Camp Mystic hearing takeaways: Apologies, flood plan failures, and pushback on reopening after 27 deaths

By Ashley Killough, Ed Lavandera, CNN

Austin (CNN) — After two days of emotional testimony, Texas lawmakers and investigators Tuesday laid out a grim assessment of Camp Mystic’s leaders’ role in last summer’s devastating floods that left 27 dead: no real evacuation plan and a delayed response as waters rose.

That’s raised mounting doubts for state lawmakers about whether the camp should reopen as planned, as a Texas legislative committee continues to probe the failures and missed opportunities.

The committee’s work has brought forth the clearest picture yet of what happened at Camp Mystic’s Guadalupe River campus in July, pieced together through heart-wrenching testimony and chilling accounts.

“The fate of those girls was set before any first drop of rain ever fell,” said state Sen. Charles Perry, a Republican.

Investigators hired by the special committee said the Eastlands failed to build a flash flood evacuation plan, hold drills or give their counselors any serious training in preparation for a major weather event.

And despite closely monitoring the weather alerts in the early morning hours of the flooding, Dick Eastland, the longtime and beloved camp director, waited far too long to take action, investigators said. He died in the floodwaters after evacuating several campers and trying to save others.

“I understand completely when people point out the things we could have done that morning,” said Edward Eastland, a camp director and one of Dick Eastland’s sons. “I think about those things every day.”

“We’re so sorry. Every day. Every minute of every day, we’re so sorry,” Mary Liz Eastland, Edward’s wife, later added.

Here are the biggest takeaways from the two-day joint hearing of House and Senate flood investigative committees and what investigators said took place as the disaster unfolded:

Camp director ran a tight ship but lacked a comprehensive flood plan

The investigation falls amid a variety of other probes into the tragedy at Camp Mystic, including lawsuits filed by families against the camp’s leaders. The committee’s effort is led by the same two investigators hired by lawmakers in 2022 to investigate the Robb Elementary massacre in Uvalde.

The investigators presented a timeline of events to the panel of lawmakers, painting a perplexing picture of Dick Eastland, who was deeply familiar with the region’s flood history yet created a culture of what investigators called flood complacency.

In an hours-long presentation Monday, investigators described Dick Eastland as a patriarchal leader who “ruled” Camp Mystic, held a tight grip on decision-making across the camp and instilled a culture of “obedience” where campers, staff and family members strictly followed orders from up top. They said Eastland was “vigilant” about weather yet didn’t have a solid plan in case of a flood.

Each cabin had one sheet of emergency instructions posted on the wall, directing campers to stay in their cabins in a flood, unless told otherwise by the office.

“There was never any real training. There were never drills, no drills of any kind,” said Casey Garrett, one of the investigators. The girls also had no radios, tool kits, ladders, life jackets, or any “real tools to accomplish any kind of emergency preparedness,” Garrett said.

On Tuesday, lawmakers pressed the Eastland family members, including three of Dick Eastland’s sons, on the plan to shelter in place.

“How is that an evacuation plan? To stay there?” asked Republican Rep. Morgan Meyer. “Please explain to me how telling someone to stay somewhere is an evacuation plan. That seems like the antithesis of an evacuation plan.”

Family members testified that state agencies had approved their one-sheet evacuation plan over many years, and it was their father’s belief that staying in place was the best course of action.

“His biggest fear when it came to floods was the girls would be curious about them,” said Richard Eastland, one of Dick Eastland’s sons. “He was terrified about people wandering down when we’re having a flood event.”

The Eastland family pushed back on the idea their father was complacent about floods. Eastland advocated for a siren system along the Guadalupe River, his family has previously said, and he closely paid attention to flood threats right up until the moment the camp flooded.

Waiting too long to evacuate

The National Weather Service issued a flood warning at 1:14 a.m. on July 4. Investigators testified that Dick Eastland was obsessively checking weather apps and alerts that morning but didn’t start evacuating girls until 3 a.m.

Meyer asked the four members of the Eastland family who testified Tuesday if they believe Dick Eastland made the call to evacuate at the right time. They all agreed, in hindsight, that he did not.

More than an hour after the National Weather Service’s flash flood warning went out, two counselors from the cabins closest to the river told the front office to report flooding in their cabin, investigators said.

Dick Eastland assessed the flooding, according to the investigation, and told them to put towels down.

After losing contact with another employee about half an hour later, he decided to start evacuating the cabins closest to the river, according to his son, Edward, who was with Dick at the time.

Investigators and lawmakers on the panel were mystified as to why Eastland hadn’t ordered a large-scale evacuation over the PA system or went cabin-to-cabin and to ask girls to evacuate by foot.

And while a group of at least nine adult groundskeepers had been ordered to move canoes and other waterfront equipment, they were not asked to assist once the evacuations began later during the storm.

“It’s pretty hard to understand why all these adults were here and lacked information. They had no idea what was going on,” Garrett said. “They didn’t have specific assignments, weren’t told where to go. They stayed over in this area and did not take action. It’s a bit of a mystery why.”

Instead, Dick Eastland, Edward Eastland, and the camp’s night watchman, Glenn Juenke, were the only three adults leading the evacuation effort, a process that quickly turned into chaos.

Lawmakers asked Edward Eastland why they didn’t get on a walkie-talkie and ask the grounds crew to help.

“It was all happening so fast and, and those, those things that would have helped us – again, I go over and over and over again,” Eastland said. “And I wish I had done things like that.”

The Eastlands stressed that even when they began evacuations, they thought it was precautionary at that time.

“I don’t think anyone, even at 3 a.m., knew what that river was going to do in a matter of seconds and minutes,” said Britt Eastland, another one of Dick Eastland’s sons and a camp director.

The investigator said once the waters receded and the situation became more apparent, the groundskeepers started to help rescue people.

Lawmakers push back on family’s plan to reopen camp this summer

The family plans to resume part of the camp this summer, but not the part closest to the Guadalupe River, where 27 lives were lost. The Department of State Health Services issued a letter last week to Camp Mystic, and to several other camps in Texas, with a number of deficiencies that need to be resolved before they can renew their licenses.

Britt Eastland said the camp would correct those deficiencies soon and has made several other safety changes. But multiple lawmakers on the panel urged the family to reconsider their plan.

“Do you really think you’re ready to take on 500 children plus?” asked Republican Sen. Lois Kolkhorst. She noted that if some daycares in the state even have one death, “we take their license away … we shut them down.”

Kolkhorst also stressed the camp still hasn’t reported the 27 deaths of campers and counselors to the state agency that regulates Texas camps, as required by law.

Britt Eastland said his family believes that “through time” they hope to reconcile with the families who were impacted by the flood and hope they’ll understand the Eastlands “did everything we could in this unimaginable flood.”

“And we believe if we do it right, a year from now, five years from now, 10 years from now, they will be glad that we had camp this summer,” he continued. “I know right now it doesn’t seem that way, but I really believe that.”

Perry, the state senator, said some parents wanting their children to return this summer is not a strong enough benchmark to qualify for reopening.

“Y’all were not ready to handle kids,” he said, vowing to do whatever he can through the law to prevent the Eastland family from running the camp in the future.

“If you are left as an operator in any form or fashion, what deterrent does that send to another operator that I can have kids die on my watch and still be an operator?”

Mary Liz Eastland, the camp director in charge of the nursing staff, told lawmakers on Tuesday her family would step away from running the camp if needed.

“I think we’re willing to take a step back. If camp can go on, that’s OK with us. We are willing to step back and take a pause,” Mary Liz Eastland said. “I think that’s appropriate and OK, and we’re willing to do that.”

Parents of campers, both surviving and deceased, describe their heartbreak

Malorie Lytal was a first–year camper at Camp Mystic in 1995, and she wanted her daughter, Kellyanne, to follow in her footsteps – even going as far as requesting that Kellyanne stay at the same cabin her mother once did.

“Please watch over my baby,” she recalled telling Dick Eastland as she dropped off her daughter.

“We got her,” she remembered the owner responding.

“Those words will haunt me for the rest of my life,” said Lytal. “Camp Mystic did not ‘have her.’ As her cabin filled with flood waters, she was left to fend for herself and wash miles downriver to die the most horrific, gruesome death.”

Lytal spoke directly to the Eastland family, camp directors and owners who she has known “almost my entire life,” saying: “I am heartbroken that you have not only destroyed our lives, but that you’ve destroyed your own.”

Another mother, CiCi Steward, told the Eastlands: “You stole our happiness.”

Steward’s daughter, 8-year-old Cile, is the only young girl still missing in the aftermath of the floods.

“Do not insult me by pretending that reopening is anything more than your family’s attempt at self-preservation,” Steward said as she turned to speak directly to the owners sitting behind her.

Julie Sprunt-Marshall’s 9-year-old daughter survived the floods after being swept downriver and repeatedly pulled underwater. The child was found on a debris pile more than a mile downstream several hours later along with another young camper who also survived.

“Girls were crying for their mothers. Girls were crying that they wanted to go home,” Sprunt-Marshall said. “Eventually, she and the other girls understood no more adults were coming to rescue them.”

She said her daughter saw Edward Eastland crying out to the sky for the rain to stop the night of the floods.

“The Eastlands’ prayers didn’t save the girls that night. I worry the Eastlands’ prayers going forward are not an appropriate safety plan,” said Sprunt-Marshall.

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CNN’s David Williams, Amanda Jackson and Emma Tucker contributed to this report.