{"id":180252,"date":"2026-02-25T22:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T22:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/180252\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T22:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T22:30:10","slug":"texas-officials-sued-for-allegedly-lax-oversight-of-camp-mystic-in-connection-to-2025-flood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/180252\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Officials Sued For Allegedly Lax Oversight Of Camp Mystic In Connection To 2025 Flood"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than half a year after a flash flood took the lives of 27 campers and counselors<\/a> at Camp Mystic in Kerr County, Texas, a new lawsuit accuses a Texas state agency of failing to do its job to prevent the tragedy.<\/p>\n

\"Texas\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\n The Guadalupe River\n <\/p>\n

The\u00a0lawsuit, filed Monday<\/a>\u00a0in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in Austin by families of nine of the flood victims,\u00a0says\u00a0six officials at the Texas Department of State Health Services denied the victims their constitutional rights \u201cto life and bodily integrity\u201d by permitting Camp Mystic to operate despite having allegedly inadequate emergency plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the lawsuit, DSHS inspectors ignored the state\u2019s safety rules for certifying summer camps by failing to verify the adequacy of Camp Mystic\u2019s plans. This allegedly had been going on for years, YetterColeman LLP partner Paul Yetter\u00a0told CW39<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The agency \u201cdecided not to enforce Texas law, and they have allowed Camp Mystic for at least the last 10 years to operate every summer, hosting hundreds of children on the banks of a river that regularly floods,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The flash flood of the Guadalupe River on July 4 quickly inundated several cabins in the middle of the night before rescuers could reach those inside.<\/p>\n

At least four cabins for young campers were in an area designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as an \u201cextreme flood hazard, where water moves at its highest velocity and depth,\u201d\u00a0Oregon Public Broadcasting reported<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the flooding last July, the town of Hunt, where Camp Mystic is located, experienced 6.5 inches of rain in just three hours. As\u00a0NASA reported<\/a>, the Guadalupe River surged 26 feet in 45 minutes at Hunt before reaching a record crest of 37.5 feet.<\/p>\n

Chad Berginnis, CEO of the Association of State Floodplain Managers, warned state and local officials who are tasked with managing flood plains that gaps in regulatory oversight of flood risk management can leave campgrounds and summer camps vulnerable to similar tragedies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile there may be either state and local standards and inspection\/licensure requirements through health departments, any requirements for emergency procedures from a public health perspective are typically generic, if they exist at all,\u201d Berginnis wrote in the association\u2019s online publication. \u201cInspections tend to be \u2018check the box\u2019 and focused on actions like posting the plan in public spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit was filed even as Camp Mystic is reportedly accepting applications for its 2026 summer camp. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has protested the camp\u2019s reopening and\u00a0is urging officials to halt enrollment<\/a>, The New York Times reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil these deaths are investigated and any necessary corrective actions are taken to ensure this never happens again, a camp license should not be issued to Camp Mystic,\u201d Patrick said Monday in a letter addressed to DSHS Commissioner Jennifer Shuford.<\/p>\n

There are\u00a0several other lawsuits<\/a>\u00a0underway regarding the flooding deaths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than half a year after a flash flood took the lives of 27 campers and counselors at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,3576,2270],"class_list":{"0":"post-180252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-flooding","12":"tag-guadalupe-river"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}