Mystic Camp counselors wrote girls’ names on their bodies in case they were swept away by flash flood

The two teenage camp counselors, Silvana Garza and Maria Paula, told reporters at NMas that they tried to put on a "happy face" as they prepared to evacuate Camp Mystic as flood waters were rising in the Country Hill region of Texas on July 4 last week, per the New York Post.

At least 5 girls were killed and 10 are still missing from the tragedy, along with one counselor. “Us as counselors, we started to write our names on our skin, anywhere that was visible,” Paula recounted. “We did the same for the girls, wrote their names anywhere that was easy to see."

As the Guadalupe River swelled, young female campers from the Christian summer camp retreat gathered where the counselors were working. Counselors were told to "put on a happy face" as they gathered up the young children in order to have them evacuated. “At the time, we started to prepare our girls because we thought we were also going to be evacuated,” Garza said.

“We told them to pack a bag, to pack their favorite stuffed animal. We didn’t know if we were going to be evacuated or not. We were just waiting," she added.

The flooding in the region has killed a total of 82 people and there are dozens more missing after the natural disaster struck last Friday. The death count is also expected to rise as search and rescue operations continue.