Source: Flooding data from First Street. 3-D model of camp based on LiDAR data captured by The Times on Nov. 12.<\/p>\n
The New York Times<\/p>\n
Across Camp Mystic on the night of July 3, 195 campers settled into their bunks. Taps played over a loudspeaker shortly after 10 p.m. Dick Eastland, the 70-year-old patriarch of the family-run all girls camp, was at home in his creek-side house on the camp property, not far from the cabins.<\/p>\n
So too was Edward Eastland, one of his sons. Edward grew up at Camp Mystic and now directs the camp along with his wife Mary Liz, living in a house even closer to the cabins and the Guadalupe River than his father.<\/p>\n
Heavy rain was in the forecast, and camp staffers had already pulled from the water the largest boats \u2014 20-foot-long \u201cwar canoes\u201d \u2014 as they always did before a big rain in the flood-prone area.<\/p>\n
What follows is the most detailed description to date of the events that took the lives of more than two dozen campers and counselors, and the elder Mr. Eastland, at the 99-year-old summer retreat.<\/p>\n
The descriptions and rendering of those events were taken from the first interviews that Camp Mystic\u2019s owners have granted, along with never-before-seen videos and photos taken during flooding at the camp, data from devices such as Apple watches, cell phones and vehicle crash data, and court documents from a lawsuit filed by some of the parents of children who died.<\/p>\n
The Times visualized the water levels at the camp over the course of the night using videos and photos from the camp and estimates from a flood simulation by First Street, a nonprofit that assesses flood risk in the United States. The moving dots on the diagrams in this story show the simulated flow and depth of water at different times, and the extent of flooding.<\/p>\n
1:14 a.m.<\/p>\n
At 1:14 a.m. on July 4, the National Weather Service warned of potentially life-threatening flooding in the area. By that point, according to data from his phone, Dick Eastland was already up and monitoring the weather.<\/p>\n
Around 1:45 a.m., he radioed his son, Edward. \u201cHis words were that we\u2019ve gotten about two inches of rain in the last hour and that we need to move the waterfront equipment,\u201d Edward Eastland told The New York Times, his first time recounting his story publicly. Members of the grounds crew went to the waterfront and pulled the remaining smaller canoes to higher ground on the hill nearer to the cabins. No one expected the water to rise that high, Edward Eastland said.<\/p>\n
He drove to the camp office where his father and the night watchman, Glenn Juenke, were monitoring the weather. The elder Mr. Eastland checked the rain gauge that he kept at his house. A group of workers had just returned to the camp from a day off, describing a harrowing drive in the pouring rain.<\/p>\n
2:14 a.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cBubble Gum Creek is bad,\u201d Edward Eastland texted his wife, at 2:21 a.m. \u201cLook at the radar.\u201d A severe thunderstorm hovered over the camp, he recalled in the interview. \u201cLooks short tho,\u201d she texted back, believing the heaviest rain would soon pass. \u201cIt kept saying that it would end in 30 minutes,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n
Around that time, two counselors from Bug House \u2014 a cabin of 12-year-olds closest to the river \u2014 came to the office to report water running down a steep hill into their cabin door. Edward and his father drove them back, and tried to reassure them. \u201cAt that point,\u201d he recalled, \u201cit was a normal flood.\u201d<\/p>\n
That changed quickly.<\/p>\n
A little before 3 a.m., Edward said, a call came over the radio from a staff member in the gatehouse at the camp entrance, right along the river. \u201cShe said there\u2019s water coming in her cabin,\u201d he said. \u201cShe couldn’t get the door open.\u201d Then her radio made some \u201cvery strange noises.\u201d He could not reach her again. (The gatehouse cabin was eventually swept away in the flood; the woman survived by clinging to a tree.)<\/p>\n
At about that time, Mr. Eastland said his father radioed from Bug House where the river was rising. \u201cMy dad said, we need to get Bug House out,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n
3:00 a.m.<\/p>\n
The evacuation began, he said. Mr. Eastland, his father and Mr. Juenke loaded campers into each of their vehicles \u2014 two pickups and an S.U.V. \u2014 in two trips, bringing campers to the main office and directing them to walk the short distance to the recreation hall.<\/p>\n
Counselors in a cabin further up the road, Nut Hut, watched as the evacuation took place.<\/p>\n
The camp\u2019s one-page safety plan, reviewed by The Times, called for them to shelter in place in a flood.<\/p>\n
During the evacuation on July 4, the counselors were told \u201cby the camp\u201d not to leave their cabins, according to a lawsuit filed against Mystic. But as the water rose, the Nut Hut counselors evacuated themselves and their campers, climbing a steep hill behind their cabin.<\/p>\n
Edward Eastland denied directing anyone to stay put during the evacuation. \u201cWhen Jumble House asked me if they should walk, I said, \u2018yes, go,\u2019\u201d he recalled, referring to another cabin.<\/p>\n
In all, counselors in two cabins eventually evacuated on their own, climbing up the hill with their campers. Mr. Juenke helped those in a third cabin reach the hill, and then sent them up.<\/strong><\/p>\n 3:26 a.m.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the second trip, the water was running over the road. It was probably ankle deep,\u201d Edward Eastland said. By then, water covered the sloping grass between the cabins and the river. Lightning crashed, revealing canoes floating over the soccer field.<\/p>\n Soon it was up to the top of his truck tires, he said.<\/p>\n At that point, Mr. Eastland and his father turned to the cabins of the youngest campers, Bubble Inn and Twins. A video, taken at 3:26 a.m. by one of the workers from a second-floor sleeping area above the commissary, captured deepening water swiftly moving past Twins, while, in the distance, campers were still able to wade through ankle and knee-deep water into the rec hall.<\/p>\n 3:26 a.m.<\/p>\n 3:32 a.m.<\/p>\n Girls evacuating to Recreation hall<\/p>\n Floodwater outside Twins cabin<\/p>\n Floodwater outside Twins cabin<\/p>\n Videos showing the Recreation hall and the Twins cabin.<\/p>\n Videos provided by Camp Mystic<\/p>\n The New York Times<\/p>\n