Army National Guard Black Hawk helicopters airlifted 202 campers and staff from Camp Taum Sauk in Reynolds County, Missouri on Friday, one of at least 351 swift-water rescues carried out across the state after a storm system dropped 6 to 12 inches of rain on central, south-central, and southeastern Missouri. The evacuation held. The storm is not finished.
What happened at Camp Taum Sauk
The camp, a coed facility operating in Lesterville since 1946, sits along the Black River in the Missouri Ozarks, roughly 125 miles south of St. Louis. Campers ages 8 to 16, along with their counselors, were airlifted to St. Louis and reunited with their families. The Missouri State Highway Patrol released video of the evacuation.
Camp Taum Sauk officials posted on Instagram Saturday morning, thanking the National Guard, Reynolds County 911 Emergency Responders, and the Arcadia community. A nearby campground, Bearcat Getaway, closed for the weekend and confirmed all campers and staff were safe.
The state response
Gov. Mike Kehoe declared a state of emergency by executive order. In a Facebook statement, Kehoe credited the state's first responders with acting with "extraordinary bravery, professionalism, and compassion." The 351 swift-water rescues span the region; one death has been confirmed in the flooding.
The counterargument
The case for reading this as a clean outcome is straightforward. Two hundred two people were pulled from a flooded camp without casualties, the governor moved quickly, and coordination among state and local responders appears to have functioned as designed.
The risk is that a completed rescue operation reads as a completed crisis. It isn't. The National Weather Service has warned that soils already saturated by 6 to 12 inches of rain could absorb another 2 to 4 inches through the weekend.
The line to watch
The 2 to 4 inch additional rainfall forecast is the number that matters now. Saturated ground absorbs less; runoff accelerates. The Guadalupe River flooding in Texas on July 4, 2025, which killed at least 135 people including 28 at Camp Mystic, is the most recent reference point for how quickly an initial rescue becomes insufficient. Missouri's first responders answered Friday's call. The weekend forecast is asking again.