ATLANTA — Georgia Rep. Buddy Carter said Sunday his granddaughters were safe after devastating flooding in Texas.

He told 11Alive News on Sunday that his granddaughters were at Camp Mystic, which was heavily hit by Friday’s severe flash floods.

“They are safe, and I thank you for your well-wishes and prayers during this time,” the southeast Georgia congressman wrote on X.

His family, like so many others, did not know at first if the twin girls, who are almost 12 years old, were OK.

“I got a call from my son who was very upset, and told me what was going on and of course, immediately I started praying, and didn’t cease praying until we found out they were OK,” Carter said. “There was a period of time when we didn’t know what their status was.”

The girls are now back home in Virginia, but are mourning the loss of their cousin Janie Hunt, who was also at Camp Mystic.

“As you can imagine, the family is devastated by all this, but we find comfort in knowing that she’s in the arms of god,” Carter said.

The 9-year-old is one of more than two dozen children in Kerr County, where Camp Mystic is located, who died in the flood.

“The cabin that Janie was in was very close to the river, and I believe it washed away,” Carter said.

Carter said his granddaughters were in a different cabin and able to get to higher ground before being rescued by helicopter hours, possibly even half a day, later.

Now, search crews are still working to find the rest of the girls from the camp.

“Our thoughts and prayers go with everyone who’s been impacted by this, this is just an awful awful tragedy and these are real people, these are real families, and we, we just, our hearts go out to them,” Carter said.

An 8-year-old girl from Alabama and the camp’s director are among those who have been confirmed lost in the flooding tragedy. As of the most recent reports, 11 girls from Camp Mystic are still missing.

In all, at least 69 people have died in the central Texas flooding, according to NBC News. On Sunday morning, officials provided updated figures as Kerr County, where Camp Mystic is located, reported 59 people dead — 21 of them children. 

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