The team deployed around 7 a.m. Friday from Corpus Christi, about 200 miles south of where the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, Texas, had risen from about 3 feet to nearly 30 feet. Floodwaters in the area had swept through and battered several youth camps on the river banks — including Camp Mystic, the summer camp where they were headed.

A 26-year-old New Jersey native is being hailed as a hero for his part in saving at least 165 people from Friday’s devastating floods in Texas, most of them girls from Camp Mystic.