AUSTIN, Texas – Attorneys for Cici and Will Steward dug even more into the flood notifications and alerts issued before and on the Fourth of July, and why the director of Camp Mystic did not see them.
The Stewards are the parents of Cile Steward — the only camper that is still unaccounted for to date.
On Tuesday, the Eastlands, the family that owns and operates the camp, took the witness stand to answer questions about their actions leading up to the July 4 tragedy and afterward.
Twenty-seven campers and counselors died at Camp Mystic during flooding in the Hill Country last year. The Stewards filed a lawsuit seeking to keep the camp from partially reopening this summer.
Edward Eastland, one of the directors of the camp, resumed his testimony from Monday. During direct questioning from his attorney, he maintained he did not see any warnings issued about potentially dangerous weather or flooding conditions on the days leading up to the holiday.
Eastland told the court that he had signed up for the CodeRED system, Kerr County’s emergency notification service that provides alerts about weather, wildfires and other critical emergencies.
Eastland testified that he did not hear a 1:15 a.m. alert sent to his phone and was awaken around 1:30 a.m. by his father Richard Eastland by way of a radio.
He stated his father wanted to him to go to the office of the camp to assist in moving out waterfront equipment and canoes, telling his son that the area had gotten four inches of rain.
Eastland testified he did not check his phone and did not see the alert that came prior to his dad contacting him.
He subsequently told the court in the midst of dealing with the equipment, camp conditions began to worsen as two other alerts were sent to his phone that he also missed.
His attorney asked him why he didn’t tell anyone about the other two alerts, especially the one sent at 4:46 a.m.
“I was in the tree,” Eastland said.
He said did not know about the alerts because he had left his phone in his truck.
The Stewards’ attorney, Brad Beckworth, questioned why Eastland did not prepare campers for any potential storms, saying there was more than just the CodeRED alert system that could have been used to stay on top of what was happening.
Beckworth preceded to show the court different examples from the federal government and the state of Texas.
He then asked him, “Do you understand that the federal government, using my and your and everyone in here’s tax dollars, has created a system that gives free, readily available alerts to weather events to all of us. Did you know that?”
Eastland said he was aware there were many forms of alerts, with Beckworth asking him if he should have known about them before being in court Tuesday.
After he finished testifying, his wife, Mary Liz Eastland, took the witness stand.
She serves as a camp director, but it was her position as camp health director that was the main focus of questions directed at her.
Attorney Christina Yarnell held that as camp health director, according to regulations, she was responsible for developing an evacuation plan.
Yarnell, taking issue that her plan only addressed emergency shelter, argued the plan was incomplete.
“So where was the second part of that sentence, the evacuation portion. Where was that?” Yarnell asked.
“To wait for instructions was the next part of it,” Mary Liz Eastland replied.
“So, your evacuation plan was to wait,” Yarnell said.
“Yes, ma’am,” Mary Liz Eastland replied.
Britt Eastland was also on the stand Tuesday with his testimony directed on what he saw and did once the sun came up and he arrived at Camp Mystic.
“It was just a wreck going into the Guadalupe cabins. It was just beds, trunks piled up on top of trunks,” he said. “There was just so much mud and debris. It was a war zone.”
The hearing is expected to continue Wednesday in Austin.
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