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AUSTIN, TEXAS – APRIL 27: Investigator Casey Garrett addresses the joint House and Senate flood investigating committee during a hearing at the Texas Capitol on Monday, April 27, 2026. (Aaron E. Martinez\/The Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Austin American-Statesman\/Hearst\/Austin American-Statesman via Ge<\/p>\n
Camp Mystic did not have state-required written emergency plans or adequate evacuation measures that could have prevented the deaths of 25 campers and two counselors in last year\u2019s July 4 flood, state-appointed investigators told the state lawmakers in their final report released on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Casey Garrett and Michael Massengale, hired by the Texas Legislature to conduct a probe of the flood response, said cascading failures led to the tragedy, from communication lapses between state and local authorities to lackluster instructions to counselors about how to safely evacuate in the event of a flood beyond haphazard planning by the camp\u2019s director, Richard Eastland, who also died in the flood while trying to rescue campers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cAnd when disaster struck, and it did strike on July 4 of last year, it may as well have been no plan at all,\u201d Massengale said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a 115-page report, the findings pieced together more accounts of the events that played out at the century-old camp, including new interviews with surviving campers and state and local officials.<\/p>\n
A joint committee of state representatives and senators said the Legislature addressed all but one of the deficiencies outlined in the investigators\u2019 report by passing a series of laws last year. They promised to address the remaining problem \u2014 the inability of camp counselors to reach the camp\u2019s owners during the flood \u2014 in the next legislative session that begins in January.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not recall being aware of this deficiency at the time we developed and passed (the laws), and we are thankful this process revealed it to us,\u201d a letter attached to the report said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The investigators\u2019 report concluded:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Camp Mystic did not have written emergency plans that complied with the state’s requirements. Investigators said camp leadership didn\u2019t have state-approved emergency plans posted in each cabin for counselors and campers, other than instructions to shelter in place. \u201cStaff members and counselors were not assigned any responsibilities in the event of that kind of an evacuation. This was a fatal error,\u201d Massengale said.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Camp Mystic did not adequately prepare for the storm: The camp had received weather alerts warning of a storm on July 3, investigators said. Camp Mystic \u201chad the means to inform itself and to appropriately protect its campers from severe weather,\u201d Massengale said. \u201cOur investigation showed that apart from what Dick Eastland was likely doing, nobody else at the camp was watching that night.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Camp Mystic did not evacuate in advance of the storm, despite ample opportunity to do so: At 1:14 a.m., investigators said, the National Weather Service sent a flash flood warning. Eastland called his son, Edward, for help shortly after 3 a.m., investigators said. In that time, investigators said the campers could have been instructed to evacuate to higher ground.<\/p>\n
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\u2022 Camp leadership confiscated counselors\u2019 cellphones while on site, the report found, and did not provide them with replacement equipment, such as a radio or handheld transmitter that they could have used in an emergency.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The camp normally employed three counselors per cabin but reduced the number to two in certain cabins. A senior counselor expressed to the camp\u2019s leadership that some of the younger teenaged staff struggled to keep up with their cabins and needed assistance. The report said that having older, more experienced counselors at the camp could have helped prevent more deaths.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 The reunification efforts and incident management after the storm were chaotic, which led to campers\u2019 parents being \u201cunnecessarily traumatized\u201d by incomplete and conflicting information as they waited to learn whether their children survived.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Every parent in our group would give anything to have their child back,” said Matthew Childress, whose daughter Chloe was a counselor at Mystic and died in the flood. “We cannot change what happened, but today’s findings provide an important measure of truth and accountability.<\/p>\n
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“Our children deserved better, and because of their legacy,\u00a0 new laws are helping ensure that camps across Texas are better prepared to protect the children entrusted to their care,” added Childress, who helped lead the push for reforms. “Should the committee’s findings point to further improvements, we stand ready to work with lawmakers to strengthen protections and ensure that no other family endures what ours have experienced.”<\/p>\n
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, TEXAS – APRIL 27: Investigator Casey Garrett addresses the joint House and Senate flood investigating committee during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-342013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342013","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=342013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}