Opinion: Left-Wing Scorn Floods Google Reviews While Search Continues for Missing Campers

OPINION — Camp Mystic, the Texas Hill Country youth camp from which more than 20 girls remain missing after the rapid rise of floodwaters in the Guadalupe River watershed in Kerr County, is facing an unexpected surge of political backlash in its Google Reviews—even as search and rescue efforts continue.

According to CNN, at least 32 people, including 14 children, have died in the flooding, Kerr County officials report. The families of three campers have confirmed their deaths to CNN.

While the Trump administration is reportedly sending aid to the region, critics from the political left have taken to Camp Mystic’s Google Reviews to vent their scorn. Several reviewers have posted comments addressed indirectly to the missing campers, such as:

• “Your parents voted for this girls.”

Other recent one-star Google Reviews include politically charged claims:

• “Terrible. Are [Trump’s] cuts at the National Weather Service responsible for this?”
• “Trump cut funding for the weather bureau. This is the result.”
• “Apparently God is not happy.” (Camp Mystic is a Christian summer camp.)
• “Praying won’t help you fools. This is what voting for Trump does, takes away from warning systems.”
• “Clearly God is taking revenge for voting Republican. But those who wonder about preventable catastrophe, who are also gun nuts, I say, ‘Thoughts and prayers.’”

Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, a Republican, bore the brunt of this criticism during a press conference in Kerrville yesterday. A reporter pressed the county judge—who oversees emergency management in the county—on why he hadn’t ordered Camp Mystic evacuated prior to the flooding. Clips of the exchange have circulated widely on the social media accounts of San Antonio’s KSAT and Austin’s CBS affiliate. I wonder if that reporter is a contributor to Google Reviews?