Parents of Flood Victims Suing Camp Mystic for Negligence
The families of five Camp Mystic campers and two counselors who died during the July 4 flooding filed a lawsuit against the camp on Monday, alleging that camp officials’ failure to evacuate the camp caused their children's deaths.
More than 130 people died throughout Central Texas during the disastrous July 4 floods, including 25 campers and two counselors at Camp Mystic, who their families call “Heaven’s 27.”
The lawsuit, filed in Travis County district court and seeking more than $1 million in damages, comes after months of scrutiny aimed at Camp Mystic’s response to the flooding and the placement of several of its cabins in a floodplain. The lawsuit names several members of the Eastland family, who own and operate Camp Mystic, as defendants, including the estate of Richard “Dick” Eastland, who died during the floods attempting to save several campers.
“We carry the memory of our daughter in everything we do. This legal step is one of honoring her, and we believe that truth and justice are essential to finding peace — not only for our family, but for every family affected,” Ryan DeWitt, the father of 9-year-old Molly DeWitt, said in a statement.
The lawsuit alleges that a cascading series of decisions by Camp Mystic’s leadership culminated in a “self-created disaster” that caused the campers’ deaths. The suit claims that camp equipment was evacuated before children and that counselors and campers in vulnerable cabins were told to wait rather than evacuate.
Camp Mystic parents were at the forefront of efforts during this year’s special legislative sessions to impose stricter regulations on summer camps, and they highlighted both state regulatory gaps and Camp Mystic’s flawed evacuation plan as points of failure amid the historic flooding.
In a statement, Camp Mystic legal counsel Jeff Ray said the camp intends to prove no adequate warning systems were available on July 4 to warn them and that there was misinformation in the parents' suit. Mikal Watts, the camp’s attorney, said many of the lawsuit’s claims and public perceptions about Camp Mystic were “categorically false.” Watts said the camp’s leadership has the utmost empathy for the parents and their loss.
“[Camp Mystic] spent those three hours heroically saving 163 girls before what occurred,” Watts said.
Many of the camps along the Guadalupe River have announced they would reopen in 2026 for the next summer season, including Camp Mystic. That announcement also drew ire from the parents, who said the move was premature and that they were not consulted about the construction of a memorial for their children the camp intended to build.
The lawsuit described the memorial as the camp using the children as a “recruiting tool.” Watts said the memorial was an effort by “good, Christian families” to acknowledge the loss of Dick Eastland, the campers and counselors.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
