25 campers and two counselors died at Camp Mystic this past summer due to flash flooding on the Guadalupe River. The Eastland family, who has owned Camp Mystic since the 1930s, recently shared plans to reopen the camp this summer. Still, the decision came with great controversy, with members of the Camp Mystic community split on whether the camp should be able to open for its 100th summer. 

This past summer, on July 4th, 135 people were killed due to rapidly rising waters that reached over 37 feet overnight. 27 of these deaths happened at Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer camp in Hunt, Texas. Most of the deaths that happened at the camp were preventable, and it should have been a larger priority of the camp to put sufficient emergency measures in place to protect the girls.

As someone who has attended summer camp in Texas for almost 10 years, I understand the importance of prioritizing camper safety. Summer camp becomes your home for the weeks you spend there. Because of that, you have to trust the counselors and staff as much as you would trust your own parents. It can be scary spending so much time away from home at a young age, and feeling safe at your camp is one of the most important things to enjoying your time there. At the end of the day, keeping kids safe is of utmost importance to the staff of camps everywhere. When parents send their child to camp, they are trusting the staff to make the best decisions for their child’s well-being.  

There are multiple ways in which the Eastland family could have better prioritized the safety of the campers. According to The New York Times, in 2020, the camp underwent an important expansion, with many of the new cabins built in extremely dangerous flood zones. Additionally, the Federal Emergency Management Agency placed much of Camp Mystic within a 100-year flood zone, contradicting the Eastlands’ claim of the camp being in a 1000-year flood zone.

Despite this, the Eastland family plans to rebuild on the exact ground where campers died last summer, with eight-year-old Cile Steward still missing. In order to increase safety, the Texas legislature has passed new laws to increase the safety of summer camps throughout Texas. These laws include The Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act and The Youth Camper Act, which bans the construction of cabins in flood plains, mandates staff training, and requires emergency warning systems.

When visiting Washington, D.C., over the summer, I heard from multiple senators in the Senate Chamber about a lack of weather warnings in Texas during the days leading up to the flood because of President Trump’s government layoffs earlier this year. Hearing from government officials about the different factors leading to the high volume of deaths led me to realize that the Eastlands need to be meticulous and diligent with their new safety protocols as they plan to reopen the camp, especially if they are unable to rely on the government for sufficient notice of natural disasters. 

Additionally, the Eastlands plan to erect a memorial to honor the girls who died at the camp last summer, which was announced in an email, along with their plans to reopen, to the parents of the girls who passed only hours before it was sent to the rest of the community.

“The families of deceased Camp Mystic campers and counselors were not consulted about and did not approve this memorial,” the father of Lila Bonner, a nine-year-old who died in the flood, said on behalf of the parents. The fact that the parents were not consulted or approached about the reopening of the camp or the construction of a memorial reveals how the camp is most likely not ready to open.

The tragic flood last summer revealed the importance of laws protecting the safety of children at summer camp. The Eastland family’s negligence to prioritize the safety of their campers shows that the camp needs to adopt new flood procedures, find the still-missing camper, reconstruct cabins in safe areas, as well as consult with the parents of the children who passed, before they should begin to talk about reopening. 

Blake Bonner, father of deceased camper Lila Bonner, said, “Our girls’ legacy is not that they died in vain. Our girls’ legacy is that this again is a catalyst for change.”