Despite flood warning, Camp Mystic head waited 1 hour to evacuate 700 girls

Global News

a day ago

The head of a Christian girls' camp in Texas, where 27 campers were killed during flash flooding, waited more than an hour after receiving a severe flood warning to begin evacuation proceedings, according to the Guardian.
Richard Eastland, 70, who ran Camp Mystic with his family since the 1980s, was among those killed after the camp was overwhelmed and devastated by powerful floodwaters on July 4. The camp was located beside the Guadalupe River.
A family spokesperson for the destroyed camp, Jeff Carr, told the Washington Post that Eastland received an emergency message on his phone from the National Weather Service at 1:14 a.m., alerting him of life-threatening flash flooding. Carr said Eastland didn't make the decision to begin evacuations until 2:30 a.m., and by that time, heavy rains had begun and water levels had risen significantly.
At the time of the disaster, almost 700 girls were boarding at the camp. Two teenage counsellors had previously revealed to The Guardian that staff and campers were made to hand in their phones for the duration of their stay, meaning none of them had received news of the flood warnings.
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A search and rescue worker looks through debris for any survivors or remains of people swept up in the flash flooding on July 6, 2025 in Hunt, Texas. Jim Vondruska / Getty Images
According to Carr, Eastland spent some time after receiving the alert conferring with family members about what course of action to take, some of whom lived on the 725-acre grounds. The Washington Post said the emergency alert did not contain an evacuation order — a procedure that falls under the local government's jurisdiction.
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Carr explained that staff communicated over walkie-talkies until Eastland decided the situation had become critical, particularly for the dormitories closest to the riverbank, which housed Camp Mystic's youngest attendees.
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Eastland was killed while trying to evacuate a group of young girls in his truck, Carr said. Many of the counsellors in charge of the dorms were teenagers and were left to make life-altering decisions without the guidance of adults, the Washington Post said.
Carr said his family decided to share the details to silence speculation about the turn of events.
'It will be important to go through this process and avoid sharing information on a piecemeal basis,' he told the media outlet after a family meeting on Sunday.
While some decisions made by camp staff have been explained, questions remain.
The Post reported that the Hunt volunteer fire department, despite being the closest emergency response unit to Camp Mystic, did not receive any calls for help from the camp.
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A search and rescue volunteer holds a backpack and a T-shirt with the words Camp Mystic on it on July 6, 2025. The volunteer found the belongings along the Guadalupe River near Ingram, Texas. Danielle Villasana / Getty Images
Meanwhile, families of some of the campers said they did not receive any notification from staff about the situation until an email shortly before 11:30 a.m.
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In some areas, searches for the missing were paused on Sunday and Monday over fears of more rain and flash flooding.
During a Kerr County commission meeting on Monday, officials shared new details about the scale of the disaster.
'We've heard accounts of trailer after trailer after trailer being swept into the river with families in them. [We] can't find the trailers, we don't know how many of them there are,' the county judge, Rob Kelly, said, adding that one trailer was found buried in gravel 27 feet below the surface of the river.
Crews are using sonar to search the river and local lakes for more vehicles, and are draining two reservoirs connected to the river as part of the search, officials confirmed.
According to CNN, the Kerr County sheriff, Larry Leitha, told reporters that recovery efforts could take up to six months.
As of Monday, the flood death toll stands at 131.