A report released Thursday by the Texas Legislature has found that Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp for girls, had no written emergency evacuation plans in place and failed to adequately train its staff — failures that contributed to the deaths of 27 people in a devastating July 4 flash flood in 2025.
The 115-page report, authored by two investigators commissioned by the legislature with cooperation from the camp owner’s family, concluded that if proper evacuation plans and counselor training — as required under state law — had been in place, there would have been enough time for campers to walk safely to higher ground before the waters became deadly.
Instead, teenage counselors followed instructions to shelter in place as floodwaters filled the cabins in the middle of the night. Twenty-five girls, all between 8 and 10 years old, were swept to their deaths, as were two 18-year-old counselors and the camp’s owner, Dick Eastland. The century-old camp sits along the Guadalupe River in flood-prone Kerr County.
The report found that at least 39 adults were present at the camp that night, any of whom could have been “tasked to assist with an orderly flood evacuation” had they received proper training.
Investigators also faulted camp leadership for failing to use the public address system to issue evacuation orders and for not equipping counselors with walkie-talkies, even though cellphones were prohibited in the cabins.
According to the report, only Eastland and a night watchman remained awake after severe flash-flood warnings were issued by the National Weather Service. Just before 2 a.m., Eastland woke his adult son, Edward Eastland, to help secure boats. Neither believed the campers’ cabins were in danger of flooding until approximately 2:30 a.m., when two teenage counselors whose cabins were near the river “ran through the storm to the main office, reported water entering the cabins, and asked for help.”
“From the 1:14 a.m. Flash Flood Warning until this time, if all campers had been instructed to evacuate their cabins by foot, there still was ample time and opportunity for them all to move the very short distances to reach higher and safer ground,” the report stated. As late as 3 a.m., only about an inch of water covered the road nearby.
The report describes Eastland and his son using their SUVs to evacuate only a few cabins at a time as water levels continued to rise. By Eastland’s third round of evacuations — when he reached the Bubble Inn cabin — it was too late. With water rushing around him, Eastland managed to get all 14 girls and both counselors into his vehicle just before it was swept into the Guadalupe River.
Other girls perished in nearby cabins as water rose to the ceilings. Some attempted to escape by swimming beneath the churning water through windows or doors, according to the report. The bodies of two of the young victims have still not been recovered.
Camp Mystic, which failed safety inspections required before it could reopen this summer, did not respond to a request for comment.
