SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – A City Heights man had a surreal moment after seeing the devastation of the deadly Texas floods.
“Oh boy, memories,” Charles Oakey said.
He’s turning through the pages of a decades-old program for the summer camp where he used to work.
"I was there in 1985; the summer of 1985,” Oakey said.
Oakey is referring to Camp Stewart, an all-boys summer camp where he worked in Central Texas.
"I enjoyed my summer there. It was one of the best summers I had in my life,” Oakey said.
Oakey told ABC 10News Camp Stewart is on the Guadalupe River, which is the site of the tragic Texas floods that washed out everything for miles in Kerr County, Texas.
"When they focus on where it was located. Kerr County, Kerrville, I said, 'Wait a minute, that's near where I used to work,'” Oakey said.
One of the summer camps swept away in the flood was Camp Mystic, which Oakey said was roughly less than 10 miles from Camp Stewart.
"Then they mentioned Camp Mystic, and I thought, 'Oh my goodness, that's where we used to take the kids over to Camp Mystic for the socials and things.' I've been there. I know this place,” Oakey said.
Seeing a place you know be devastated hits too close to home.
Oakey said he was watching ABC 10News when the names of those who died in the flood waters appeared on screen.
One of the victims was Jane Ragsdale.
"I thought to myself, Janie Ragsdale, and they mentioned Jane Ragsdale,” Oakey said.
"I personally knew this woman when she was a much younger woman when I worked there. Very nice lady. She was the daughter of the man that I worked for," Oakey said.
Oakey said her father was Si Ragsdale, who ran Camp Stewart.
"Very surreal. I mean, like I said, this is a person I knew, a person I worked with, a person that I liked,” Oakey said.
Jane was among the dozens killed, and many more are still missing.
For Oakey, it's hard to see an area filled with such memories now filled with such loss.
"I can be that be with them in thought and concern. So that's the best I can do,” Oakey said. “When it involves children, for some reason, for a lot of people, it hurts just a little more.”
