AUSTIN, Texas – Two months after the Hill Country floods, two pieces of state legislation outlining new safety requirements for summer camps is headed to Governor Greg Abbott’s desk for his signature.
“This legislation cannot bring back our daughters, but it is the beginning of change that must occur so this tragedy never happens again,” said Cici Steward, the mother of Cile Steward, the only Camp Mystic girl who remains missing from the Fourth of July flooding.
In late August, families like the Stewards who lost girls at Camp Mystic testified in front of the state Senate in Austin, sharing heartbreaking stories and demanding action.
Those testimonials helped pave the way for the bills, Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 1, to pass.
- Prohibits cabins within a floodplain
- Mandates cabins display evacuation routes
- Requires ladders on cabins for rooftop access
- Camps submit emergency plans to the state
- Camp staff train kids on flood emergencies
- Install emergency warning systems
“We can’t fix what’s happened, but we can darn sure prevent what’s going forward the best we can,” said state Sen. Charles Perry, who authored SB1.
Perry carried the bill with heavy support.
However, some legislators, such as state Rep. Wes Virdell, did not agree with everything in each bill.
“I ended up speaking against the bill and laid out an amendment,” Virdell said. “I had about seven changes to the bill. Unfortunately, the amendment I presented failed. We had about 37 members vote with me on that amendment.”
Some changes he proposed were to eliminate the part of SB1 that prohibits cabins in FEMA 100-year floodplains.
Virdell believes the cost of that mandate could shut camps down and destroy local economies.
“Then, we’re going to work on legislation for the next session, the 90th session, to address some of those issues,” Virdell said. “And, hopefully, we can do some damage control before we have camps getting shut down.”
Similar sentiments have been echoed by Kerr County camps Waldemar, Stewart and Vista. All three camps sent a joint letter to legislators, asking them to remove that piece from the bill.
KSAT reached out to the three camps after the bills passed but has not heard back on the request for comment.
After the bills passed, Camp Mystic released the following statement:
“Today we are writing to reaffirm our support for legislation that will make camps and communities along the Guadalupe River safer. Regardless of the provisions of Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 1, our planning and procedures will reflect the catastrophic 1,000-year weather event that occurred on July 4, including never having campers return to cabins that had floodwaters inside them, despite the fact that all cabin floors are already outside of the 100-year flood plain.
We continue to pray for the Camp Mystic families and all those in our community who, like us, lost loved ones on July 4. We applaud the families of the 27 precious campers and counselors for their meaningful advocacy and your leadership in advancing this important legislation."
Questions were raised previously about whether or not Camp Mystic’s buildings were within the floodplain.
In 2013, Camp Mystic filed an appeal to have multiple buildings removed from FEMA’s 100-year flood plain. The appeal was first reported by the Associated Press.
Federal regulators granted Camp Mystic that exemption.
Aside from HB1 and SB1 regarding camp safety, there were seven bills overall filed in the second special session in response to the floods.
The full list with descriptions can be found here.
More recent Hill Country Floods coverage on KSAT: