Army Black Hawks airlift 200+ stranded campers as Missouri floods trigger more 350 rescues

In a high-stakes rescue cognition Friday, Army National Guard Black Hawk helicopters swooped into Reynolds County, Missouri, to airlift 202 young campers and unit members stranded by rapidly rising floodwaters astatine Camp Taum Sauk on the Black River successful the Missouri Ozarks.

Video released by the Missouri State Highway Patrol captured the tense moments arsenic children ran to committee the waiting helicopters.

The campers, aged 8 to 16, and their counselors were successfully evacuated and taken to St. Louis, wherever they were safely reunited with their families, troopers said.

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Video showed a melodramatic Black Hawk rescue amid flooding successful Missouri. (Sgt. Eddie Young/Missouri State Highway Patrol)

"We are beyond thankful for your assistance keeping our campy assemblage safe," Camp Taum Sauk officials posted successful an Instagram station Saturday morning, expressing gratitude to the National Guard, Reynolds County 911 Emergency Responders and the section Arcadia community.

The historical coed campy has been successful cognition successful Lesterville, astir 125 miles southbound of St. Louis, since 1946.

The camper rescue comes conscionable implicit a twelvemonth aft the Guadalupe River in Texas Hill Country flooded connected July 4, 2025, taking the lives of astatine slightest 135 people, including 28 radical astatine all-girls Camp Mystic. 

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FILE - Items prevarication scattered wrong a compartment astatine Camp Mystic aft deadly flooding successful Kerr County, Texas, July 5, 2025. (Reuters/Sergio Flores, File)

Nearby, operators of the Bearcat Getaway campground closed their facilities for the play and confirmed connected Facebook Friday day that each campers and unit were harmless and accounted for.

The melodramatic aerial rescue astatine Camp Taum Sauk was portion of a large, coordinated exigency effect crossed Missouri aft a relentless tempest strategy dumped 6 to 12 inches of rainfall connected central, south-central and southeastern parts of the state.

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The Missouri State Emergency Management Agency shared photos of devastating flooding connected Saturday. (Missouri State Emergency Management Agency via Facebook)

Following an enforcement bid by Gov. Mike Kehoe declaring a authorities of emergency, section exigency unit performed astatine slightest 351 swift-water rescues crossed the region.

"Missouri’s archetypal responders erstwhile again answered the telephone with bonzer bravery, professionalism, and compassion," Kehoe wrote successful a connection connected Facebook.

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State officials are urging vigilance arsenic the National Weather Service warned the already saturated soils could spot an further 2 to 4 inches of rainfall done the weekend.