Camp Mystic on Thursday halted plans to reopen this summer, backing down after months of intensifying outrage by Texas lawmakers and the families of 27 young campers killed last year when floodwaters swept through the all-girls Christian camp in the middle of the night.
The decision, a striking reversal of the camp owners' determination to reopen amid bitter opposition, follows weeks of testimony in court hearings and legislative investigations. Those hearings laid bare the camp’s lack of detailed planning for a flood emergency, reliance on poorly trained staff, and missed chances for an evacuation that came too late as floodwaters ripped through the camp.
The floods that devastated the Texas Hill Country camp claimed the lives of 25 campers and two teenage counselors. The camp’s owner, Dick Eastland, also died in the flooding.
“No administrative process or summer season should move forward while families continue to grieve, while investigations continue and while so many Texans still carry the pain of last July’s tragedy,” Camp Mystic said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services confirmed Thursday that the camp withdrew its application.
The decision was praised by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who had opposed the camp's reopening while investigations were ongoing.
“I am thankful to hear that, today, the Eastland family withdrew their application,” Patrick said in a statement. “Given the tragic circumstances, this is the correct decision to protect Texas campers and to allow time for all investigations to be completed.”
Edward Eastland, one of the camp directors and a member of the Eastland family that owns and has operated the 100-year-old camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River, offered a tearful public apology to the victims’ families on Tuesday.
“We tried our hardest that night. It wasn’t enough to save your daughters,” Eastland said, with the victims' families sitting behind him. “I’m so sorry.”
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All told, the destructive flooding killed at least 136 people along a several-mile stretch of the river, raising questions about how things went so terribly wrong.
Texas health regulators have said they are investigating hundreds of complaints against the camp's owners. The Texas Rangers are also looking into allegations of neglect, according to the Texas Department of Safety, although the scope of the state’s elite investigations unit was not immediately clear.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement obtained by Scripps News that the results of the investigation will be made public "as soon as possible."
The camp, established in 1926, did not evacuate and was hit hard when the river rose from 14 feet to 29.5 feet within 60 minutes.
