The families of 25 girls and two teenage counselors who died in catastrophic flooding at Camp Mystic in Texas on July 4 allege in a new lawsuit that camp operators failed to take necessary steps to protect campers as life-threatening waters approached.
According to The Associated Press, filed Monday in the Austin state court, the suit seeks more than $1 million in damages, though it does not specify an exact amount. The filing comes amid renewed outrage from families over plans to reopen the century-old camp next summer.
The lawsuit claims that a groundskeeper was ordered to spend more than an hour evacuating equipment while girls and counselors in cabins closest to the Guadalupe River were told to stay put, even as the floodwaters rapidly overwhelmed the property.
“These young girls died because a for-profit camp put profit over safety,” the suit states. “The camp chose to house young girls in cabins sitting in flood-prone areas, despite the risk, to avoid the cost of relocating the cabins.”
The suit further alleges that Camp Mystic’s operators failed to develop safe evacuation plans as required by state rules, instead mandating that campers and counselors remain in their cabins. Defendants include Camp Mystic, affiliated entities, and owners of the camp, including the estate of Richard Eastland, the camp owner who also died in the flood, and his family members.
A separate lawsuit was filed Monday by the family of Eloise Peck, another camper who perished, with both cases filed in Travis County.
Camp Mystic’s attorney, Jeff Ray, disputed key allegations, saying the sudden flood “far exceeded any previous flood in the area by several magnitudes” and that warning systems in the region were insufficient.
The campers and counselors were killed when the Guadalupe River surged from 14 feet to nearly 30 feet within 60 minutes before dawn on July 4. County officials were reportedly asleep or out of town, and it remains unclear whether the camp head had seen urgent National Weather Service alerts beforehand.
Ryan DeWitt, whose daughter Molly DeWitt died in the flood, said the lawsuit represents a step toward accountability. “We trust that through this process, light will be shed on what happened, and our hope is that justice will pave the way for prevention and much-needed safety reform,” he said.
The tragedy, which claimed at least 136 lives in total, has already prompted new Texas laws aimed at preventing similar disasters in the future.
