KERR COUNTY, Texas – Several camps in the Hill Country are installing a potentially life-saving tool they hope never has to be used.
Tall, black towers now line the edge of Camp Rio Vista in Ingram, Texas.
The Guadalupe River running feet below is calm. The camp’s owner, Justin Hawkins, knows how angry it can get.
“We’ve never seen something like this,” Hawkins said, recalling the morning of July 4. “And then it, just, once we got to that point, the rest of what happened just happened so fast.”
Hawkins said feet of water spilled out from the banks onto the campsite.
Campers went home the day before the floods, but several staff members were still on site. He said he was stuck on the property for days.
While the water made it into some buildings, Hawkins said no cabins were impacted.
He now has a tool that can warn him before the water gets too close: River Sentry.
“Each one of these towers has basic water detection in the bottom,” the company’s founder, Ian Cunningham, said.
Cunningham is an airline pilot and Navy veteran, who came up with the idea for the system days after the July 4 floods hit near his home in Liberty Hill.
“We don’t want false alarms,” Cunningham said. “We want these to go off only during a very significant flood event.”
KSAT was given a demonstration of how the warning system works. Once water fills the base, a loud siren blares from the tower and lights begin to blink.
“There is no sleeping through this,” said Hawkins. “... I think this whole river needs these.”
The towers along the river communicate with each other to alert of incoming flood risks. Each tower costs about $7,500.
Camp Mystic’s director, Britt Eastland, had the towers installed at the camp’s Cypress Lake location.
“We’ve seen what these rivers and tributaries can do — how we need to make sure this never happens again,” Eastland said.
He understands how powerful water can be. The July 4 floods killed 27 girls staying at the main camp, as well as Britt’s father, Dick Eastland.
“What made you buy into getting this flood warning siren?” KSAT asked.
“We knew that God willing, if we’re able to ever open this camp, someday open, rebuild and open the main camp that we would need to have something like this,” Eastland said.
Earlier this summer, lawmakers required summer camps to have more safety regulations.
“There’s some stuff that we have to update,” Hawkins said. “A lot of it was already stuff we were already doing.”
KSAT asked Eastland what he would say to parents who are nervous to send their child back to camp.
“I’d tell them, it’s absolutely the right feeling to be having with what happened,” Eastland said. “It’s a family decision, and we ask them if they are considering to come to Camp Mystic to call us, to talk to us, so we can let them know the things we’re implementing this summer.”
Both Camp Mystic Cypress Lake and Camp Rio Vista plan to reopen in 2026.
Eastland and Hawkins hope the new flood warning systems reassures families.
“The River Sentry towers that we’re putting in is just one example that we are hoping Mystic can show and other camps can show that we aren’t taking any chances,” Eastland said.
“It’s a no-brainer,” added Hawkins. “If that’s one more element I can add to keep these kids safe, then let’s do that.”
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