Jeff Bowman, 17, of Dallas, ”I really didn’t have time to grab my crutches, so I jumped on his back and he walked us out of the bus and he walked over to a tree and got behind it.” After about 30 minutes, John Bankston told Jeff Bowman that he was going to have to let go, and they would have to go on down the river. ”That was the last I saw of him.” Jeff Bowman said….” (Associated Press. “Family and Friends Mourn Victims of Swollen Texas River.” New York Times, 7-20-1987.)
July 20, AP: “Comfort, Tex. — The body of a ninth teen-ager was recovered Sunday from the Guadalupe River and the search continued for a youth who disappeared while helping others caught by a flash flood during a church camp trip….The ninth victim was identified as Leslie Gossett, 14….” (AP. “Ninth Body Found, Leaving One River Victim Missing.” Los Angeles Times, 7-20-1987.)
July 25, AP: “Mesquite, Texas…The football team filed into the church first Saturday, the players’ jerseys blending with the blue and white flowers surrounding two caskets in the final funeral for the victims of the Guadalupe River bus accident. Ten teen-agers were believed killed in the July 17 accident, although one body was never found. John Bankston Jr.’s casket stood empty in the two-hour service at the Berean Baptist Church. Bankston, 17, and Michael Lane, 18, were football teammates at the small Balch Springs Christian Academy, which is affiliated with the Seagoville Road Baptist Church that had sent 43 people on a church retreat…. Survivors said Lane held a barbed wire fence open so some could make it to safety, while Bankston, instead of pulling himself to safety, pushed others toward trees alongside the river. He was swept away after lifting a boy with a leg cast onto a tree….” (AP. “Two Teens Honored in Last Funeral for Texas Bus Accident Victims.” 7-25-1987.)
Victims
Bankston, John, 17
Finley, Melanie, 13
Gossett, Leslie, 14
Keenum, Lagenia, 15
Lane, Michael, 18
O’Neal, Michael, 16.
Sewell, Cynthia “Cindy” Kay, 16[1]
Sewell, William Christopher “Chris”, 12
Smith, Stacy, 16 (sister of Tonya)
Smith, Tonya, 13
Sources
Associated Press. “Family and Friends Mourn Victims of Swollen Texas River.” New York Times, 7-20-1987. Accessed 11-4-2016 at: http://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/20/us/family-and-friends-mourn-victims-of-swollen-texas-river.html
Associated Press, Balch Springs. “Grief-stricken town encounters rage, frustration.” Big Spring Herald, TX, 7-19-1987, p. 3A. Accessed 11-3-2016 at: http://newspaperarchive.com/us/texas/big-spring/big-spring-herald/1987/07-19/page-3?tag
Associated Press. “Ninth Body Found, Leaving One River Victim Missing.” Los Angeles Times, 7-20-1987. Accessed 11-4-2016 at: http://articles.latimes.com/1987-07-20/news/mn-3022_1_ninth-body-found
Associated Press (Jody Cox). “Two Teens Honored in Last Funeral for Texas Bus Accident Victims.” 7-25-1987. Accessed 11-4-2016 at: http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1987/Two-Teens-Honored-in-Last-Funeral-for-Texas-Bus-Accident-Victims/id-4238367bbc3e39fab80fbc5e72a74e45
Find A Grave. “Cynthia Kay Sewell.” Record created by Donna Schulte Loth, 6-9-2010. Accessed 11-4-2016 at: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=53485978
Find A Grave. “William Christopher ‘Chris’ Sewell.” Record created by Donna Schulte Loth, 6-9-2010. Accessed 11-4-2016 at: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=53486081
Los Angeles Times (Barry Bearak). “10 Are Feared Dead at Texas River: 2 Youths Killed, 8 Reported Missing as Bus, Van Are Swept Into Water.” 7-18-1987. Accessed 11-3-2016 at: http://articles.latimes.com/1987-07-18/news/mn-716_1_guadalupe-river
Los Angeles Times. “Six More Bodies Found in River Tragedy.” 7-19-1987. Accessed 11-4-2016 at: http://articles.latimes.com/1987-07-19/news/mn-5045_1_bus-and-van
National Climatic Data Center. Storm Data, Vol. 29, No. 7, July 1987. Asheville, NC: NCDC. Accessed 11-3-2016 at: http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/orders/IPS/IPS-F831633D-DA67-4D6B-9DB0-E5D29536790B.pdf
United Press International (Bob Trott). “Family, friends and survivors of a church bus accident…” 7-18-1987. Accessed 11-4-2016 at: http://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/07/18/Family-friends-and-survivors-of-a-church-bus-accident/1666553579200/
[1] Find a Grave memorial for Cynthia Sewell includes photo of memorial of victims and survivors. Photo can be enlarged to allow reading of all text.