Amid Devastation from Texas Floods, How a Summer Camp Was Able to Reopen Thanks to Hundreds of Volunteers (Exclusive)

“I could start crying telling you the importance of this camp for us,” mom Erika Mulsow tells PEOPLE

NEED TO KNOW

• A dad from Austin, Texas, Cord Shiflet, rallied hundreds of volunteers to clear wreckage at Camp CAMP after the July 4 floods
• The camp runs a summer program for people with disabilities and was able to reopen this week
• "Cord was able to merge tragedy with joy and just let them both coexist at the same time," a staffer tells PEOPLE

As Texas Hill Country reckons with the destruction caused by the July 4 floods, a community of young people and adults with disabilities feared they wouldn’t get the summer experience they’d waited for all year at Camp CAMP, located along the Guadalupe River. 

Then Cord Shiflet — and hundreds of volunteers — stepped in for a rare and happy surprise in the region in recent days, clearing away debris just in time for the camp’s reopening on Monday, July 14.

“When you start hearing the stories from the staff members of what that waterfront means to these kids, it's the heart of their time being there,” Shiflet tells PEOPLE of deciding to help clear the wreckage from the 55-acre property in Center Point. “We just made it our mission to get it cleaned again.”

A father of four from Austin, Shiflet has a long history of providing disaster relief, starting when he brought supplies to hard-hit Houston after Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Central Texas was no different. 

After seeing the devastating wreckage in Kerr County, the hardest-hit area, Shiflet — comparing it to “driving through a war zone” — says he wanted to help and was directed to Camp CAMP (also known as the Children's Association for Maximum Potential) in Center Point.

The next day, more than 300 people arrived with tools and the desire to help others — and they just kept coming. In a few days, volunteers were able clear most of the debris on the waterfront. 

It would have remained closed off through August otherwise, Sarah Coulombe, Camp CAMP’s chief administrative officer, tells PEOPLE.

“We would've had to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into this,” she says, noting the cost of renting heavy equipment and the immense amount of manpower needed.

But “Cord was able to merge tragedy with joy and just let them both coexist at the same time,” Coulombe says. “And it just was absolutely beautiful what he has done, and the support that has come.”

Tragedy ripped through families, homes and campsites along the Guadalupe in the early morning hours of the Fourth of July, leaving at least 134 dead and 101 still missing, ABC News reported.

Camp CAMP, 32 miles east of Mystic, was not in session when the river surged to dangerous heights amid heavy rainfall. Coulombe says their campgrounds are located high on a hill, which saved camp structures, but the riverfront was “pure devastation.”

The Guadalupe is a big part of the camper experience, allowing young people to swim and canoe with assistance. 

Shiflet and the rest of the volunteers understand the importance of the camp, as do the staff. He remembers speaking to the head of facilities after the crews started working. The man started “sobbing,” Shiflet remembers. “Y'all had finished by 9:30 this morning, what I had hoped you would've finished by Saturday evening,” the staffer told him.

For Shiflet, it’s emotional, but important work. “I bet I cry 15 times a day, hugging people and people sharing stories,” he says. “And then I'll just get in my truck and look around and see what we've created — it's more than my heart can stand.”

While Camp CAMP reopened on Monday, a storm caused the organization to pause its reopening until the next day, The New York Times reported. Campers were still eager to arrive.

“I could start crying telling you the importance of this camp for us with a medically dependent child,” Erika Mulsow tells PEOPLE.

Her son, Teddy, is disabled and requires care around the clock. This summer session will be his fifth at Camp CAMP.

“For kids like Teddy, who are medically fragile and severely handicapped, there is nothing,” says Mulsow. “Camp CAMP is it. And it's amazing. It's exactly what has been a part of our healing process. And it's why Teddy has to go — it's like Teddy has to go.”