July 4, 2025 marks one of the most tragic floods in recent Texas history. (Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP) (Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)
RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty Images
One year later, the Hill Country is still marked by one of the most devastating tragedies in modern Texas history—the catastrophic flood that tore through Camp Mystic on July 4, 2025.
What began as a holiday week at a beloved girls’ summer camp in Kerr County ended in mass loss of life, as a fast-rising wall of water swept through cabins along the Guadalupe River before dawn.
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In a matter of hours, 25 campers between the ages of 8 and 17, along with three staff members, were killed. The disaster stunned Texas and drew national mourning, but in the months that followed, it also sparked investigations, lawsuits and intensifying scrutiny over what went wrong in the critical hours before the flood.
As the first anniversary arrives, the questions remain: What happened at Camp Mystic, who is to blame, and what is the flood’s lasting impact?
July 4, 2025 marks one of the most tragic floods in recent Texas history.
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What happened?
Camp Mystic welcomed more than 500 campers to its pair of locations at the Guadalupe River camp and the Cypress Lake camp on June 29. Four days later, weather forecasts began to indicate heavy rain would soon fall in the Texas Hill Country. A July 3 notice from the National Weather Service (NWS) issued a flood watch in the area surrounding Camp Mystic, and at 1:14 a.m. on July 4, the NWS issued a flash flood warning. Destruction soon followed.
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Dick Eastland, the camp’s director, reported over four inches of rain in a text to his wife, Tweety, at roughly 2:30 a.m. 30 minutes later, he determined it was time to start evacuation attempts at an assortment of cabin locations. The first attempt was successful with 50 campers and counselors evacuated to safety. Subsequent attempts failed.
A view inside of a cabin at Camp Mystic, the site of where at least 20 girls went missing after flash flooding in Hunt, Texas, on July 5, 2025. Rescuers were on Saturday searching for more than 20 girls missing from a riverside summer camp in the US state of Texas, after torrential rains caused devastating flooding that killed at least 27 people — with more rain on the way. “So far, we’ve evacuated over 850 uninjured people, eight injured people and have recovered 27 deceased fatalities at this time. Of these 27, 18 are adults, nine are children,” said Kerr Country Sheriff Larry Leitha on July 5. (Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP) (Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)
RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty Images
TOPSHOT – A view inside of a cabin at Camp Mystic, the site of where at least 20 girls went missing after flash flooding in Hunt, Texas, on July 5, 2025. Rescuers were on Saturday searching for more than 20 girls missing from a riverside summer camp in the US state of Texas, after torrential rains caused devastating flooding that killed at least 27 people — with more rain on the way. “So far, we’ve evacuated over 850 uninjured people, eight injured people and have recovered 27 deceased fatalities at this time. Of these 27, 18 are adults, nine are children,” said Kerr Country Sheriff Larry Leitha on July 5. (Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP) (Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)
RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty Images
Just before 4 a.m., Eastland’s car—occupied by Eastland and three campers—was swept into water and became stuck against a tree, preceding a submerging of the car and the passengers’ subsequent death. An escape attempt at the “Bubble Inn” failed shortly thereafter, leading to the death of 10 campers and two counselors as floodwaters rushed through Camp Mystic. A rescue attempt then followed after 4 a.m., led by Eastland’s son, Edward. That attempt was also unsuccessful. Edward and 11 campers were swept up in the flood and rushed through waters toward a tree near the Bug House cabin. Edward survived as he clung to a tree. The 11 campers in question did not survive after being swept away in the flood waters.
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Two campers were rescued far down the Guadalupe River shortly before 5 a.m. They were the last to be rescued before the sun rose on the morning of July 4. The final death toll at Camp Mystic was 28, a significant share of the 119 killed in Kerr County.
Debris piled up at Camp Mystic in the hours and days after the tragic flood in July 2025.
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Compliance failures
There was no way to stop the downpour of rain and the flood of the Guadalupe River. But a June 2026 report from the Texas Senate and House General Investigating Committees laid significant blame on Camp Mystic for a number of failures in the days and hours before the tragic events of July 4, 2025.
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The Committees cited four areas of failure by Camp Mystic before and in the immediate moments after the flood:
Inadequacy of advance emergency planning.
Inadequacy of storm preparation.
Failure to timely evacuate.
Inadequacy of incident management.
Each of the four areas played a major role in the ultimate death toll at Camp Mystic. The Committee noted the staff at Camp Mystic did not have adequate training, and there were no emergency plans for evacuating each of the camp’s buildings. There was no directive to evacuate to higher ground in the event of a flood, with a shelter-in-place note serving as the only written guidance.
FILE – A Camp Mystic sign is seen near the entrance to the establishment along the banks of the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas, July 5, 2025, after a flash flood swept through the area. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
Julio Cortez/Associated Press
Perhaps Camp Mystic officials could have properly evacuated the campers on time if they heeded a slate of warnings. Those warnings were largely ignored, per the Committee’s report. Flood alerts from the Texas Division of Emergency Management were “disregarded by Kerr County officials.” Those officials, as well as Camp Mystic leadership, went to sleep on the night of July 3 “without any heightened awareness of the potential
for extreme weather.” The report also criticized Dick and Edward Eastland for their failure to perceive flood risks before water rushed into cabins around 3 a.m., far too late to evacuate all campers before the flash flood ripped through Camp Mystic.
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Texas state lawmakers launched an investigation into the events at Camp Mystic shortly after the tragedy.
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A lengthy shelter-in-place directive also contributed to the lost lives at Camp Mystic, per the Committee’s report.
“Since campers in the connected Twins I and Twins II cabins were not evacuated in the over two hours that had passed after the 1:14 a.m. Flash Flood Warning, Edward Eastland determined that they could no longer safely evacuate on foot,” the report read. “When it became obvious they
were on the verge of drowning in the cabins, the counselors were left with no choice but to push the cabins’ 8- to 9-year-old campers underwater and out the door and windows in hopes they could find safety.
“One Twins camper could not escape, and she perished in her cabin. The others all were swept away in the flood. Some, including Edward, survived, but eleven campers did not.”
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Legal battles
The first in a series of lawsuits against Camp Mystic was filed in November 2025, in which families of deceased campers alleged gross negligence and a “self-created disaster” that led to 28 deaths. The families in question seek more than $1 million in damages in each lawsuit, and the lawsuits have yet to be settled as of July 2026 (five pending lawsuits will go to a jury trial, expected to begin in 2027). But Camp Mystic isn’t the only entity facing a lawsuit.
Families of nine Camp Mystic victims filed a suit against the State of Texas in the U.S. District Court in Austin in February, alleging the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) wrongly approved Camp Mystic’s licenses despite the lack of a proper evacuation plan.
“DSHS licensed a camp without it having a required evacuation plan,” Paul Yetter, the plaintiff’s attorney, told NBC News. “We filed this lawsuit to expose another failure that led to these tragic deaths — and to keep other children who attend Texas camps safe in the future.”
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The Texas House and Senate held an investigative committee hearing after the events at Camp Mystic
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What’s next?
Camp Mystic’s tragic flood will, sadly, live on for years to come. The same can’t be said for the camp’s operations. The camp intended to reopen for the summer of 2026 despite the tragedy, but after an April hearing and criticism from Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Camp Mystic withdrew its application for an operating license.
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CENTER POINT, TEXAS – JULY 18: A 10-foot cross is seen along the banks of the Guadalupe River in front of Camp Mystic on July 18, 2025 in Hunt, Texas. (Photo by Brenda Bazán / The Washington Post via Getty Images)
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What was once viewed as a temporary closure is now permanent. Camp Mystic filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late June, in which the camp claimed to have an estimated liabilities of between $10 million and $50 million. The bankruptcy filing pauses all pending lawsuits against Camp Mystic, with no current date for their resumption.