Camp Mystic did not have state-required written emergency plans or adequate evacuation measures that could have prevented the deaths of 25 campers and two counselors in last year’s July 4 flood, state-appointed investigators told the state lawmakers in their final report released on Thursday.
Casey Garrett and Michael Massengale, hired by the Texas Legislature to conduct a probe of the flood response, said cascading failures led to the tragedy, from communication lapses between state and local authorities to lackluster instructions to counselors about how to safely evacuate in the event of a flood beyond haphazard planning by the camp’s director, Richard Eastland, who also died in the flood while trying to rescue campers.
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“And when disaster struck, and it did strike on July 4 of last year, it may as well have been no plan at all,” Massengale said.
In a 115-page report, the findings pieced together more accounts of the events that played out at the century-old camp, including new interviews with surviving campers and state and local officials.
A joint committee of state representatives and senators said the Legislature addressed all but one of the deficiencies outlined in the investigators’ report by passing a series of laws last year. They promised to address the remaining problem — the inability of camp counselors to reach the camp’s owners during the flood — in the next legislative session that begins in January.
“We do not recall being aware of this deficiency at the time we developed and passed (the laws), and we are thankful this process revealed it to us,” a letter attached to the report said.
The investigators’ report concluded:
- Camp Mystic did not have written emergency plans that complied with the state’s requirements. Investigators said camp leadership didn’t have state-approved emergency plans posted in each cabin for counselors and campers, other than instructions to shelter in place. “Staff members and counselors were not assigned any responsibilities in the event of that kind of an evacuation. This was a fatal error,” Massengale said.
- Camp Mystic did not adequately prepare for the storm: The camp had received weather alerts warning of a storm on July 3, investigators said. Camp Mystic “had the means to inform itself and to appropriately protect its campers from severe weather,” Massengale said. “Our investigation showed that apart from what Dick Eastland was likely doing, nobody else at the camp was watching that night.”
- Camp Mystic did not evacuate in advance of the storm, despite ample opportunity to do so: At 1:14 a.m., investigators said, the National Weather Service sent a flash flood warning. Eastland called his son, Edward, for help shortly after 3 a.m., investigators said. In that time, investigators said the campers could have been instructed to evacuate to higher ground.
- Camp leadership confiscated counselors’ cellphones while on site, the report found, and did not provide them with replacement equipment, such as a radio or handheld transmitter that they could have used in an emergency.
- The camp normally employed three counselors per cabin but reduced the number to two in certain cabins. A senior counselor expressed to the camp’s leadership that some of the younger teenaged staff struggled to keep up with their cabins and needed assistance. The report said that having older, more experienced counselors at the camp could have helped prevent more deaths.
- The reunification efforts and incident management after the storm were chaotic, which led to campers’ parents being “unnecessarily traumatized” by incomplete and conflicting information as they waited to learn whether their children survived.
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