Jeeper Ragsdale’s sister, Jane, woke him up with a name at about 3:30 a.m. on July 4, telling him the water was rising.
It was already on the foot of her mattress, Jane instructed him, he stated. The cell service was spotty on the camp the place Jane was a director, however Jeeper may hear that a lot, he stated.
“And I could not do nothing,” Jeeper instructed ABC Information. “I used to be, like, get out of the home.”
That was the final time Jeeper spoke to Jane, whose full identify was Cynthia Jane Ragsdale, and who was one among more than 100 people who died within the Texas flooding that started early that morning.
Flood sufferer, Jane Ragsdale.
Coronary heart O’ the Hills Camp for Ladies
She had been with the camp, Coronary heart O’ The Hills, for nearly 50 years. She’d been a co-owner since 1978 and had served because the director since 1988.
As her brother recalled, the camp within the Texas Hill Nation was “my sister’s love of her dwell.” It was in her blood.
Jane’s camp was close to one other, Camp Mystic, which was additionally devastated by the flooding.
When Jane known as to inform Jeeper what was taking place, he instructed her to interrupt a window, to get out of the home by any means vital, he stated in an interview. He stated he thought she had achieved so, however he could not ensure.
“Nicely, she simply wasn’t contacting me once more,” Jeeper stated. “So it was fairly apparent, most likely, what had occurred. However I simply was holding on to hope that one way or the other she had gotten out.”
Jeeper Ragsdale, who misplaced his sister, Cynthia Jane Ragsdale, within the Texas Hill Nation flooding, speaks with ABC Information, July 9, 2025.
ABC Information
Jeeper stated his sister’s name that morning alerted him to the hazard and he was capable of get up a number of folks at his personal camp. He credited her telephone name with saving at the least 5 lives.
Within the days for the reason that flood, Jeeper has had time to replicate on his sister’s life. She had labored as a journalist in her youth, touring as distant as Argentina for work. She had been one of many “nicest folks you could possibly meet and beloved serving to folks and wasn’t materialistic.”
He stated he would keep in mind her the best way he at all times did, simply as a cheerful one that would greet him with a giant hug each time they noticed one another.
The worst half about Friday was the hours that he did not know the place she was. Not understanding if she was OK, he stated. It meant every little thing to him that she’d known as him that morning, he stated.
And he stated she’d texted him in some unspecified time in the future that morning, because the floods ravaged the world. In a single textual content she stated she was anxious about re-opening the camp, Jeeper stated, however he nonetheless hasn’t seemed again at her final texts to him.
“I have not been in a position to take a look at my texts,” he stated. I simply have not been in a position to return there. However I do know I talked to her.”
