{"id":22884,"date":"2026-05-01T00:53:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T00:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/22884\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T00:53:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T00:53:57","slug":"texas-camp-mystic-wont-reopen-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/22884\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas\u2019 Camp Mystic won\u2019t reopen this summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Camp Mystic on Thursday said it has withdrawn its application for an operating license, a decision that means it will not reopen to campers this summer. <\/p>\n

The decision follows a grueling hearing<\/a> earlier this week when Texas lawmakers pushed the family that runs the camp to consider if they were truly ready to reopen after 25 campers and two counselors died there during last year\u2019s July 4 flood, along with the camp\u2019s executive director Dick Eastland. Family members of the girls who died also spoke passionately<\/a> to the camp directors in that hearing about their loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo administrative process or summer season should move forward while families continue to grieve, while investigations continue and while so many Texans still carry the pain of last July\u2019s tragedy,\u201d the camp said in its statement.<\/p>\n

Camp Mystic had planned to welcome back more than 800 girls to a portion of its property that was away from the hardest-hit areas where people died. The camp said girls would be safe there and it wanted to continue its mission.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are grateful that no child will be placed in the Eastlands\u2019 care this summer,\u201d CiCi and Will Steward, whose daughter Cile\u2019s body still has not been found, said in a written statement.<\/p>\n

They added that the camp\u2019s decision did not amount to accountability in their eyes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not out of respect for our grieving families. Nor because they wanted to do the next right thing,\u201d the statement said. \u201cWe have pled with them to stop since September. It was a calculated exit from a license they were about to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Camp Mystic has a 100-year history in the state, with generations of women from the same families going to the camp along the winding Guadalupe River in Kerr County.\u00a0<\/p>\n

People rallied to its defense in the aftermath of the flood, which killed more than 100 people in Kerr County when it tore through vacation homes, RV parks and other structures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the families who lost children demanded accountability and change. Many of them lobbied state lawmakers to pass reforms aimed at making camps safer \u2014 resulting in new laws requiring camps to have robust emergency plans, to install emergency warning systems and to evacuate flood-prone buildings when flash flood warnings are issued.<\/p>\n

The Stewards filed a lawsuit<\/a> against Camp Mystic and sought to keep the property shut so evidence could be preserved; a judge agreed that<\/a> the portion of the camp where girls died would remain closed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lt. Gov Dan Patrick, meanwhile, repeatedly called on the Texas Department of State Health Services not to renew the camp\u2019s license application. The department reviewed the camp\u2019s new emergency plan and recently found it deficient<\/a> in multiple areas, which the agency said was common across the state as camps worked to come into compliance with the new laws.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Camp Mystic still had time to fix those errors if it had decided to reopen. The agency and the Texas Rangers are also investigating complaints about the camp\u2019s care of children, while the camp also faces additional lawsuits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the two-day hearing on Monday and Tuesday, members of the Eastland family listened to a state investigator walk through how the camp had failed to plan and train counselors to evacuate cabins during floods, and how their chaotic evacuation attempts began too late, resulting in counselors passing campers through windows to escape the rushing water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In emotional testimony, Edward Eastland, who directed the portion of the camp where girls died, apologized to the families for the camp\u2019s failures.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Eastlands then faced hours of questioning from lawmakers, including pointed questions about whether they would keep operating. Edward Eastland\u2019s wife, Mary Liz Eastland, said the family would be willing to \u201cstep back and take a pause\u201d if it meant the camp could keep going.<\/p>\n

After the camp\u2019s announcement on Thursday, Patrick in a social media<\/a> post said he felt thankful to hear of the Eastland\u2019s choice. Gov. Greg Abbott in a statement said his heart was with the families of those who died.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never imagined a world without our daughters, and no decision made now can change that,\u201d said Matthew Childress, whose daughter Chloe, a Camp Mystic counselor, died. \u201cAs Camp Mystic steps back, we step forward \u2014 with an unshakable commitment to remembrance, to accountability, and to ensuring our daughters\u2019 lives leave a lasting impact that protects others.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10512,6174,8,10513,9,7,293],"class_list":{"0":"post-22884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-camp-mystic","9":"tag-flood","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-kerr-county","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-well-a-homepage"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116496594530973687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}