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 informed him, he stated. The cell service was spotty on the camp the place Jane was a director, however Jeeper might hear that a lot, he stated.
“And I could not do nothing,” Jeeper informed 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 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 stay.” 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 taking place, he informed her to interrupt a window, to get out of the home by any means crucial, he stated in an interview. He stated he thought she had completed so, however he could not be certain.
“Properly, she simply wasn’t contacting me once more,” Jeeper stated. “So it was fairly apparent, in all probability, what had occurred. However I simply was holding on to hope that someway 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 in a position to get up a number of individuals at his personal camp. He credited her telephone 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 individuals you might meet and cherished serving to individuals and wasn’t materialistic.”
He stated he would bear in mind her the best way he at all times did, simply as a cheerful one who 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 realizing if she was OK, he stated. It meant every part to him that she’d referred to as him that morning, he stated.
And he stated she’d texted him sooner or later that morning, because the floods ravaged the world. In a single textual content she stated she was nervous 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.”
