Camp Mystic relied on teen counselors with no emergency training before flood, investigator says

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Young and inexperienced Camp Mystic counselors were not trained to help campers during floods or other emergencies and feared making decisions on their own, an investigator into the 2025 flood that killed 27 counselors and campers told Texas lawmakers Monday.

Lawmakers heard an emotional and sweeping review of a camp “obedience” culture that paired poorly trained teenage counselors with the youngest campers; was complacent about flood warnings; had poor communications; and critically delayed evacuation efforts.

“There was never any real training, no drills of any kind,” for counselors or campers of what do to or where to go in a flood threat, a special legislative committee’s investigator, Casey Garrett, said. She was addressing the committee’s first hearing on the July Fourth flood that swept through the all-girls Christian camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River.

Twenty-five campers and two teenage counselors were killed. Camp owner Richard Eastland was also killed as he desperately tried to evacuate girls to higher ground.

Garrett noted that most of the victims were under age 10 and some were attending camp for the first time.

Many of the grim details had already been made public through legal hearings, media reports and interviews, but the state report presented them in a stark, streamlined review.

The lack of emergency planning is in sharp focus as the camp seeks to reopen in late May. Camp Mystic’s owners have said they plan to reopen part of the camp that didn’t flood and expect nearly 900 girls on campus this summer.

The reopening plans have angered families of the victims, and some prominent state officials have called for state regulators to deny or delay the camps’ license renewal, which is currently under review.

Families of the victims pack the hearing

Dozens of victim family members filled the committee room Monday. Some sobbed or left when photos of the victims and destroyed camp site were displayed, or when they heard their loved ones’ names read aloud.

The report noted some harrowing survivor accounts.

Garrett described one girl recounting how floodwater in her cabin rose so high that her chin touched the ceiling before she was able to escape. A counselor told investigators she had to push girls underwater to get them through the door of a flooded cabin.

The committee saw video of water rushing into a building through the cracks in the doorway. In a cellphone video taken by a stranded camper, a girl can be heard yelling “help” in the dark amid the raging flood waters.

They also heard a brief interview with a counselor who made it to a two-story recreation hall with about 100 campers. She describing the terror of the ordeal that night as terrified campers watched the rising floodwaters close in on them.

Investigator says campers and counselors had little emergency training

Garrett, a Houston attorney who assisted the Legislature’s report on the 2022 Uvalde school shooting, several times noted the lack of emergency training for the teenage counselors and child campers.

A major problem was the lack of a detailed evacuation plan. The only instruction for the girls in the low-lying areas of the camp was a one-paragraph directive that told them to “stay in their cabins unless told otherwise by the office. All cabins are constructed on high, safe locations.” That plan had passed a state inspection two days before the flood.

Eventually, some counselors took matters into their own hands and started pushing girls out of cabin windows to scramble up a hill.

“It wasn’t a plan. It wasn’t a safe plan, It was an option taken, thank God,” Garrett said. ” It was very ad hoc.”

Investigator describes counselors’ fear of crossing camp owner

Some counselors told investigators they were too scared to take children to higher ground or out into the storm before they were given explicit instructions to do so for fear of getting in trouble.

Garrett described a camp “obedience-encouraged” culture dominated by Eastland, the patriarch of the campus. Some members of the Eastland family and camp staff referred to him as “The General” and “The Eagle.”

“He ruled,” his wife Tweety told investigators. Several Eastland family members attended the hearing.

“He was running the show over there … You just really didn’t cross him,” Garrett said.

The camp relied almost exclusively on him for what to do in a flood emergency. The owner’s son, Edward Eastland, testified in a lawsuit last week that any detailed flood evacuation plan was in his father’s head.

Richard Eastland was found dead in his vehicle with several girls he had tried to drive to safety. Edward Eastland was swept by the floodwaters into a tree. Camp security officer Glenn Juenke also survived when he was trapped in a flooded cabin with campers.

Garrett described Richard Eastland as a popular camp leader who taught generations of girls how to fish. He had a knack for comforting young campers who were nervous about their first time away from home.

“We do know Dick Eastland loved every little girl who came to Camp Mystic,” Garrett said.

What lawmakers will do next

The Texas Legislature doesn’t meet again until January 2027 and the panel does not control the camp license that is under review. Several lawmakers said they want to use the report to craft new rules for all camps.

The camp’s proposed future safety plan has already been flagged for nearly two dozen deficiencies by state regulators, including portions of flood warning monitoring and evacuations.

Last year, Texas lawmakers passed new measures to demand more detailed planning and training, and installation of emergency warning systems.

“Texas’ grief is enduring,” said state Sen. Pete Flores. “We cannot change what happened, but we can change how we prepare for and respond to the next emergency.”