As search and rescue efforts press onward in central Texas following the deadly flash flood, many are feeling grief and anxiety over the devastation wrought on an all-girls camp caught in the deluge.

“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...