Over a week since an inundated Guadalupe River sent floodwaters tearing through homes and youth camps in Texas, optimism for rescuing any of the dozens of people still missing from Hill Country on Jul...

“It’s hard not to feel like you are surrounded by a higher power when you’re down there, because it’s just so beautiful,” my friend Olivia Marrus told me.

Since its construction in 1926, the camp — which promised cabins “snugly arranged” in a “picturesque bend” in the river — repeatedly experienced flood disruptions, including evacuations or damage to s...