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 already rising.
It was already on the foot of her mattress, Jane instructed him, he mentioned. The cell service was spotty on the camp the place Jane was a director, however Jeeper might hear that a lot, he mentioned.
“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 certainly one of greater than 100 individuals who died within the Texas flooding that started early that morning.
Flood sufferer, Jane Ragsdale.
Coronary heart O’ the Hills Camp for Women
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 reside.” It was in her blood.
Jane’s camp was close to one other, Camp Mystic, which was additionally devastated by the flooding.
When Jane referred to as to inform Jeeper what was occurring, he instructed her to interrupt a window, to get out of the home by any means needed, he mentioned in an interview. He mentioned he thought she had executed so, however he could not make certain.
“Nicely, she simply wasn’t contacting me once more,” Jeeper mentioned. “So it was fairly apparent, in all probability, what had occurred. However I simply was holding on to hope that by some means 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 mentioned 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 cellphone name with saving not less than 5 lives.
Within the days because the flood, Jeeper has had time to mirror on his sister’s life. She had labored as a journalist in her youth, touring as far-off as Argentina for work. She had been one of many “nicest folks you possibly can meet and cherished serving to folks and wasn’t materialistic.”
He mentioned he would keep in mind her the way in which he at all times did, simply as a cheerful one that would greet him with an enormous 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 realizing if she was OK, he mentioned. It meant all the pieces to him that she’d referred to as him that morning, he mentioned.
And he mentioned she’d texted him sooner or later that morning, because the floods ravaged the realm. In a single textual content she mentioned she was apprehensive about re-opening the camp, Jeeper mentioned, however he nonetheless hasn’t seemed again at her final texts to him.
“I have never been ready to have a look at my texts,” he mentioned. I simply have not been ready to return there. However I do know I talked to her.”
