Parents of girls who died at Camp Mystic urged Texas lawmakers on Tuesday night to keep the camp from reopening and to deny renewal of its license, pressing their case while the Eastland family that runs the camp sat nearby in the hearing room. The camp is hoping to reopen on May 30 at its Cypress location, but the parents told the General Investigative Committee that the state should not let that happen after the July 4 flooding that killed 27 campers and counselors.
Bolton Walters compared the camp’s situation to what would happen if a daycare lost 27 children and still stayed open, saying it would already be closed. CiCi Steward said no camp will be safe for any child as long as the Eastlands remain associated with it, and added that Camp Mystic’s license should not be renewed because, if another child dies at a Texas camp this summer, it will not be for lack of information. Julie Marshall said the Eastland family’s prayers did not save the girls that night and warned that prayer is not an appropriate safety plan.
The hearing was the second day of an investigative session before the General Investigative Committee, and it came after state regulators found 22 deficiencies in the emergency plan camp leaders submitted last week. Those problems included gaps in flood evacuation procedures and a failure to submit one required floodplain map to FEMA. Texas DSHS has said it will not approve camp licenses without an acceptable emergency management plan.
That leaves Camp Mystic facing a far higher bar than a routine license review. The camp can say it wants to reopen, but the state has already signaled that a plan on paper is not enough. As Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd put it, emergency planning has to be written, trained, exercised and funded — not treated as a one-and-done exercise.
The parents’ anger reflected a larger concern running through the hearing: whether the state will treat the deadliest summer camp disaster in Texas history as a reason to tighten the rules or as another tragedy that fades once the cameras leave. For the families who buried children after the July 4 flood, the answer now sits with state regulators and lawmakers, and with whether Camp Mystic is allowed to open its gates again on May 30.
