{"id":723393,"date":"2026-06-24T15:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T15:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/723393\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T15:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T15:30:12","slug":"camp-mystic-where-28-died-in-catastrophic-texas-floods-files-for-bankruptcy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/723393\/","title":{"rendered":"Camp Mystic, where 28 died in catastrophic Texas floods, files for bankruptcy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Camp Mystic\u2019s owner filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday, nearly a year after catastrophic floods in Texas Hill Country<\/a> killed 25 girls, two teenage counselors and the camp\u2019s longtime director.<\/p>\n

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In a court filing, the operators of the all-girls Christian summer camp said its total debts were in the range of $10 million to $50 million. The filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of Texas in Houston said the camp\u2019s total assets were between $1 million and $10 million.<\/p>\n

Camp Mystic\u2019s owners and operators have faced intense scrutiny over their response to last year\u2019s devastating July 4 floods. In a scathing report released earlier this month<\/a>, state investigators faulted the camp for inadequate advance emergency planning, storm preparation, evacuations and incident management.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lessons to be learned from the camp\u2019s inadequate emergency planning and response are worthy of careful study for opportunities to avoid similar future tragedies,\u201d the authors said in an introduction to the 115-page report.<\/p>\n

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The report said the hectic task of evacuating the camp fell on the shoulders of just three men: the camp\u2019s co-owner, his son and a security guard. Richard \u201cDick\u201d Eastland, the co-owner, died in the floods.<\/p>\n

In late April, Camp Mystic officials withdrew their application to reopen this summer<\/a>. The move came a day after an emotionally charged legislative hearing attended by deceased girls\u2019 parents.<\/p>\n

In a statement at the time, Camp Mystic acknowledged that \u201cprecious lives were lost.\u201d It said the withdrawal of the application was meant to remove any doubt that its leaders have \u201cheard the concerns expressed by grieving families, members of the Texas House and Senate investigating committees, and citizens across our state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRespect for those voices requires that we step back now,\u201d camp officials added.<\/p>\n

Victim families filed suit in November, accusing the operators of failing to take appropriate action as rising floodwaters approached the campgrounds. The families are seeking more than $1 million in damages.<\/p>\n

Sarah Foss, the global head of legal and restructuring at the financial services company Debtwire, said the camp\u2019s bankruptcy filing means lawsuits against it are \u201ctemporarily paused.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether those lawsuits ultimately proceed in the bankruptcy court or the courts where they are pending, victims\u2019 families will be treated as creditors who must seek compensation from a limited pool of money in the bankruptcy case rather than through individual jury verdicts,\u201d Foss said in an email.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s eight-page bankruptcy filing was signed by four members of the Eastland family that owns the nearly 100-year-old Camp Mystic. The court document does not contain detailed information about the camp\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n

Martin A. Sosland, who is listed on the filing as the debtors\u2019 attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

In total, last July\u2019s monstrous floods killed at least 136 people along the Guadalupe River in Texas Hill Country. Cecilia \u201cCile\u201d Steward, an 8-year-old Camp Mystic camper, remains missing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Camp Mystic\u2019s owner filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday, nearly a year after catastrophic floods in Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-723393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}