As countless children flock to summer camps around the country to enjoy the outdoors while school is out, the wholly American tradition has not existed without a history of tragic horror stories leaving families grieving the unimaginable.  

Over the Fourth of July weekend, 27 children and counselors were killed after a flash flood swept through Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, the all-girls Christian camp said Monday morning. Ten campers and one counselor remain unaccounted for as authorities race to search the receding floodwaters of the Guadalupe River. 

“Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy,” the camp said in a statement. “We are praying for them constantly.”

Remnants from a Boy Scout uniform sit in the rubble left by a tornado that struck at the Little Sioux Scout Ranch, seen near Little Sioux, Iowa on June 12, 2008.  (AP Photo/Matt Miller, POOL)

In June 2008, four Eagle Scouts were killed when an EF-3 tornado struck Iowa’s Little Sioux Scout Ranch, ripping through the cabin the troop had taken shelter in.

“My friend pulled me out of the rubble and propped me on a chair,” Kevin Hanna told the Omaha World-Herald. “I couldn’t move my legs at all.”

The tornado killed Sam Thomsen, Josh Fennen, Aaron Eilerts and Ben Petrzilka, and injured 48 others, according to KETV 7. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.