An investigative report presented to Texas lawmakers has revealed that the tragic deaths of 27 girls and counselors during a flash flood at Camp Mystic in 2025 were preventable. The findings highlight significant delays in leadership response and a severe lack of emergency preparedness that contributed to the disaster.
The report indicates that critical failures in emergency training, absent safety equipment, and inadequate planning played a significant role in the fatalities. Camp leadership did not evacuate the cabins for over 90 minutes after receiving the initial flash flood warning from the National Weather Service. As the legislative hearing continues, the focus shifts to substantial search and rescue failures and the heartfelt testimonies of grieving families.
Families of the victims gathered at the Texas Capitol for a joint legislative hearing, reflecting on the loss that occurred during the catastrophic flooding on July 4, 2025. Lawmakers are diligently working to piece together the events leading up to the disaster, which claimed the lives of 27 girls and counselors at Camp Mystic.
Two special investigators, including lead investigator Casey Garrett, addressed the committee regarding emergency management procedures in Kerr County and at the camp. Garrett emphasized that the failures began long before the Guadalupe River overflowed in the early morning hours, citing a crucial lack of proper evacuation plans and insufficient training for counselors.
“It’s unthinkable that these girls would have no training. The absence of equipment, including radios and walkie-talkies, was glaring,” Garrett stated. This lack of preparation was further exacerbated by a camp culture where counselors were discouraged from questioning the decisions made by camp director Dick Eastland.
During the hearing, lawmakers listened to audio recordings from survivors recounting their terrifying experiences as floodwaters surged through the camp. Rising water levels forced children and counselors to seek refuge on the ceilings of cabins, leading to tragic drownings while others escaped by clinging to debris or trees. Some campers in cabins with open rafters managed to climb to safety.
Counselors were found to be without essential tools, ladders, or life jackets, and the emergency plan was woefully inadequate. One counselor recalled how during orientation, they were told about flood protocols, but that it was treated as an unlikely scenario. “They said, ‘Oh, that’s never going to happen,'” the counselor recounted.
The timeline of events leading to the flood revealed that a flood warning was issued on July 3, yet normal activities continued at Camp Mystic. The first report of unsafe conditions came at 12:45 a.m. from counselors, followed by a flash flood warning at 1:14 a.m. Camp director Dick Eastland was seen obsessively checking weather updates on his phone, but despite growing concerns, no evacuation order was issued until it was far too late.
By 1:45 a.m., Eastland acknowledged the rising river levels, yet still did not evacuate the girls. At 2:14 a.m., a small creek became impassable, but he instructed counselors to return to their cabins. It wasn’t until 2:55 a.m., over an hour after the National Weather Service’s warning, that Eastland began to panic, ordering the evacuation of the Bubble Inn cabin where several girls were trapped.
Tragically, Eastland died while trying to assist with the evacuation efforts, and it was later confirmed that those in the Bubble Inn cabin lost their lives that day. Witnesses noted that Eastland was dedicated to the campers, making the circumstances of his passing all the more heartbreaking.
There were also remarkable survival stories, including one girl who was swept six and a half miles downriver yet managed to survive. As the hearing continues, family members seek accountability, with one father expected to share the harrowing story of searching for his daughter and discovering a child’s body.
