HUNT, Texas – Camp Mystic filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on Wednesday, nearly a year after catastrophic floods killed 25 campers and two teenage counselors at the Christian camp for girls along the Guadalupe River in Texas.
Camp Mystic has been under increasing pressure since the July 4 disaster. Owners had planned to reopen a separate campus of the Texas Hill Country camp this summer for its 100th anniversary, but reversed course in April amid outrage from victims’ families and lawmakers. Victims’ families filed lawsuits accusing the camp of failing to protect the girls as the powerful floodwaters approached.
Camp Mystic’s owner, Dick Eastland, also died in the flood.
The camp listed its debt at more than $10 million, according to the filing made in federal bankruptcy court in Houston. An attorney for Camp Mystic has not responded to an email and a phone message seeking comment.
“Bankruptcy will not stop all responsible parties from being held accountable,” Paul Yetter, a lawyer who represents multiple families of campers and counselors who died at Camp Mystic, said in a statement. “These innocent girls deserve justice.”
The case was filed as a complex re-organization case, and those types of cases can take years to sort out.
Generally speaking, Chapter 11 typically halts any current legal action against the company filing for bankruptcy. Experts told KSAT that pause can be temporary only if the suing parties have to get permission from the federal bankruptcy court to continue the lawsuits.
Kyle Findley is an attorney representing six Mystic campers’ families, and he told KSAT on Wednesday this bankruptcy filing will cause delays but, “The firm is evaluating our options, but the case will continue to be pursued.”
He continued in his statement, saying, “The bankruptcy filing is not accountability. It is simply a financial reorganization that could allow the same people and entities to remain in control of Camp Mystic while attempting to circumvent the justice of the Court. After 27 girls died, this filing is just another attempt to delay taking responsibility.”
KSAT has reached out to Camp Mystic for a comment about the bankruptcy filing but has not heard back yet.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, the Eastland family spent months determined to reopen the camp this summer, pointing to enhanced safety measures that included flood warning river monitors and putting two-way radios enabled with national weather alerts in every cabin.
By the spring, Camp Mystic’s attorney said it was ready to reopen for business for nearly 900 campers.
But assurances of safety did not convince victims’ families and some Texas lawmakers. State regulators found nearly two dozen deficiencies in the emergency operations plan submitted by the owners, including in proposals for flood warning evacuations and safety training.
The decision not to reopen followed weeks of testimony in court hearings and legislative investigations that laid bare the camp’s lack of detailed planning for a flood emergency and its reliance on poorly trained staff.
Families of the victims packed the hearings, some wearing “Heaven’s 27” pins with photographs of their daughters. They listened to the details of missed flood warning signs, the descriptions of the flood and the decision to leave the girls in their cabins until it was too late. Testimony included video of the raging floodwaters as a girl repeatedly screamed “help!” somewhere in the distance.
Before halting the reopening plans, Camp Mystic invited journalists and lawmakers to review safety improvements at the camp and promised that no camp activities would take place in the low-lying area that was devastated by the flood. The Eastland family also stressed that hundreds of families wanted to return.
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McCormack contributed to this report from Concord, New Hampshire.