Texas inspectors approved Camp Mystic's disaster plan 2 days before deadly flood, records show

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Associated Press

U.S. NEWS
Texas inspectors approved Camp Mystic’s disaster plan 2 days before deadly flood, records show

BY JIM MUSTIAN, CHRISTOPHER L. KELLER, SEAN MURPHY AND RYAN J. FOLEY
Updated 10:03 PM EDT, July 8, 2025

HUNT, Texas (AP) — Texas inspectors signed off on Camp Mystic’s emergency planning just two days before catastrophic flooding killed more than two dozen people at the all-girls Christian summer camp, most of them children. … The Department of State Health Services released records Tuesday showing the camp complied with a host of state regulations regarding “procedures to be implemented in case of a disaster.” Among them: instructing campers what to do if they need to evacuate and assigning specific duties to each staff member and counselor.

Five years of inspection reports released to The Associated Press do not offer any details of those plans at Mystic, raising new questions about the camp’s preparedness ahead of the torrential July 4 rainfall in flood-prone Texas Hill Country. … The National Weather Service had issued a flood watch for the area July 3 at 1:18 p.m. That danger prompted at least one of the roughly 18 camps along the Guadalupe River to move dozens of campers to higher ground. … The uncertainty about what happened at Mystic comes as local officials have repeatedly dodged questions about who was monitoring the weather and what measures were taken ahead of the flooding.

Inspections found no issues

The state inspected Camp Mystic on July 2, the same day the Texas Division of Emergency Management activated emergency response resources ahead of the anticipated flooding. … The inspection found no deficiencies or violations at the camp in a long list of health and safety criteria. The camp had 557 campers and more than 100 staffers at the time between its Guadalupe and Cypress Lake locations.

The disaster plans are required to be posted in all camp buildings but aren’t filed with the state, said Lara Anton, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services. … “We do not have them,” Anton said in an email. “You’d have to get it from the camp.”

{snip}

JIM MUSTIAN
Mustian is an Associated Press investigative reporter for breaking news.

CHRISTOPHER L. KELLER
Keller works with reporters and editors to find stories in data and documents and contributes context to spot and breaking news stories for The Associated Press.

SEAN MURPHY
Murphy is the statehouse reporter for The Associated Press in Oklahoma City. He has covered Oklahoma news and politics since 1996.

RYAN J. FOLEY
Foley covers national news for The Associated Press and is based in Iowa City, Iowa. A 21-year AP veteran, he was part of the AP team honored as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting for the 2024 series, “Lethal Restraint.”


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/camp-mystic-floods-state-inspection-ef17d51dc7868fa9cc5c3076c31ed98a

[Irish_Dem]

1. Texas: All hat, no cattle.

Just like Uvalde.

[Bread and Circuses]

2. Bravo! That's what I was thinking.

[fujiyamasan]

3. Yep, Texan sized egos and bullshit

But Uvalde wreaked of outright cowardice. This strikes me as good ‘ole fashioned Texan republican incompetence, similar to their energy grid failure in 2021.

[Irish_Dem]

4. I am sure there was cowardice too.

That’s the MAGA way.

[Fla Dem]

5. I would at least question the officials at the camp as to why they did not evacuate

Any threat no matter how trivial should have cause some action to be taken. I am shocked that camp officials knew at least before sundown that there was a flooding danger and did nothing to move to higher ground. There should have been NO question about moving for the safety of the children.

What about the parents? Were they oblivious to the possible danger of flooding that day? Did any contact the camp officials? So many questions.

The National Weather Service had issued a flood watch for the area July 3 at 1:18 p.m. That danger prompted at least one of the roughly 18 camps along the Guadalupe River to move dozens of campers to higher ground.

[Wonder Why]

6. "God will save them" attitude. Like the apocryphal story of the family that, during a flood, turned down

help from neighbors in a rowboat, firefighters in a powerboat, and National Guard in a helicopter.

When they drowned and met God, the father asked "Why didn't you save us?" God replied "I sent a rowboat, a powerboat and a helicopter. What more did you want?"